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| How to Touch Up Photos with FotoFinish |
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What is Exposure?
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Exposure refers to the amount of light that your camera captures while taking the picture.
Too much light can create an overexposed image while not enough light can result in an underexposed photograph.
An overexposed photograph is lighter than it should be and an underexposed photograph is darker than it should be.
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Underexposed image
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Correct image
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Overexposed image
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| How is Exposure Determined? |
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When you take a picture your camera settings determine exposure. Film speed (ISO 100 or 400), lens aperture
(how large the opening is on the camera), and shutter speed (how long the aperture is open to capture light)
all affect the final exposure of your image.
Most automatic cameras average the exposure values for a
scene to create a well-exposed image. Your camera might miss the correct exposure
in extreme lighting conditions such as a portrait shot against the sun.
In these cases, you will have to adjust the picture's exposure in a photo
editing software like FotoFinish.
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| Fix Exposure |
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Adjust a photo's exposure using FotoFinish. From the Image menu,
choose Adjust Exposure and scroll through the previews to find the image that looks best
to you. Click once to select a preview and click OK to apply it.
For most photos, clicking on the Auto Adjust Exposure button will work best.
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Adjust a photo's exposure using previews
An underexposed image
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The corrected image
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| Adjust Brightness and Contrast |
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Choose the More option in the Exposure dialog to control the exposure manually.
Here, you'll be able to adjust brightness and contrast using two separate sliders. By adjusting
the brightness of an image, you can make it lighter or darker to compensate for a mistaken exposure.
As you adjust the brightness, your entire image might get washed out and look bland.
To compensate for this, adjust contrast. Contrast is defined by the relative difference between
the dark and light colors in the image. When you increase the contrast, the dark colors become
darker and the light colors become lighter.
By adjusting the relative color intensities within an image, contrast can also bring out the details in a picture.
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Adjust contrast and brightness manually
An image with poor contrast
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The corrected image with improved contrast
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| Retouching Your Photos Selectively (STUDIO and SUITE ONLY) |
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It would be rare to find an image where the entire photograph needs uniform adjusting.
Ansel Adams didn't become a famous
photographer simply because he knew how to frame a shot well.
He was also a wizard in the darkroom, selectively dodging and burning
his negatives to create perfect highlights and contrasts.
Using photo editing software like FotoFinish STUDIO
and SUITE,
you can now imitate Ansel Adams' darkroom techniques
in the digital world.
The layer and selection tools available in FotoFinish STUDIO and SUITE allow you to
adjust exposure and contrast on selected portions of the image.
Imagine a photo
where the foreground object is very dark, but the
background is already perfectly exposed.
If you increase the
brightness uniformly, you will create an overexposed background.
This is where layers and selection tools can help. You can select
the foreground object, move it to another layer,
and increase the brightness just in the selected area.
Selecting an Area for Editing
The easiest way to select a complex area or object in FotoFinish STUDIO (or SUITE)
is to use the Polygon Selection Tool  .
Just click once where you want your selection to start, then trace
the affected area in as many or as few clicks as you want.
The more often you click and hold down the left mouse button with your mouse,
the shorter your selection lines will be, making your selection more precise.
To close the selection, double-click with the mouse. Your selection will be
highlighted with a black and white border of what look like marching ants.
You can modify the selection using the grow handles located wherever you
clicked down with the mouse.
Move the Area to a New Layer
To preserve the integrity of the original image and to give you not just the freedom to experiment but
more control over the level of adjustment, it's best to move the selected area to its own layer.
First, copy your selection by hitting Ctrl+C.
Next, simply choose Add Layer from the Layers command in the Image menu.
Paste your selection into the new layer
by hitting Ctrl+V.
Adjust Exposure, Contrast, and More
Dodging and burning are both traditional ways of lightening and darkening
specific areas on a photo negative. By adjusting the exposure of only a
selected portion of your image, you
are effectively dodging and burning your digital negative.
To adjust the selection's
brightness, simply use the Adjust Exposure command under the Image menu.
For a quick fix, scroll through the previews to find the version that
looks best to you. Click once to select a preview and click OK to apply it.
If you want more control, choose the More option in the
Exposure dialog to adjust the exposure manually using two separate sliders.
Here, you'll be able to adjust brightness and contrast using two
separate sliders.
Adjust the brightness and contrast using the Adjust Exposure command in the Image menu
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A photograph with a dark foreground subject
Select the area you want to make brighter
You can modify the selection using the grow handles located wherever you
clicked down with the mouse
Add a new layer using Add Layer under Layers in the Image menu
Name your layer something logical so you can always easily find it
The layer tabs will appear above your work area. You can navigate between layers by clicking on the desired tab
The corrected image
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Blend the New Layer with the Background
To get a more realistic look, soften your adjustment before printing or sharing your photograph.
You can do this by
blending your selection with the original photograph. Simply adjust the opacity setting of the selection's
layer by clicking on the layer tab and sliding the opacity slider to the left.
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