# LR 4.4 - Adjusting Exposure



## Harry Briels (May 11, 2013)

In LR 3 I would use Exposure a.o. to correct clippings and Exposure adjustments could be quite extensive. 
In LR 4 it seems that Exposure now controls more the shadows, midtones and highlights and that to correct clippings one should use the whites and blacks sliders.
However the first important step, _before_ any other adjustments, is to first of all use Exposure for adjusting the overall tonality thereby determining very carefully how far to correct brightness.
It is my impression that when adjusting the overall tonality, most of the time the need to move the Exposure slider (+ or -) is rather limited, maximum between       -0,50 or +0,50 around the default of 0,0?
I am aware that this will depend largely on the image itself, but assuming that the in-camera-image-exposure is done carefully, I feel that the need for exposure adjustment is limited.
Is this also your experience?
Harry


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## Tony Jay (May 11, 2013)

Hi Harry.
Your experience that sliders in Lr3 and Lr4 work differently even if they have the same name is consistent.
Process2010 and Process2012 are very different.
IMHO Process2012 is much superior to Process2010.

Process 2012 is designed very differently.
Here two sliders, exposure and constrast are designed to do all of the heavy lifting as far as tonal adjustment is concerned.
In fact the design of the subpanel is more than a subtle hint with exposure and contrast taking pride of place at the top.
The rest of the sliders that deal with tone after this are designed to fine tune only.
All the sliders are designed to be modified, generally, in order, from top to bottom.

Getting used to this change does take a bit of time but, IMHO anyway, it is easier to get excellent results.

Tony Jay


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## Harry Briels (May 12, 2013)

Tony, thank you for your reply!
However I would still be interested to have an opinion regarding what I said: _It is my impression that when adjusting the overall tonality, most of the time the need to move the Exposure slider (+ or -) is rather limited, maximum between -0,50 or +0,50 around the default of 0,0?
_Thanks on beforehand!
Harry


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## MarkNicholas (May 12, 2013)

It is obviously dependent upon the individual photo and whether and to what extent it is either under or over exposed. If all your photos are well exposed then yes you would not expect to have to make significant adjustment with the exposure slider.


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## tzalman (May 12, 2013)

It also depends on the way you use your camera, what you consider proper exposure. If you use the film-legacy methods of exposing for medium grey or use an incident meter, your exposure may be very different than an ETTR exposure, especially if the subject has a short native tonal range.


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## Tony Jay (May 12, 2013)

I agree in principle with what has been said.
Some of my images require several stops of adjustment since I do shoot with an ETTR bias, although it is equally true that sometimes the dynamic range of the scene is so great that wholesale changes to exposure settings in Lightroom make no sense.

It is a horses-for-courses scenario this.
Hope this rounds out an answer to your question!

Tony Jay


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