lightroom- brightness vs. ev?

[Ultra Magnus]

Just a question, say you have a photo that's a touch on the dark side, and you want to fix it up a bit in lightroom. I've got the ev slider, and I've got the brightness slider a littler lower on the page. When do I use one over the other?

Thanks,
BM

ps- shooting RAW. Might make a difference w/ jpg's, but don't' know since I don't shoot jpg.

[Medley]

The ev slider adjusts the white point (very brightest spot) in the image, while the brightness slider simply brightens the image as a whole, without moving either the the white or black points.

In laymen's terms, if the brightest parts of the image are white enough, use the brightness slider. If not, use the ev slider.

- Joe U.

[Wild Wassa]

You will also notice that changing the 'exposure' slider, changes the density, of the darkness and lightness values. They are increased or decreased and neutral, where as changing 'brightness' the depth of the colour is increased or decreased. This is not an increase or decrease in colour saturation but what is known as changing 'chroma'.

If you take two identical images and on both place the graduation tool, stretched from the top to the bottom of the image, then use the brightness slider and save, and on the second image use the exposure slider to the same setting ... then compare both the density and colour changes within the images, you will see what I mean.

Warren.

[Ultra Magnus]

Thanks for the explanations. I'll try that as soon as I get a chance...

BM

[Wild Wassa]

bmadau, G'day Mate.

While you find time, please let me fill-in the gaps for others who might be interested in your question.

An image which is exactly 2 stops over exposed, from a normal averaged (considered correct) exposure.





The neutral density change from employing the 'Exposure' function. I have used the graduation feature, because it shows changes better than an overall density change, when viewing the bottom of the image, which displays little change ... in the two changed images.





The chroma change from employing the 'Brightness' function.





I hope this saves you some time.

Warren.

[Canuck935]

I'm a little late to this post, but I wanted to share my simple way of understanding what's going on in Lightroom. If you are familiar with 'Levels' in Photoshop, then the explanation is pretty simple.

Lr's Exposure slider works like the highlight slider in Ps Levels, the Blacks slider works like the blacks slider in levels, and the brightness slider works like the midpoint slider in levels.

[ArdenArden]

Hi All!,

A typical problem image is a landscape that includes some sky. What
is "auto" doing? Does it analyze each picture like rawhsooter's alt e
did?