Saving an Under-Exposed Photo

We've all done it; you're out shooting what you think is a great scene and your camera's LCD display is showing you a great photo. Then you come home and find that your great shot is nothing more than an underexposed missed opportunity. Don't fret; there are some options for you.

Take the below photograph:

It is underexposed and lacks contrast. In this case, it is clear that the image was taken with the wrong settings in camera and will require more than just the curve to fix.

Editing the tone curve can save most of your photos but for those harder misses you must go through a little bit more involved of a process. Start by adjusting your histogram located in the top right of the screen in Lightroom. This little area can be confusing and seem challenging but small moves make for great things when working here. Adjust the lows a little to bring out some detail in the shadows and eliminate the clipping going on in the lower end of the spectrum. Then spread out your highlights so that the contrast remains natural looking and your color is not thrown off.

After doing this, you may notice that your sunset is losing its lustre. Don't worry, for a project like this, we will need to use masks to merge two photos for an eye-popping look and feel. This is similar to creating a high-dynamic-range photograph. You can now adjust the tone curve to fine tune your exposure and get the look you want from the foreground.

Export the photo. Now it is time to work on the sky. Revert back to the original photo and this time, adjust the highlights so that they fall more toward the mid-range on the histogram. This will help bring out the colors and create that dramatic sky you are looking for. When you think the exposure looks good, move down to the color adjustments and move the sliders for the colors you want to pop. In this case it is the blues, the yellows, and orange.

Once you are happy with your sky you can export the image and open both versions up in photoshop. Here we will create the layer masks and merge the photos together. The first step is to duplicate the background layer of the lighter photo onto the darker one.

Then you will click the little square with a circle button on the bottom of your Layers panel in Photoshop. This will create a Layer Mask on the selected layer. Select the layer mask and with your paint brush, slowly paint away the areas that will use the darker layer underneath. Be careful not to get too close to the edges at first.

Now blow up the image and begin working your away aroung the details until you get an image that looks like one piece. From here you can begin using the dodge/burn tools to help blend the two images.

It takes a lot of practice and work but soon enough you will begin to see your photos take on a new life. Not all images are saveable and sometimes you end up working for hours to find that you just can't make it look any better; but for those few that you do save you will be grateful you gave it a try!