I Underexposed This Photo on Purpose (Here's How I Fixed It)
You don't need expensive photo editing software to get pro results. In this tutorial, I show you how to take a severely underexposed RAW file and turn it into a masterpiece using techniques that work in Lightroom, Capture One, On1, DxO PhotoLab or Luminar Neo.
I explain why I intentionally underexposed this image to protect the highlights, and how to use Local Masking to fix the "Flat" look that most beginners struggle with.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro: It's not about the software!
0:58 - Why I Underexposed this shot (Protecting the Sky)
1:50 - Step 1: Global Edits (The Foundation)
3:30 - Why Global Edits aren't enough (The "Beginner" Look)
5:30 - Step 2: Local Masking (The Secret Sauce)
6:00 - Fixing the Sky (Using Dehaze for Drama)
8:00 - Step 3: The Subject (Targeting the Monolith)
11:00 - Texture vs. Clarity vs. Dehaze (What's the difference?)
12:30 - Using Gradients to control the light
17:00 - The "Halo" Mistake: How to avoid this amateur error
18:50 - Final Before/After
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