Exposure

Changes the amount of light, like a camera’s exposure: +1 doubles the light, −1 halves it. Bright areas can burn out to white, just as in a camera.

Group: Color & Tone · How to add an effect

Exposure

Original

Use it for: under- or overexposed footage · matching shots filmed with different camera settings · a light change that feels like the light itself, not a fade.

• Exposure – the light, in camera stops (EV).

Tip: for a fade-in that looks like a light being switched up, not like a dissolve, keyframe Exposure from −10 EV up to 0. Type −10 into the number field: there even white is almost black. From −3 EV, the end of the slider, the picture starts as a dim stage instead. To brighten without burning out the whites, use Brightness.

Pick one in the Preset row of the effect card. It sets Exposure, Offset and Gamma in one undo step, and the row then shows its name until you change a value. A keyframed control keeps its keyframes, and the card says so.

Half Stop Up – half a stop more light. A slightly dark shot, corrected the way a camera would, with the shadows opening up as much as the rest.

Overexposed – one and a half stops more. Skin glows and the brightest parts of the costume burn out to white, like a camera set for a darker scene.

One Stop Down – half the light. For a shot that is too bright, or a stage after the light has dimmed.

Milky Haze – lifted blacks and open mid-tones (Offset 0.06, Gamma 1.25), like haze in front of the lens. The light itself stays as it was.

Preset – one of the four starting points above; it sets all three controls.

Exposure – the amount of light, in camera stops. Each stop doubles or halves the light, so shadows and highlights change together, as when you open or close a lens. ±0.3 is a small correction, ±1 a clear change, and from about +1.5 the brightest parts burn out to white; each colour channel clips on its own, so very bright colours can shift towards yellow or white. −3 to 3 EV, default 0 EV. In the number field you can type up to ±20 EV.

Offset – lifts or lowers every tone by the same amount, after the exposure. Up lays a pale veil over the blacks, like haze; down sinks the darkest tones into pure black. Small values are enough: 0.03–0.1. −0.5 to 0.5, default 0.

Gamma – bends the mid-tones while black and white stay where they are. Above 1 they open up and the picture turns lighter and softer; below 1 they get heavier and the colours deeper. 0.8 or 1.25 is a clear change. 0.2 to 3, default 1. In the number field you can type up to 10; at the slider’s floor of 0.2 the picture is very dark, and the inspector says so.

Exposure works in four stages (Color & Tone shows the shape all colour effects share), one folder each in the Nodes tab: Parameters holds the three controls, Exposure (Stops) changes the light, Offset & Gamma shapes the tones on the screen colours, and Clamp & Alpha finishes. Split RGB + Alpha takes the transparency aside first. Click a folder’s header to open it; the sections below show what is inside.

Clamp – there are two. The upper one keeps Exposure between −20 and 20 EV, the values in Exposure Render Min and Exposure Render Max; beyond ±20 EV every pixel is black or white anyway. The lower one keeps Gamma between 0.2 and 10: at 0 the curve would have no answer, so the floor keeps it at a very dark but valid picture. A keyframe, a node or the AI agent may send more; the picture then uses the limit, and the card and the tool result say so.

Offset goes out as it is: any value has a clear result, at most a black or a white picture.

sRGB to Linear – screen colours are stored brighter than the light they stand for, so the dark tones get more of the 8-bit steps. This turns them back into amounts of light.

Power of Two – turns stops into a light factor: 0 is 1 (no change), +1 is 2, −1 is 0.5, +2 is 4.

Multiply – multiplies the light of every channel by that factor. This is the whole exposure: twice the light everywhere, as with an aperture one stop wider.

Linear to sRGB – turns the light back into screen colours. That is why +1 EV looks like twice the light and not like a flat brightening. Values above 1 still leave this block; Clamp & Alpha cuts them off at the end.

Remix: for a twice as strong Exposure slider, put a new Multiply with a Value of 2 between the Exposure input and Power of Two (2).

Add – adds the Offset to each channel of the exposed screen colour.

Maximum – with Tone Zero (0): a negative Offset may push tones below black; this keeps them at black, so the Power after it always has a valid input.

Reciprocal – 1 divided by Gamma. Gamma 2 becomes the exponent 0.5.

Power – raises each channel to that exponent. 0 and 1 stay where they are, and only the tones in between move: an exponent below 1 lifts them, above 1 lowers them.

Remix: take Reciprocal out and wire Gamma straight into Scalar to RGB: the control then works the other way round, above 1 heavier and below 1 lighter, as in some grading tools.

Clamp – keeps each colour channel between 0 and 1 (its Clamp Low and Clamp High cards). This is where bright tones burn out to white: a channel that has gone past 1 stays at 1.

Combine RGB + Alpha then puts the original transparency back, untouched.

• Formula. y = (linear⁻¹(linear(x) · 2^EV) + Offset)^(1/Gamma) on each colour channel, with the exact sRGB transfer for linear; the result is limited to 0–1. At +1 EV a mid-grey of 0.5 becomes 0.69, at −1 EV 0.36.
• Range. The Exposure slider covers ±3 EV; typed values, keyframes and nodes render up to ±20 EV. Gamma renders 0.2 to 10, Offset as given. Beyond a limit the picture uses the limit, and the inspector and the tool result say so.
• Highlights. Each channel clips on its own, so a strong +EV can shift hues in the brightest areas towards yellow or white.
• Transparency. Only the colour is changed; the transparency passes through untouched.
• What all colour effects share (8-bit range, saved projects, adjustment layers): Color & Tone. Formulas: Effect system; blocks: Node Catalog · Styles and presets.