Adjust exposure for previews

You can adjust the exposure (in f-stop units) for previews with the Adjust Exposure control, which is located to the right of the Reset Exposure button  at the bottom of a Composition, Layer, or Footage panel. Each viewer can have its own Adjust Exposure setting.

When the Adjust Exposure control is set to a value other than zero, the Reset Exposure button is orange .

The Adjust Exposure control doesn’t affect final output, only how video appears during previews. To make tonal adjustments to a layer that appear in final output, use the Exposure effect.

The Adjust Exposure control is useful for finding the black point or white point in an image. For example, drag the value control to the right (positive values) until the entire image is white except for one area; that area is the darkest area in the image.

To check the quality of a composite, drag the Adjust Exposure control far to the left and far to the right and look for places where the composited elements differ too much in color or luminance. This technique—sometimes called gamma slamming—is useful for ensuring that a composite will look good and be convincing in contexts other than the one in which you’re working. For example, a composite that is adequate in a dark scene may be less convincing when the scene is color-corrected to brighten the scene.