Camera Raw Adjustments

[SaundraU]

Okay I am a little confused. In RAW 101 it instructs you to use the Alt/option key when adjusting Exposure and shadows. It shows you a photo that is black all around some colors and white. It states that pressing alt/opt key while adjusting the exposure (or shadows) slider shows each color channel as it becomes clipped. White indicates all three colors are clipped and will be displayed as pure white in the converted image.

So when I am doing Exposure do I slide it all the way until it is all black and when going for shadows I slide it all the way till it is all white or at least as close as I can get it?

[SaundraU]

NM I got it now.

[engstrom]

In general that's a starting point but remember that some highlights are going to be blown and that's OK - you don't have to reduce the exposure to "unblow" (suck?) them. Also, some blacks are going to be black and that's OK. It just depends on the picture. One thing you want to avoid doing is increasing the exposure very much because that exacerbates the noise.