Does anyone use Adjustments>Exposure in CS3?

I was talking to an old colleague recently, and she told me she's been using Image>Adjustments>Exposure a great deal.

So I had a look at it. I can't figure out what it does that can't be done with Levels or Curves.

Does anybody use it? Any tricks you can share?

ACR ftw

Never used it.
I'd say: Adjustment layers ftw

René Damkot wrote in post #5998036
Never used it.
I'd say: Adjustment layers ftw

There's more data available in the RAW, after that go to adjustment layers

Duh
The image is already in PS, gathering from the OP...

The earlier you make changes the more effective they are Someone buy the colleague a light meter so they can get better at exposure

Sorry, I should have elaborated. My colleague works in the newspaper and magazine industry (where I also use to work), so she's getting godawful 8-bit jpegs to work with. That kind of work sorts out the Photoshop experts from the pretenders, let me tell you. Any old mug can make a professional raw capture look good...

I've never used it, but I tried it and it seems incredibly heavy handed. It occurred to me that I might well find a use for it when trying to throw things close to pure black and white in the creation of alpha masks, but annoyingly the adjustment doesn't work on channels.

Pretty sure you can still use ACR on 8 bit jpegs and that's what I'd be inclined to turn to.

I have to admit, the functionality of the adjustment appears to be similar to setting white point, black point and gamma in levels.

Maybe your collegeue has just been doing this a very long time and Exposure is a very old adjustment that was available long before some of the newer tools, so this is their preferred way of working. Personally, I can't think of any useful application for the adjustment right now.

Curves Adjustment Layer FTW

We use it at work (Flexographic printing industry) when we're supplied rubbish files by clients who won't pay for proper re-touching. As there's no chance of getting anything decent out of the file without hours of work it offers a quick tweak ability to get something at least printable.

The trick is to only use it for minor adjustments and use the number boxes instead of the sliders as even the slightest nudge on a slider shifts the image a lot. It's essentially a nicer version of brightness/contrast.

HankScorpio wrote in post #6000074
We use it at work (Flexographic printing industry) when we're supplied rubbish files by clients who won't pay for proper re-touching. As there's no chance of getting anything decent out of the file without hours of work it offers a quick tweak ability to get something at least printable.

The trick is to only use it for minor adjustments and use the number boxes instead of the sliders as even the slightest nudge on a slider shifts the image a lot. It's essentially a nicer version of brightness/contrast.

Brightness/Contrast was massively overhauled in CS3. Are you working on an earlier version?

I agree about Exposure being completely heavy handed.

What does FTW stand for?:o:o:o

FTW

Actually exposure is a great tool once you understand that a little goes a very long way. I use it when I want to make a more controlled brightness change and love it.

ftw