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How to Get the Overexposed Photo Effect

Strategic use of overexposure, called high-key, creates emphasis on facial features or other photo elements. Overexposure is accomplished in-camera through manipulation of f-stops and exposure times. However, you have greater control over the outcome of your photo when you use standard exposure and produce overexposure effects in your photo-processing program. The high-key effect is used for portrait work and landscapes. Shape and line are emphasized through overexposure, which has minimal use of texture.

Things You'll Need

Photo-processing software

Instructions

- 1
  Load a photo in your photo-processing program and save it under a new name. To create overexposure on your digital photograph, your photo-processing software must have the capability of desaturating your photograph. The ability to create layers is also helpful for preserving areas of color without desaturation.
- 2
  Create a duplicate layer of your image. This function is available in many photo-processing programs from a menu called Layer.
- 3
  Preserve eye color or other areas of your photograph by one of two methods. If your software provides a marquee tool, select the Elliptical Marquee. Use this tool to draw a circle around the iris of each eye if you're doing portrait work. Go to the Select menu and choose "Inverse." Under the Edit menu choose "Cut." You now have a layer to preserve the eye color and texture of the iris. If you do not have a marquee tool and the ability to cut off portions of your photograph, use the eraser tool to remove all the unwanted parts of the photograph on the duplicate layer. This work is easier with the image zoomed in to show the pixels clearly.
- 4
  Select the background layer by clicking on it in the layers box. From your Layer menu, select "Curves." Some software programs put this option under "Adjustments>Curves," and others put it under "Adjust>Brightness and Contrast>Curves."
- 5
  Manipulate the Curves histogram to desaturate your photograph. A diagonal line extends from the lower left corner to the upper right corner. Click on this line to divide it into approximate thirds. Using the Pointer tool pull the line into a bow shape. Preview the photograph as you pull the lines. When the desired overexposure is reached, click "OK" to exit the box.
- 6
  Overexpose areas of your photograph using your Dodge tool. Use a large, soft shape to swipe across the photo and remove color. If your photo-processing program allows you to adjust the value of the opacity, opt to use a low number so that a small amount of color is removed at a time, making it easier to remove just the color and details desired without overdoing it.
- 7
  Flatten the layers when you're satisfied with the results. Save the image to preserve the edits and processing of your high-key photograph.

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