Tip: Use the Magical ‘Match Total Exposures’ Feature in Lightroom for a Quick Fix

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If you’re just starting out in Lightroom (or haven’t explored its features much), perhaps you haven’t heard of the powerful “Match Total Exposures” feature. This is a feature that lets you quickly adjust the exposure of multiple photos to match a target photo of your choice.

In the short 5-minute tutorial video below, photographer Matt Kloskowski shows how the feature can be used for quick and easy exposure corrections.

“Match Total Exposures” is particularly useful if you use the exposure bracketing feature on your camera (i.e. the camera captures each scene multiple times at different exposures), as it allows you to match all the photos’ exposures with a few clicks rather than having to adjust each one by itself.

Here’s the low down: After selecting and adjusting the exposure of your base photo, use the Command or Ctrl key (depending on your OS) to select the other photos you’d like to match the exposure for. Then select Settings and Match Total Exposures to have Lightroom match the other exposures as best it can. Voila!

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This is an example for when shooting RAW comes in handy, since it can allow for pretty large swings in exposure without ruining your shots.

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