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New Member
January 23, 2026

Exposure is changing when I export. Even looks different in the preview or screeshot of same screen.

  • January 23, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 57 views

I am having an issue with photoshop that I have never had before. I am working with a very large .psb file and it is a depth map image that I am creating so I am using exposure adjustment layers to adjust the lighting of certain layers. I was able to get it to look how I wanted to in my .psb file in photoshop, but when I try to export or save it as a png or jpeg the exposure is off. The layers I worked on with the adjustment layers are over exposed, but it's just how I want it when I'm looking at in photoshop. I even tried taking a screenshot of it while in photoshop but even the screeshot was different. Shouldn't it look exactly the same? That's whats really throwing me. Not sure what I'm doing wrong or if this is a bug or if its my computer. My computer is new. I have a Macbook pro 2024 but just bought it in September 2025. MacOS Tahoe 26.2. I'm using Photoshop 2025 26.10.0 release.876341i1784603FD4AD473B.jpg

4 replies

Legend
January 23, 2026

My first thought was also a conversion from 16 or 32-bit. 

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 23, 2026

When you change from 32 bit linear to an 8 or 16 bit gamma corrected colour space then you need to tone map i.e decide how values in the linear space will be shown in the gamma corrected space. To retain the values shown in the preview, convert to 16/8 bit and choose Exposure and Gamma as the method and leave the defaults (Exposure 0 Gamma 1.0).

 

Dave

New Member
January 23, 2026

876348i3C6EB35B634C2BFC.jpgBut this isnt the only layer affected. There is another layer that is overexposed when exported or screenshoted which is the dirt that does not have an adjustment layer on top of it but it is set to divide in the blending mode or whatever that is called. I included a screenshot incase I didnt describe that correctly. 876349i46B74B70C5EB428B.png

New Member
January 23, 2026

876347i69495FC6A3C3A1C4.png876346i4F6B0F4C726AB57D.pngHere are the exposure layer settings I have on the watermelon wagon layer. I was playing with it to get it to look just right like the above on the left, but I also dont know what gamma correction and offset mean.