underexposed

adjectiveB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,596 of 15,258Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Underexposed means too dark because too little light was let in. An underexposed shot, badly underexposed, underexposed film.

In digital photography it is the safer error, because detail can be pulled back out of shadows but a blown-out white holds nothing to recover. With film the reverse is true, which is why photographers who learned on film still expose differently.

Definitions of underexposed

1adjectiveunderexposedToo dark because too little light was let in.B2+
“The photos from the concert were underexposed, and you could hardly see the band.”

underexposed is a fault.

Where it comes from

underexpose comes from under- + expose.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Photography & Film

Practise this word

underexposed in the wild

When shooting day for night, the scene is typically underexposed in-camera or darkened during post-production, with a blue tint added.
Day for night
The Coolpix S1 includes Nikon features such as Face-priority autofocus and D-Lighting, which helps brighten underexposed areas in photographs.
Nikon Coolpix S1
Exposure latitude is the extent to which a light-sensitive material can be exposed (overexposed or underexposed) and still achieve an acceptable result.
Exposure latitude
Brightening the image, especially in underexposed photos, brings out the "shadow noise" in such areas.
Shadow noise
The film is known for being versatile, with usable results even when underexposed two stops or overexposed six stops.
Ilford FP

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary