ON1 Photo RAW 2026: underexposed photo recovery tutorial

This ON1 Photo RAW 2026 tutorial tests how much detail the editor can recover from a severely underexposed gecko photo. The presenter describes the Sony a9 Mark II shot as an experiment rather than a photograph he would normally keep. Raising exposure alone blows out the sky while leaving the subject dark, so he combines modest global adjustments with selective edits.

He applies NoNoise AI before masking, reporting that it also helps reveal shadow detail in this example. Super Select AI uses Quick Mask AI to select the subject for exposure, shadow, contrast and structure adjustments. A separate mask opens up the darker foreground. The tutorial also explains how the Show Styles Flyout option enables adjustment previews and access to saved styles.

For the sky replacement, he chooses Clouds preset 31, disables foreground lighting and adjusts brightness and blur. Reducing opacity blends the replacement with the original sky. He leaves camera profile selection and final color adjustments until the recovered image is bright enough to judge them.

The result has limits: the presenter points out damaged detail around the subject's face and says the image is not portfolio worthy. The example illustrates his warning that editing cannot reliably rescue every exposure mistake.