Exposure lock
Also known as: AE lock, auto exposure lock, AEL
Freezing the exposure the camera has chosen so it stops adjusting during a shot, keeping brightness steady even when the light or the scene changes.
Updated
What it means
Auto Exposure constantly adapts to what the camera sees. That is helpful between shots but distracting during a clip: as the camera pans from shade to sun, or a rider in a bright jacket fills the frame, brightness pumps up and down. Exposure lock stops that adjustment and keeps the current settings.
Phones offer it with a long press on the screen, and action cameras and drones offer it through the app, a touch on the preview or a dedicated setting. It is a middle ground between full automatic and full manual control.
Locking is common in filmmaking, where steady exposure is part of a professional look.
How it works in practice
Set exposure on the important part of the scene, lock it, then frame and record. For a rider coming out of a dark forest into a clearing, decide which part matters more. Locking for the clearing keeps the sky and landscape clean, while the forest goes darker.
For timelapses and hyperlapses, locked exposure prevents flicker caused by small automatic changes between frames. For interviews and talking shots, it keeps faces steady as people move.
Drones benefit too: a slow pan across a sunset looks far better without brightness pumping as the sun enters the frame, a problem a locked gimbal shot avoids.
What to watch out for
A lock that is right at the start can be wrong later. If the light changes a lot, for example when clouds move or you ride into deep shade, locked footage can turn too dark or too bright. Re-lock between takes.
Some cameras reset the lock when you change modes, switch off or restart recording. Check that it is still active before an important shot.
Locking also does not stop the camera from changing other things such as white balance. Lock or set that separately if you want a fully consistent look.
How RawClip handles it
RawClip uses your clips as recorded and does not even out brightness changes. Steady, locked exposure makes the shots easier to cut together, and the AI combines them into one smooth highlight.