Lightroom - Brightness or Exposure

Kev M

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Can someone explain in simple terms (for a simpleton) what Lightroom is doing differently with the brightness slider and the exposure slider?

To my untrained eye the changes to the image and histogram look very similar. The only thing I think I "might" be able to see is that increasing the exposure ramps up all the data including the highlights so they blow earlier whereas the the brightness slider seems to ramp up all the data but hold back the highlights for longer. I suppose in effect it's boosting the mid tones more than the rest of the data.

If what I think I'm seeing is true does using the brightness slider do horrible things to the image in the same way the highlight recovery slider does?

T.I.A.
Kev
 
Sorry I use LR4 and it doesn't have both, just exposure
However from another source

Exposure – Shifting your exposure is like changing the in-camera settings in post-production. To be more technical, it scales the settings up and down by a constant multiplying factor. Moving this slider either increases or decreases all of the elements that go into obtaining the correct exposure at once.

Brightness – Brightness is commonly known as the slider that adjusts the midtones. And although many people think that this is all the brightness sliders do, there’s a little more to it. All of the settings still change when utilising the brightness slider, but it preserves the highlights better than simply dialing up the exposure. And it affects the midtones more nicely than pumping up the exposure.

Fill light - The fill light slider brightens the dark bits and pretty much leaves everything else alone unlike brightness and exposure which lighten everything at once. Adjusting fill light can be a good way to lighten a photo without clipping the highlights.
 
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