Exposing to the right.

scala

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1 Sep 2009 - 11:56 AM

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I have recently discovered an exposure technique - now widely accepted for landscape photography apparently - that involves exposing as far to the right of the histogram scale as possible before clipping occurs. The science being that the brighter stops on a DSLR record over 2’000 tonal values compared to the darker stops which record as little as 60 (the 4’000 plus tones available not being even split through the stop range. ).

I’ve always slightly under-exposed my shots and then adjusted in RAW, but I’ve now learned it’s better to over expose and claim back in RAW as you have a greater tonal range to work with and therefore more detail available. I haven’t had the change to try this out yet, but does anyone else work this way?

brian1208 (e2 Member)

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1 Sep 2009 - 12:21 PM

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me to, and not just for landscapes

Shawry

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1 Sep 2009 - 12:26 PM

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Depending on what I am shooting yes

discreetphoton (Site Moderator)

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1 Sep 2009 - 1:56 PM

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For everything, wherever possible. You'll often find that working at higher ISO's for over-exposure, then correcting, will give smoother results than lower ISO's at the true EV rating. Try it, it can be quite surprising.

stolzy

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1 Sep 2009 - 2:25 PM

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Quote: but does anyone else work this way?

Absolutely - it's the only way to get shadow detail. I like lots of dark in my studio pictures and the only way to have detail in the shadows is to expose well to the right (even at the sacrifice of unimportant highlight detail) and darken with levels in PS.

Otherwise I get lots of ugly posterisation in the shadow areas.

I think the usable tonal range of digital imagers is a lot less than that quoted - if you want shadow detail.

scala

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1 Sep 2009 - 3:07 PM

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Interesting stuff. I can't wait to give this a try now.

ckristoff

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1 Sep 2009 - 5:17 PM

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Discreetphoton,

that's most interesting. Your image looks great.

The last time I used my camera, I didn't check the settings, so I took a bunch of photos with iso at 1600, in broad daylight!


Frank.

janehobson

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1 Sep 2009 - 5:38 PM

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The aim is to expose as far to the right as you can, without clipping, as the OP stated. If it's not clipped, it's not burned out, just brighter than you'd expose for otherwise.