Is the digital practice to expose for the highlights?

[Ken Fong]

I am new to this idea of exposing for the highlights* for digital photographers...that shooting in RAW allows us to recover up to 3 stops of light if shooting in ISO100. Does this mean that it is better to digitally compensate to bring back the shadows than it is to bring back a highlight? Maybe I won't need my graduated neutral density filters after all?

(*This of course assumes the range is not extreme.)

[scottbergerphoto]

Bringing back shadows in digital brings back alot of noise with it. In addition you can capture much more data on the right side of the histogram. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml
Your best bet is to use the histogram and expose so that the histogram approaches the right but doesn't touch it. Shooting Raw helps recover lost highlights if the right gets clipped.
That doesn't change the fact that the dynamic range of digital sensors is still limited to about 5 stops, so don't throw away that ND filter.
Regards,
Scott

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Sensor chips are linear devices, so you get a lot more data values to play with if you push exposure towards the right side of the histogram. Shooting JPG, you must be more careful not to blow any channels than with raw as there is more latitude to recover blown highlights.

Chuck Westfall has said that the 10D chip has around 8.5 stops dynamic range; the MkII chip is apparently pushing 9 stops.

There are techniques for raw images using double conversion that obviate or, at least, reduce the need for ND grads.

Regards,

[scottbergerphoto]

Chuck Westfall has said that the 10D chip has around 8.5 stops dynamic range; the MkII chip is apparently pushing 9 stops.
Regards,
:shock: