Exposure Control

[briancmo]

Just wondering if anyone ever shoots all their pictures with the exposure 1/3 or 2/3's hot and then in post pulls the exposure back. I normally NEVER do this, but this weekend, at a museum was impressed how well I was able to correct the exposure. I would also think if you did this with high ISO's you'd reduce the grain amount...hmmm

Thoughts?

[PixelMagic]

It depends; are you shooting RAW or JPEG?

[briancmo]

I always shoot RAW

[PixelMagic]

Then read here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

[neilwood32]

So long as there is no clipping (shooting too overexposed) then it is the way to go.

[briancmo]

Fedka, Thanks so much for that link. That's exactly what I was thinking. Only I didn't know the theory or concepts behind it. But it did confirm my guess. :) Now to run some tests at 1600 iso

[PixelMagic]

Actually when using Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, you can recover details even if two of the three channels are clipped. The in-camera histogram actually has a fair amount of headroom so what appears as overexposure - particularly for a JPEG - is preferable when shooting RAW.

[PixelMagic]

The article is a bit outdated now with the introduction of the Recovery slider in Lightroom and ACR, but the general principle remains the same: When shooting RAW; expose to the right. i.e. instead of a traditional shaped histogram, make sure the histogram is snug to the right even though the clipping indicators might flash (that's for JPEG). As long as you don't blow all three channels you can recover highlight detail in your RAW processor.


Fedka, Thanks so much for that link. That's exactly what I was thinking. Only I didn't know the theory or concepts behind it. But it did confirm my guess. :) Now to run some tests at 1600 iso

[briancmo]

Am I the ony one who HATES the look of the recovery slider? I find it makes everything look.so...processed :s

[tzalman]

Highlight Recovery is not a magic bullet. It will never be as good as not clipping any data in the first place, because, like any interpolation, it is the computer making an educated guess. Moreover, ACR does a luminousity reconstruction only and grey highlights are less than ideal, while Bibble that does recover color can sometimes get it very wrong.

[dekalbSTEEL]

In other words, shoot to the right, not thru the right;)