How to expose for a dark scene

Wilt wrote in post #14872455
ETTR fails to address suitably the issue when the subject is dark (your 'dark scene') and has few areas with highlights).

ETTR, properly executed, means that you expose as bright as you can without clipping highlight areas that you want to save. I think the concept works perfectly in Nathan's shot, it's just more difficult to get right. You let the flames blow to white (and maybe parts of her arm) and make sure the subject's face is not clipped.

Nathan - Great shot. I would maybe try to bring up the shadows a bit in post, but you got it right from an exposure standpoint.

Interesting thread.

What I do is take a first photo to check how it look, then tune down the -/+ exposure until I am satisfied. Then in post I can adjust like I really want it. I tend to go quite dark to reduce the ISO noise and keep the ambiance.

Curtis N wrote in post #14872829
Nathan - Great shot. I would maybe try to bring up the shadows a bit in post, but you got it right from an exposure standpoint.

Thanks.

Actually, I underexposed a bit in camera (unintentionally) and that's already brought up by about half a stop in LR. It was at a performance in a little dive bar, not a posed shot with a black BG, so the background is just clutter (see Wilt's adjustment) and I don't really want to bring that out any more. I guess I could brush more exposure on the performer, but there's nothing interesting there.

Wilt the main point about ETTR is that in the case of Nathan's picture the RAW file would be exposed to maximise the shadow detail. This will also mean that the SNR is as high as you can make it. Reducing the "Exposure" in post is then a valid artistic choice, one of many possibilities, but the fact that your RAW data has a higher SNR allows you to make this choice with very little noise visible in the image.
It doesn't even matter if that is the outcome that you envisage at the point you press the shutter button, ETTR will still give you the best starting point. Actually if you are envisaging the dark image as your final outcome ETTR will allow you the option of the brighter image if you later change your mind, as we all know trying to push a dark image will very quickly kill it with noise.

Remember the more light that you can capture, the better the image IQ will be. Although I only shoot with some very old cameras (300D and lately a 20D) even at ISO 3200 (I have my 300D modded to allow ISO 3200) if I ETTR the images look very good, but under expose by even half a stop at ISO 100 and the noise starts to appear. Of course LR4.1's Highlights and Shadows tools have also helped a lot with this, with both new images that I shoot and all my old ones too.

Alan

Alan, no need to explain to me, I fully understood Nathan's motive for what he chose to do. I was merely illustrating (the difficulty of practicing ETTR ...) that it was nevertherless possible to up the overall exposure by +2.5EV while still adhering to the principle behind ETTR...which is exactly the point he had made in an earlier post!

1/125 @ f/8 ISO 100

nathancarter wrote in post #14872410
Agree and agree.

In your exposure target example, you've got a proper exposure of your subject - but it's not a dark scene. It's just the subject, which wasn't the question in the original post.

If the scene is dark, the histogram will peak at the left, with other short little bumps and hills along the bottom of the middle and right.

We're all saying about the same thing, I think.

This one is exposed exactly as I intended, but if you looked at the histogram and not the image, you'd think I was inept.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/nathancarter/7​701239610/
Industrial_Alliance_20​120801_0408.jpg by nathancarter, on Flickr

One question.. Why there is a purple tone on the back of the girl ?? I have a seen a lot pictures with shadows showing a bit purple on my 60D.. even when there is only 1 source light.

CyberManiaK wrote in post #14898121
One question.. Why there is a purple tone on the back of the girl ?? I have a seen a lot pictures with shadows showing a bit purple on my 60D.. even when there is only 1 source light.

Well, shadows tend to be pretty cool while flames and light bulbs tend to be pretty warm so the conflicting white balances can create a pretty dramatic color difference. Add in the bit of reddishness that comes from shadow noise. . . .

CyberManiaK wrote in post #14898121
One question.. Why there is a purple tone on the back of the girl ?? I have a seen a lot pictures with shadows showing a bit purple on my 60D.. even when there is only 1 source light.

Only NathanCarter can truly comment about the purple, but if you look at my re-interpretation of his photo in post 15, one can clearly see the purple, and I am inclined to believe that there was a stage light with a purple theatrical gel...you can see the reflection of the purple source high in the frame in the metallic object in the far field, too.

Wilt got it. Blue and red lights above the bar... I think it was a Budweiser neon or something, and maybe a TV. It was in a little dive bar so there were odd lights all around.

Ohh I see, thanks and if that purple appear on shadows areas when there is only one kind of light ? what could be the reason.. Sorry if i'm hijacking the thread but this sometimes happen with my 60D when exposing darker(Night) scenes. And when I was shooting with Sony never had that problem. So this is kinda weird that always make me wonder the reason lol..