underexpose or over expose??

i am a newb, but i read somewhere that when you shoot in raw and the lighting isnt very good, it is better to overexpose or maybe they said under expose,(i cant remember) the picture because its easier to edit after words. please let me know if you have any idea. thanks

over expose and the detail is gone for good.

under expose slightly and its recoverable.

Proper exposure in the camera will always be best.

Actually, it called exposing to the right (refering to a histogram of your image.) . It can be overexposing in a way. You don't want to expose past the sensor limits, that is any luminance past the sensor limits is gone for good.

However, you do want to get the brightess values as close to the right edge as possible, without crossing the line. This could result in exposure, that is overexposed in the sense that it looks unnaturally bright. You would bring the exposure down to normal looking when you convert the RAW.

The reason for doing this is that you can get more detail in your shadow areas by recording them light and bringing them back down than by exposing them properly. While you can recover detail if you underexpose (to a point) the detail will be much lower quality and have a lot more noise.

A related issue, however is shutter speed. To expose to the right, you have to slow your shutter speed down, widen your aperture, or boost the ISO. Each of these options comes with issues that can affect your image, possibly in ways that take away the benefit of exposing to the right.

The technique is best for landscapes and stationary objects using a tripod, mirror lockup, and remote shutter to minimize the blurring from slowing the shutter speed down. Maybe portraits.

If you shoot handheld, candids, sports or other action, other considerations may be more important than exposing to the right.

strmrdr wrote in post #2766893
under expose slightly and its recoverable.

Proper exposure in the camera will always be best.

Proper exposure is always the best but underexposure can cause noise issues in shadow areas. Exposing to the right has it's advantages as described above.

magicmikey wrote in post #2767174
Proper exposure is always the best but underexposure can cause noise issues in shadow areas. Exposing to the right has it's advantages as described above.

depends on what your shooting and how skilled the person doing the PP is and if you want to spend hours on it.
The closer you are too the edge the better your exposure has to be and some of the best results will be on the edge ie: exposing to the right and walking the line.

If someone hasn't learned enough to have to ask this question imo they aren't ready to run and might get discouraged by the low keeper rate if they push the edge too soon.

Once they know how to get perfect exposure they can start to push the edges but until that time its better to error on the under exposed side for shots they want badly then over.

my 2c from a dinosaur from the stone age when it had to be perfect as possible or I spent days in the darkroom.

Read the following and you'll understand why you want to expose to the right
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorial​s/expose-right.shtml.

Mike

Exposing to the right works best for lower contrast scenes, where the full dynamic range of the sensor in the camera is not being utilized, and for low-key scenes. And when the ISO is already at ISO 100. In both of those cases, you can expose to the right because there may be latitude on the highlight end for doing so without blowing out the highlight details. Note, however, that these scenes are not your average, everyday scenes.

It is better to just expose correctly than attempting to expose to the right.
It is better to shoot at a lower ISO setting and exposing correctly than attempting to expose to the right using a higher ISO setting.

Generally, you have to understand that the cam is a big factor, too. I'd push the 20D farther than I would the 300D.

It's interesting how just a touch of over/under exposure makes such a big difference at high ISOs. Be sure to go through the whole thread.
Q & A: Dwight McCann (Event Photography)

ISO 200-6400 20D Tests