Histogram "to the right"

I shoot in manual and have began using the histogram to try and get better exposures straight out of the camera. I have read that you should expose to the right, which I do understand btw, but was just curious how much I should go to the right. Is this just something that is going to vary from scene to scene? I just do not want to blow out highlights to the point that I can't recover the damage in PP. I shoot in RAW, so I know that I can make adjustments, but I am trying to get better at getting the shots as close as possible to what I want right out of the camera. This is especially helpful since I PP on an older computer and it takes a very long time.

Thanks in advance.

Don't mean to be a smart a$$ but it depends on your metering mode.

If you spot meter, keep the in camera graph in the middle and check the histogram after pulling the trigger for the full image information.

Regardless, you want to just barely graze the right side of the histogram in total while keeping the subject in proper exposure.

40Driggs wrote in post #6351365
I shoot in manual and have began using the histogram to try and get better exposures straight out of the camera. I have read that you should expose to the right, which I do understand btw, but was just curious how much I should go to the right. Is this just something that is going to vary from scene to scene? I just do not want to blow out highlights to the point that I can't recover the damage in PP. I shoot in RAW, so I know that I can make adjustments, but I am trying to get better at getting the shots as close as possible to what I want right out of the camera. This is especially helpful since I PP on an older computer and it takes a very long time.

Thanks in advance.

If what you mean by "get better exposures straight out of the camera" is to get a picture exposed properly so that you won't need to post process the image in Photoshop after the fact, then you don't want to be "exposing to the right". You want to be exposing so that the most important whites, blacks and grays in the scene which you care about fall where they're supposed to in the histogram (i.e. whites on the very right side, blacks on the very left side and mid-gray somewhere in the middle; blown whites are OK for parts you don't care about).

RAW actually complicates this. Your histogram will just be a rough estimate. It might show that you're blown or near blown even when you're nowhere near blown -- just because it's giving you the histogram for the JPG preview that your camera is generating and not for the actual RAW file.

Are you having a specific issue with the histograms not matching up? I've been noticing a lot of histogram overexposure with RAW underexposure, so someone suggested I change my picture style setting to -3 contrast and I've been testing that out to see if I can get a better feel for how the RAW file will actually look SOOC.

One this is for sure, if you're spot metering skin you definitely don't want your exposure meter to read 0. You will underexpose by at least a stop and you'll end up compensating for that a lot in PP. Actually, if you're metering anything other than middle gray, you'll need to make adjustments to your exposure to avoid issues with your SOOC file.

I really wish Canon would make a camera that can interpret the RAW histogram and display that instead of the JPG histogram! Seems so simple.

You're correct Andrea and I should have made that clear.
I spot meter on critters when the BG is irrelativent.

And that would work if your critter is middle gray... like an elephant, a gray wolf, gray cat.... depending on the shade of all of these. If the animal is not gray, then spot metering off of it at 0 is not giving you proper exposure.

AndreaBFS wrote in post #6353224
RAW actually complicates this. Your histogram will just be a rough estimate. It might show that you're blown or near blown even when you're nowhere near blown -- just because it's giving you the histogram for the JPG preview that your camera is generating and not for the actual RAW file.

Are you having a specific issue with the histograms not matching up? I've been noticing a lot of histogram overexposure with RAW underexposure, so someone suggested I change my picture style setting to -3 contrast and I've been testing that out to see if I can get a better feel for how the RAW file will actually look SOOC.

One this is for sure, if you're spot metering skin you definitely don't want your exposure meter to read 0. You will underexpose by at least a stop and you'll end up compensating for that a lot in PP. Actually, if you're metering anything other than middle gray, you'll need to make adjustments to your exposure to avoid issues with your SOOC file.

I really wish Canon would make a camera that can interpret the RAW histogram and display that instead of the JPG histogram! Seems so simple.

Good point Andrea, though you can avoid some of this by setting the picture style to 'neutral' even if you shoot RAW exclusively (as I do). This gives the least manipulation to the jpeg that the camera uses to create the histogram.

Yes/no/maybe. As others have said, it depends on what you're shooting & what interpretation of "expose to the right" vs. "expose white to the right" you're thinking of. This might help:
exposing to the right question.

Thanks for the link Frank. That is everything I needed to know to clarify things.