Expose for the Highlights, Print for the Shadows - Photography Quick Tip #8

[Alonzo8426]

Is there a no fail, or at least easy way to determine perfect exposure? As you've said before, the histogram isn't perfect and the image on the LCD is not accurate when shooting RAW. I tend to only use spot and center weighted metering, take the reading off of the brightest part of the scene, adjust until the meter is one or two bars under 0, recompose, shoot, and adjust as needed. This seems to work, but again I'm not sure what a perfect exposure should look like.

[GregoryCazillo]

@jeanozeroeight It means you need perfect exposure and need to pay attention to your exposure and histogram.

[jeanozeroeight]

Greg do you mean, shoot for the highlights, like it would be better if we shot an overexposed image than an underexposed image to get better quality?

[harishgudavalli]

Thanks Greg..your videos are very informative.

[StevenScholten]

Thanks a lot for that (and your other vids). I have been trying to get as much info as possible on getting good (flash) exposure. I know how to adjust ISO.Shutterspeed and aoperture, but how to judge a good exposure seems hard. I have the feeling there's more to it then just trying to get the histogram as far to the right as possible without overexposing. Those shots always seem to bright to me. The more you can teach us about it the better!

Greets from Holland

Steven

[dolansphoto]

I kinda disagree! With RAW files you are always able to bring back underexposure, but once a face is overexposed its DONE! I know what you meant but for the average user I think this may be a bad tip because they're going to start overexposing everything and have a bunch of blown out faces that are not reparable! Anyway, just my lame two cents! Hope to chat with ya soon on SKype!

[GregoryCazillo]

@dolansphoto When you underexpose your images by 1 stop you lose 1/2 of the data that could have potentially been in the image. When underexposing & then fixing it in post you also add more noise to the image, lowering the quality again.

[atamola]

Great tip. Thank you.

[GlaucoHass]

Great tip, very helpful. I can see myself shooting again some underexposed subjects with that "expose to the right" thing. They will definitely look better. Thanks.

[gtochad]

i like these more advanced tips. its what your best at and what im most interested in

do you have any suggestions though of what to take photos of when your in a rut and cant go outside for fear of the weather damaging the camera?

[GregoryCazillo]

@gtochad it all depends on what you are interested in. If you like studio or still life photographs then try to create some of them. Otherwise check out the ThinkTank Photo Hydrophobia rain covers. I own two of them (70-200 flash and 300-600) both are great.

[MrZenoWatson]

A quality tip GC!

[heuykiller]

Would you say that your face is blown out in the video? I would.

[GregoryCazillo]

@heuykiller Yup, my point exactly! 

[falecomcyber]

Great tip, Greg.

[JanErikEdvartsen]

Great video. Much simpler and understandable than your other one on the same subject :) Keep it going, Greg :) We love you!

[BernieKohl]

ETTR (expose to the right) is an integral part of a high-quality RAW workflow. I'm glad you are spreading the message, Greg.

[andyordphoto]

A 60 sec tutorial on hyperfocal distance would be useful one day ;-)