Histogram for low key photos?

[Joe AC]

The title pretty much explains the question. When shooting low key photos on a digital for best quality (no noise) do you...

A) Expose to the far right and then bring it down in post?

B) Expose to the left in camera?

I seem to be getting good results exposing to the left in camera but am not sure about noise on a print. Please share your technique.


Thanks
Joe

 

[shimokita]

The attached link seems to be on topic... As I understand the article, ETTR only makes sense (as per the article) in a camera specific range of ISO values... I have not tested this.

http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/iso/index.html

 

[Joe AC]

The attached link seems to be on topic... As I understand the article, ETTR only makes sense (as per the article) in a camera specific range of ISO values... I have not tested this.

http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/iso/index.html

Interesting article. Thanks! But I'm not really sure how it answers the question.

Joe

 

[Rom]

Interesting link. Thanks ! With digital cameras i would suggest to quickly make both tests.

After, IMO it will be ok to expose correctly the enlighten part of your subject. Forget about the rest (which will be theorically dark if your setup is correct)

 

[Nathan King]

In these instances I find an incident light meter very useful. If you expose to the left in camera you will not have a noise problem unless you try to pull the exposure back up. Take a look at the histogram and make sure you aren't loosing detail anywhere you want it.

In the below image I simply metered for the bright side of the face and let everything else drop off. This is exactly how it came out of the camera:

 

[Katie]

The histogram will peak depending how bright your brightest spot is. The rest should be clumped at the lower value end.

 

[Dan]

To preserve the best quality in a digital file, your best bet is to decrease the values in post. Too much underexposure at the time of shooting can lead to excessive noise and degraded tones.

 

[Ranchu]

Shoot it how you want it to look. Never, ever believe anything Michael Reichmann, Bruce Fraser, or Jeff Schewe suggest. Although Fraser did a pretty good job on actions.