Rob-F
Likes Leicas
I always underexpose ...
... but then my photos are always somewhat dark!
Nice work!
Chuck Albertson
Well-known
I learned quite early that the "expose to the right" business was a bad idea with the Monochrom, so I reverted to my days of shooting Kodachrome and started using an incident meter when possible for a good highlight exposure. With slide film in a high-contrast scene you could kiss the shadows goodbye, but with Lightroom I'm able to recover an enormous amount of detail from them.
willie_901
Veteran
There are two ways to loose information in highlight regions.
One way is to exceed the full-well capacity of any photosite when the shutter is open. This can only be happen when shutter time is too long and, or the aperture is too wide. This is overexposure.
The other way is when the camera's ISO setting is too high. After the shutter closes, the increase in DC voltage levels from some of the photosites exceeds the analog-to-digital converter' s maximum input level. This is over brightening. The sensor is almost always underexposed when camera's ISO setting is above its sensor's base ISO and the shutter time and aperture are based on the camera's meter estimate. This is unavoidable underexposure because freezing motion and DOF are more important than maximizing sensor exposure.
There is only one way to underutilize a camera's maximum performance potential – needlessly underexpose the sensor.
The goal for digital images is to maximize the signal level. This means maximizing the exposure. The most obvious benefit is in shadow regions. Maximizing exposure is just as important in bright light as it is in low light.
Often a small degree of overexposure is harmless. Some examples are specular highlights in bright sunlight and streetlights in night senes.
A different scenario involves slight overexposure of just some of the R, G or B photosites. A raw file with a bright clear sky will render well if a small percentage of the B photosites are overexposes. Selective hue and luminance parameters for just the blue channel will result in a realistic rendering. In-camera JPEGs are less forgiving.
The same is holds for over brightening (excessive ISO) except lowering the ISO setting is preferable to changing the level of undereposure.
For raw files it is useful to auto-bracket the aperture by +/- 1/3 stops. In post production you can use the image with optimum highlight retention and delete the other two.
For in-camera JPEGs you would auto-bracket the ISO parameter, i.e. auto-bracket image brightness.
Intentional underexposure to insure all the highlights are retained is a practical alternative. Content counts much more than a small loss of signal-to-noise ratio. Current cameras have dynamic range and sensitivity to spare. A 1/3 stop of intentional sensor underexposure is usually inconsequential. Also, letting shadow regions render as shadows is useful. An image rendered with all of the scene having similar brightness levels could be uninteresting.
So
– Maximize exposure (a.k.a. right) or purposefully underexpose (center or even left)
– Intentionally overexpose unimportant highlight regions
– Use the lowest ISO practical setting (1)
– Auto-bracket aperture (raw) or ISO (JPEGs)
1. Selecting the optimum camera ISO setting will be different for different cameras. Different brands used different signal amplification strategies over time. The electronic noise contributions for your cameras could be essentially constant for all ISO settings or it could be much lower for some settings than it is for others.
One way is to exceed the full-well capacity of any photosite when the shutter is open. This can only be happen when shutter time is too long and, or the aperture is too wide. This is overexposure.
The other way is when the camera's ISO setting is too high. After the shutter closes, the increase in DC voltage levels from some of the photosites exceeds the analog-to-digital converter' s maximum input level. This is over brightening. The sensor is almost always underexposed when camera's ISO setting is above its sensor's base ISO and the shutter time and aperture are based on the camera's meter estimate. This is unavoidable underexposure because freezing motion and DOF are more important than maximizing sensor exposure.
There is only one way to underutilize a camera's maximum performance potential – needlessly underexpose the sensor.
The goal for digital images is to maximize the signal level. This means maximizing the exposure. The most obvious benefit is in shadow regions. Maximizing exposure is just as important in bright light as it is in low light.
Often a small degree of overexposure is harmless. Some examples are specular highlights in bright sunlight and streetlights in night senes.
A different scenario involves slight overexposure of just some of the R, G or B photosites. A raw file with a bright clear sky will render well if a small percentage of the B photosites are overexposes. Selective hue and luminance parameters for just the blue channel will result in a realistic rendering. In-camera JPEGs are less forgiving.
The same is holds for over brightening (excessive ISO) except lowering the ISO setting is preferable to changing the level of undereposure.
For raw files it is useful to auto-bracket the aperture by +/- 1/3 stops. In post production you can use the image with optimum highlight retention and delete the other two.
For in-camera JPEGs you would auto-bracket the ISO parameter, i.e. auto-bracket image brightness.
Intentional underexposure to insure all the highlights are retained is a practical alternative. Content counts much more than a small loss of signal-to-noise ratio. Current cameras have dynamic range and sensitivity to spare. A 1/3 stop of intentional sensor underexposure is usually inconsequential. Also, letting shadow regions render as shadows is useful. An image rendered with all of the scene having similar brightness levels could be uninteresting.
So
– Maximize exposure (a.k.a. right) or purposefully underexpose (center or even left)
– Intentionally overexpose unimportant highlight regions
– Use the lowest ISO practical setting (1)
– Auto-bracket aperture (raw) or ISO (JPEGs)
1. Selecting the optimum camera ISO setting will be different for different cameras. Different brands used different signal amplification strategies over time. The electronic noise contributions for your cameras could be essentially constant for all ISO settings or it could be much lower for some settings than it is for others.
charjohncarter
Veteran
I use digital when I do promo photos for plays. This lighting is very contrasty. So like you I always underexpose. Even the very occasional family picture I take with digital I under expose a stop or two. So much easier to correct in post.
ptpdprinter
Veteran
I think you also have to think about whether your ultimate output is screen or print. In my experience, printers won't lay down ink above 242, so all of those highlights between 242 and 256 will print as unattractive paper white. Maximizing highlight exposure can easily lead to problems. Using the shadow recovery slider has been the better approach for me. I rarely use noise reduction. I do not intentionally underexpose by multiple stops when noise might be an issue. And none of this is even applicable except in situations in which the dynamic range of the scene exceeds the dynamic range of the camera (and print). It's rare that my images have values from 0 to 256. Fitting a print between say 16 and 240 is just a matter of a simple curve adjustment.
martinkirchner
Newbie
In monochrome i don't use any noise-reduction, i like it actually on BW-shots.
I meter on the subject i want to have correctly exposed. If the rest of the image is over/underexposed doesn't matter in this case.
The topic reminds me of a vacation with my girlfriend, she overexposed all images 3 stops because the screen was too dark.
ndnik
Established
A "smooth, clean look" is not a requirement ... Viewing images at 1x1 magnification is not a good indication of what a print would look like. Some people like a bit of texture. Also, the slight underexposure we're talking about to save some highlights does not significantly alter the noise in the image on a digital camera that is not ancient.
-N.
Sometimes, I`d rather maximize my chance of getting a fleeting moment. I`ll trade a little noise for that...
Bill Pierce
Well-known
On today’s sensors I’m not so sure that exposing to the right produces as much final image improvement in brightness range and noise reduction as it did with earlier sensors. But for some photographs where you are striving for every little bit that can better image quality, landscapes, architecturals, e.t.c., there is an easy solution. Bracket your exposures. Shoot a series of pictures increasing your exposure by a half stop and pick out the most generously exposed image that holds the highlight detail.
De_Corday
Eternal Student
I shoot manual exposure at all times but still usually dial in about 2/3 of under exposure in exp. comp (essentially changing the zero of the meter) for this very reason.
Contarama
Well-known
I sometimes wonder if a slow shutter is where digital sensors really shine in their fullest. Usually means a smaller aperture and lower iso. I always look at slow shutter stopped down lower iso shots when evaluating the "look" of a sensor. Maybe the level of settings/exposure makes some discernible difference.
Maybe like some frequency of waves or something deal
Crazy sounding I know but slower shutter exposures with digital just look better to me.
Maybe like some frequency of waves or something deal
Crazy sounding I know but slower shutter exposures with digital just look better to me.
willie_901
Veteran
Well, even exposing to the right and intentionally overexposing unimportant highlight regions can result in noisy shadows –*even at base ISO.
With raw files, I typically don't use color noise filtering in LR CC until the highlight regions are intentionally underexposed by 4 stops (ISO 3200 for my cameras). For monochrome conversions I never use color noise filtering.
I suspect luminance noise filtering in LR CC is intended to average photon noise. I typically use the default value.
Occasionally I use selective noise filtering when it is useful to push shadow regions. Even in bright sunlight shadow regions can be underexposed by more than 4 stops.