"Expose to the right"

Golden Ape · 22 Jan 2006 at 16:34

I remember reading a thread on here a couple of weeks ago - someone had been taking shots at night and were getting quite a bit of noise. At the time someone else suggested that they could cut down on the noise by "exposing to the right". I was kind of confused by this at the time as I couldn't see what the advantage would be however I've just read an interesting article on Adobe's site about why exactly this is. Incidently the same article suggests that using negative exposure compensation to preserve highlights might not be the great idea I thought it was.

Alex53 · 22 Jan 2006 at 17:13

I prefere noise to blown (i.e. lost) highlights.

jhmaeng · 22 Jan 2006 at 17:56

Alex53 said:
I prefere noise to blown (i.e. lost) highlights.

During the day, sure. But you're not going to get blown highlights in a typical night-shot, are you?

(If you want to be really picky, yes, some lamps, lights and neon signage might become blown but in the overall picture, I doubt they are worth sacrificing the rest of the frame over some small bits of writing or building windows)

Alex53 · 22 Jan 2006 at 18:11

I suppose I agree for night street photography. Two main issues are 1. the highlights are not a major part of the shot. 2. The light conditions are quite stable.

I was thinking of rock concerts, both outdoor ones at night and in dark indoor venues. The highlights are usually performers faces because they are aimed at by spotlights, especially if their skin is very white. I find my better shots are better irrespective of extra grain after having underexposed.

I know in practice, and with coloured lights turning on and off every 2 seconds, I'd miss more shots entirely if I didnt shoot in that relatively safe area of slight underexposure.

SDK^ · 22 Jan 2006 at 21:35

Alex53 said:
I prefere noise to blown (i.e. lost) highlights.

No-one is saying you need to overexpose the highlights

Alex53 · 22 Jan 2006 at 22:20

But it happens. Of course in situations where you can re-shoot, no problem.

aztechnology · 23 Jan 2006 at 12:01

Another article about digital exposure and the expose to the right theory...

Luminous Landscape

rG-tom · 23 Jan 2006 at 17:40

when i was shooting the globetrotters game i over exposed a third to the right on purpose, as i needed iso1600 and with the background not being lit it meant there would be quite a lot of noise there. It was a wise decision in my opinion, and I was very pleased with the results, but this was where the lighting was quite static.

Tom.