Expose to the Right

There has been a lot of talk as to whether you should under or overexpose when shooting with a digital camera.  The answer is simple.  You should expose correctly.

Ok, let’s look at it a little closer.  Your goal should always be to expose your image as correctly as possible.  That is ultimately your goal and the result of proper metering.  However, if you need to make a choice whether to under or overexpose remember this – always expose  right.  Not right as in correct but right as in the opposite of left.

When you look at the histogram on your camera this will make a little more sense.  For a more detailed look at the histogram check this post but the bottom line is this.  Black is on the left, white is on the right and your mid tones are grouped in the middle.  If you were to go with what many take-pictures-like-a-pro websites tell you, the histogram on the right is what you should always be after.  It starts pretty much with a perfect black, all the mid tones are grouped together in the middle and it ends with pure white.

This is all fine and well but not every scene you face will result in a perfect histogram like this.  Actually, very few do.  If yuo had to choose whetehr to uderexpose or over expose what would you do?

This is where the title comes in.  Always expose to the right.  In other words, if you are unsure always overexpose slightly so that your histogram leans to the right of the screen.  You will have much better results if you shoot slightly lighter when you post process your images.  The reason for this is that noise is most prevalent in dark areas or shadows.  If you underexpose your shots and correct it afterwards in Lightroom or Photoshop you are more likely to get noise in the dark areas of your images. Make sense?

You will get better results as darkening an image will not result in as much noise as lightening an image.

Here is an example.

The above image has been slightly underexposed.  This can be seen by the histogram leaning slightly over to the left.  I.e. the images has more dark then light areas.  You stand the chance of increased noise in the dark areas if you were to lighten this image.

This image has been slightly overexposed which can be seen from the histogram leaning to the right.  By processing this image, rather than the first version, you will end up with a better resulting image and less noise.

This is the result you get from darkening the light version of the image.  Compare the three versions and pay particular attention to the dark tire and area below the leopard’s tail and you will see that the histogram is now more centred and we have not gained any noise in the dark areas.

Nice tip to remember when you are out shooting.  When in doubt, expose to the right but the ultimate goal is to still to get it right first time round by metering properly!

Until next time.

Gerry