donmikes Loc: Doylestown, PA

Recently, another member posted a very good photo and attributed the results partly to the nice saturation he had achieved by slightly underexposing the image. He mentioned that he had learned this technique during his Kodachrome film days.

I also used this technique when I used to shoot film and initially did the same in my early days of shooting digital. I never do so anymore and have come to believe, however, that this is not necessary and perhaps counterproductive. In post-processing, it is easy to change exposure and there are many other possibilities to change saturation – not only the saturation and vibrance sliders, but also a combination of adjustments to highlights, shadows, white point, black point, contrast, clarity etc. Also, underexposing narrows the dynamic range that could be achieved by correctly exposing or overexposing (expose to the right).

Am I correct?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You're 100% correct. Even more importantly, underexposing a dark setting gives more noise when you later work to correct the exposure in processing. A best practice in digital photography is to expose as far to the right as possible, without blowing highlights, and then adjust in post, whether you darken the overall exposure and / or adjust individual colors.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Yep more noise when retrieving details from deep shadow areas is a consequence.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

If you are capturing raw image data and making full use of your camera’s available raw-accessible dynamic range, you are spot-on and are capturing the highest possible image data quality.

Dave

TheDman Loc: USA

You're correct to a point, but exposing to the right isn't always the way to go either, as Sean Bagshaw illustrates in this video. The ideal method for optimal color is nailing the exposure spot-on for each important part of the scene.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

And OVERexposing slightly worked for print FILM. Neither technique works for digital.

ELNikkor

I shoot +1/3 with my D5100 for most shots and rarely have to modify the brightness.

Wakko12 Loc: New Hampshire

The problem is that everyone here is right, in some conditions. If conditions are ideal (e.g. you are sure you can meter the brightest spot, if you mess up you can take it again, etc...) one should expose spot-on. The best example of when to expose left is that one-chance shot that you don’t have a chance to spot meter the brightest part, expose left because most of our sensors are more forgiving on the dark side. A good time to expose right is when you know the brightest spot, there’s a huge range in light intensity, and you’re not into photo stacking.

As an example - I will be shooting a dance recital soon. Lighting sucks, and the dancers have glitter on their faces and if they have an average lighting designer, they go in and out of shadows. To make it worse, I can’t yell out “do that over, I missed the shot.” In this case I will expose left because I know my camera gets details, even on parts that look completely black. I also know that any bright spot - remember that stupid glitter? - will have no data and that best I can do is make it light grey. That to me is way worse than a little noise.

Other times (like sunrise or sunset) I know the brightest spot, and I meter that, exposing to the right a bit because I know I’ve got some room. Ain’t nothing brighter than the sun.

In conclusion, this topic, like every topic in the world, does not have only one answer. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something (possibly their ignorance).

John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

👍👏👍

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

Okay, I’ll run against the grain. I tend to underexpose -1/3 to -2/3 stops. Maybe, just a matter of time before noise bites me, but so far, it’s worked for me...... I’ll take a chance with a little noise over blowing out any day.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Your histogram and highlight indicators tell you specifically what is occurring in a given situation as there's no way to generalize whether + or - is appropriate to manage highlights.

CaptainPhoto

Just checked out the Sean Bagsaw video - it is really great, along with all his other stuff. Sure makes sense. Thank you for sharing that resource.

johntaylor333

What about ISO invariant cameras in low light conditions?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

This newer technology does present an opportunity to rethink or refine digital best practices, where one has a camera featuring this technology. I've seen some examples, but don't have my own hands-on experience yet to judge whether adding brightness in post yields an equivalent image to an image exposed to the right.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Greyfox, do you shoot much in snow? I've read what you are saying in several other places but I always have to overexpose snow to get it white. This past winter we were white for almost 6 months, so it matters.