billmcknight

Came across an article in Luminous Landscape website link is: http://luminous-landscape.com/the-optimum-digital-exposure/
Check it out. Would be glad to read your comments.
Bill

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I cut out the "s."

http://luminous-landscape.com/the-optimum-digital-exposure/
I don't like the article. "Metered," "Optimum," "Proper"? It seems like he's just throwing words around. I realize it's an excerpt from his book, but he doesn't do a very good job of explaining the reason for basically overexposing shots.

I've heard and read more about underexposing slightly so as not to blow out the highlights. You can get detail from dark areas, but you can't recover blown out bright areas. And he recommends using higher ISO for less noise?

This was confirmed recently watching a DVD series by Joel Sartore, Nat Geo photographer.

GTinSoCal Loc: Palmdale, CA

Interesting.
I'm all for ETTR and EBTR, for specific situations.
ETTR is always a good idea, if you are planning on spending additional time processing your images.
You gain more information, I'm not convinced of the AMOUNT of overexposure that he recommends for regular photography. He seems to be advising EBTR (Expose Beyond The Right) for ALL images.
It is a technique that works well with Night sky photography, but requires substantial work in post.
His claim of the blinkies being a stop lower than in software, seems to be about right.

But, it is hard to give much credence to an article that has obviously outdated information in it, regarding the exposure slider in LR, hmmm.

GT

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

Like you I have been exposing to the left and adjusting for highlights in PP. I agree with you he does not explain it well in this article.

imagesintime Loc: small town, mid-America

ETTR

imagesintime Loc: small town, mid-America

Sorry about that previous post. My long, winded attorney called just as I started and I hit send by mistake.

ETTR does not call for overexposing shots. No one is suggesting you put your histogram against the right side.

To understand ETTR you need to realize that your 'digital' camera is really just a digital storage device. The part that captures the image, the sensor, is analogue. The sensor captures the information using stops, the first stop is located on the far right of your histogram. 1/2 of all the information the sensor is capable of collecting is in that first stop. Going right to left each stop captures 1/2 the information of the previous stop.

You can prove this to yourself. Take a picture of your 18% gray card with the meter centered. If your camera is operating properly, your histogram will have a narrow peak located where? The center of the histogram. If the 18% value is in the middle, by exposing to the left you are giving up a lot of the sensor's capability and capturing information in the sensor's performance area where the SNR is very poor.

ETTR was first proposed by a software developer who thought he knew a little bit about getting the best from pictures. He wrote a program called Image Pro for processing digital pictures. Unfortunately that name was already taken so he changed the name to Photoshop.

GTinSoCal Loc: Palmdale, CA

The recommendation is to push your histogram up against the right side.
EBTR just goes a little farther (ok, sometimes a LOT) than ETTR.

Since the histogram on your camera is based on a processed image, you can easily recover a stop or more in the computer from the original data.

If I am printing straight from the card, I try to nail the exposure in camera. If I know I can and will be doing post, and want to gain as much as possible, I will use ETTR or EBTR to get as much information as I can.
In camera, ETTR looks bad, EBTR looks HORRIBLE.

As they, it's the final image that counts.

GT