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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: AVAVA on December 02, 2008, 21:37

Title: Proper digital exposure
Post by: AVAVA on December 02, 2008, 21:37
Hi All,

 I was just talking with some others about this in an e-mail and I thought it couldn't hurt to cut and paste in here. The following post relates to how I expose for the best image with my digital camera. This has been mentioned but since I already wrote it I thought maybe someone might get something out of it here.

  If I am shooting something that I want dark and moody I set up my lights to measure above my final f stop choice by at least a stop. If I am wanting it to be exposed at 5.6 for the final I will light the set with my camera at f8 / F10 or so to get the mood I want in the back screen on the camera, even though the histogram says I am under exposing I want to see the image how I intend for it to finally be ( dark and moody ). Before my final exposures I then open up to the desired f5.6 to capture the shadow detail and the depth of field I originally wanted.
  When I open the Raw image in PS it looks way to bright and all the mood is gone then I just drop the exposure slider till I get what I saw in the back of the camera during the shoot for the mood without any worry of banding or color loss as well as the noise issue from under exposure.
 Some images have a smaller range between highlight and shadow and those images can be opened up more than a high contrast image so a lot for me depends on compressing the scene with my lighting. I still follow the old rule for neg. film. Expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights. Meaning open up your exposure in the camera to get good shadow information then expose the Raw file in PS or an imaging software until you get what you desired in the highlights.
 You will also find this process let's you use your shadow slider much higher than an " on " exposure. If I " over expose " an image I might have 14 points of slider room on my shadows slider in my Raw file converter. If I expose that same image ' on ' I may only have 4 points to adjust the shadow slider, if that.
 I also will let windows blow out and areas that don't need detail if the image calls for it. Always on the overexposed end 1 stop to sometimes 2 stops or more if the scene is willing to allow it. Hope this helps.

Best,
AVAVA
Title: Re: Proper digital exposure
Post by: LostOne on December 02, 2008, 21:57
Yeah, this kind of exposure has it's name: expose to the right:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml
Title: Re: Proper digital exposure
Post by: AVAVA on December 02, 2008, 22:49
Hi Last one,

 Much better data and info than I offered. Thanks for the link. Good stuff and thoroughly explained.

Best,
AVAVA
Title: Re: Proper digital exposure
Post by: hali on December 03, 2008, 00:18
it's a very good technique.
coming from film photography, i had to rethink exposure in digital photography.
but was fortunate to get some helpful hints from lisafx, who did tell me to expose to the best of retaining the whitest of white, or stretching the highlight, which is more or less the same technique discussed here.

good show , all!