Do “push” and “pull” still apply in digital photography?
Asked 3/26/2014
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2 answers
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In film, pushing and pulling referred to processing changes used to compensate for under- or overexposure. In digital, there’s no chemical development, but photographers still sometimes use these terms.
How are “push” and “pull” typically used in a digital workflow?
- Which direction is which?
- Do they mean simply overexposing or underexposing in camera?
- Or do they usually imply a two-step process: deliberately under/overexposing the shot and then making the opposite correction in RAW processing or editing?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
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The terms push and pull are still relevant in the sense that they are still used and understood by many enthusiast photographers. But they are probably not as common as they once were. New terms, such as expose to the right describe the same concept using different words.
If you underexpose when taking the shot, then you push the exposure in editing to raise it. Conversely, if you overexpose when taking the shut, then you "pull" the exposure back down in post. Although there may be those who use push or pull when referring to intentionally over or underexposed photos that are not corrected at some point in the workflow in my experience they seem to always be used in the context of offsetting adjustments.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—people still use “push” and “pull” in digital, though less often than in film.
Typical usage:
- push: shoot darker / underexpose, then raise exposure in post
- pull: shoot brighter / overexpose, then reduce exposure in post
So the terms usually imply both capture and correction, not just an artistic choice to leave an image under- or overexposed. In other words, “pushing” generally means compensating upward during RAW conversion or editing after giving less exposure in-camera; “pulling” means compensating downward after giving more exposure in-camera.
That’s why exposure compensation alone is not really the same thing. If you simply dial in exposure compensation and keep the result as-shot, that’s just overexposure or underexposure, not necessarily push/pull in the usual digital sense.
In digital discussions, these terms are often used loosely and somewhat by analogy to film. You may also hear newer phrasing like “expose to the right,” which overlaps with the idea of giving more exposure and then bringing tones back down in processing.
Easy memory aid:
- push = push exposure up later
- pull = pull exposure down later
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