Should you intentionally underexpose digital photos to protect highlights?
Asked 4/13/2011
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I was told to always shoot a little underexposed because blown highlights can’t be recovered, while darker images can be brightened later in post. But I’m worried that intentionally underexposing might throw away dynamic range or increase noise.
For digital photography, is it a good idea to deliberately underexpose every shot? Does the answer depend on the scene or how critical highlight detail is? And how does underexposing affect dynamic range, contrast, and image noise compared with trying to expose correctly in-camera?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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There's been alot of talk of ETTR which is the opposite of what you're talking, but not much about underexposing. Basically, no, you shouldn't. On most sensors the dark parts are by far the noisest parts of the image, and pushing that in post is just going to make it noisier. You can't recover from pure black either.
The reality is you should expose "properly" - get the creatively correct exposure for the picture you want. Exposure is a creative tool as much as the rest of the tools in the photog's toolbox. With digital cameras, you get instant results, just take the picture how you think you want it and chimp. In critical situations, where you may only get one shot you're going to need to take several pre-exposures of the surrounding area and combine it with experience to get what you want.
I'm not a fan of anybody who says you should always decrease or increase the exposure based on what would properly do it in the first place.
Originally by user1917. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1917
15y ago
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In general, no—don’t intentionally underexpose everything. Aim for the correct exposure for the image you want.
Why: with digital sensors, shadow areas are usually the noisiest. If you underexpose and then brighten in post, you amplify that noise. Pure black clips just like pure white does, so underexposure is not “free.” Small amounts may be tolerable, but larger underexposure costs image quality.
It is true that clipped highlights are often more damaging than a small amount of shadow noise, so in very contrasty scenes you may choose to protect important highlights slightly. But that’s a scene-by-scene decision, not a universal rule.
A common digital approach is to expose as far to the right as you safely can without blowing important highlights (“ETTR”), because brighter exposures usually retain cleaner shadow detail. Still, the best exposure is ultimately the creatively correct one.
Practical approach: expose carefully, check the result/histogram when you can, and build experience. If the shot is critical and you only get one chance, test exposures beforehand if possible. Underexposing does not reduce contrast in a useful way; it mainly reduces usable shadow information and increases visible noise when corrected later.
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