{"id":1140,"date":"2010-03-19T09:19:18","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T17:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/19\/lightroom-tutorial-expose-to-the-right\/"},"modified":"2018-09-09T19:40:58","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T03:40:58","slug":"lightroom-tutorial-expose-to-the-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/19\/lightroom-tutorial-expose-to-the-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightroom Tutorial – Expose to the Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a followup post read<\/p>\n

http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/articles\/how-to-articles\/expose-revisited\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The light meters in our digital cameras don\u2019t always give us the best exposure.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say that they give us the wrong exposure.\u00a0 But the \u2018correct\u2019 exposure doesn\u2019t necessarily produce the best image file as far as post processing is concerned, especially if we\u2019re shooting RAW.<\/p>\n

If you expose an image at the exposure selected by your light meter and check the histogram, chances are it\u2019s skewed a little to the left, toward the shadows.\u00a0 This is especially apparent in low contrast scenes.\u00a0 The image might look great on the camera\u2019s LCD and in Lightroom.\u00a0 But a slightly overexposed image will capture more information and is therefore better to work with later \u2013 given of course that it\u2019s not so overexposed that you have highlight clipping.\u00a0 An ideal histogram is one that is just to the right of center.\u00a0 This technique is called \u2018Expose to the Right,\u2019 and is practiced by many of digital photographers.<\/p>\n

During a recent photography workshop I led a discussion on exposure and advocated the \u2018expose to the right\u2019 technique.\u00a0 Later, one of the attendees said she didn\u2019t like it because the images looked horrible in Lightroom.\u00a0 And indeed they do.\u00a0 They look washed out.\u00a0 So a recommendation to expose to the right needs to be followed up with a discussion on how to process these images.\u00a0 It\u2019s only fair.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s use one of the shots I took during the workshop and take it through the entire process to show what can be pulled from an image that is exposed to the right.\u00a0 I\u2019ll use an image captured at Zabriskie Point about 20 minutes before sunrise.<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s look at the image that was captured at the exposure recommended by the camera\u2019s light meter.<\/p>\n

\"Normal<\/a> Normal Exposure<\/p>\n

This is admittedly a very flat scene and so is not going to be very interesting.\u00a0 You can clearly see that it\u2019s very muddy and the histogram is indeed to the left of center.\u00a0 he next image was overexposed by one stop.<\/p>\n

\"hist_plus_one_ev\"<\/a> Plus 1 EV Exposure<\/p>\n

Now the image looks washed out.\u00a0 But it\u2019s no longer muddy and the histogram is to the right of center with no highlight clipping.\u00a0 So this is a great file to work with.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the +1 image by itself.<\/p>\n

\"plus_one_ev\"<\/a> Plus 1 Image<\/p>\n

The first thing to do is adjust the exposure in Lightroom.\u00a0 We\u2019ll take out the 1 stop of overexposure by setting the Exposure adjustment to \u20131.<\/p>\n

\"hist_adj_1\"<\/a> Exposure Adjustment set to \u20131<\/p>\n

The overall tonality of the image is better and the histogram is back near the center or just a little to the left of center.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s OK because we already captured the additional information in the RAW file.\u00a0 But the image is still very flat.\u00a0 So the next step is to set the black point.<\/p>\n

\"hist_adj_2\"<\/a>Set the Black Point<\/p>\n

The black point can be set with the Blacks adjustment.\u00a0 In this case it was set to +10.\u00a0 You want to set it just high enough so that you start to get shadow clipping in a very small area of the image.\u00a0 Too much shadow clipping will make the image too dark but a little will give it a solid tonal foundation.\u00a0 Notice that the left end of the histogram has stretched out to the point where it\u2019s just touching the left side.\u00a0 But the main part of the histogram has shifted to the left only slightly.<\/p>\n

The process we\u2019ve started here is to add contrast to this flat image.\u00a0 Contrast is going to make it a lot more interesting.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got good shadows in the image now so the next step is to brighten it.<\/p>\n

\"hist_adj_3\"<\/a> Brighten the Image with Curves<\/p>\n

We can use the Tone Curve adjustment to brighten the image.\u00a0 I increased the Lights slider to about 90.\u00a0 This affects the brighter areas of the image without noticeably lightening the dark areas.\u00a0 The image is a lot more interesting, now that we\u2019ve added contrast.\u00a0 Also the histogram now fills pretty much the entire range from shadows on the left to highlights on the right.<\/p>\n

The dark area in the upper left corner was just a little too dark for my taste so I\u00a0 added a little fill light.<\/p>\n

\"hist_adj_4\"<\/a> Add Fill Light<\/p>\n

So far, the only adjustments we\u2019ve made affect luminosity.\u00a0 We haven\u2018t done anything with color yet.\u00a0 But before turning our attention to color let\u2019s take a look at what we\u2019ve accomplished so far.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a before and after comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"plus_one_ev\"\u00a0<\/a>Before<\/td>\n\"adj_4_fill_open_shadows\"\u00a0<\/a>After<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In the after image we can already see some of the marvelous textures and forms that make Zabriskie Point such a wonderful place to photograph.\u00a0 The soft light of dawn is perfect for bringing these out.\u00a0 The image has a fantastic glow, a far cry from the harsh light and shadows of mid day and a totally different mood from what it will be in a few short minutes when the sun first strikes it.<\/p>\n

With the luminance nicely established we can move on to the next major step \u2013 adjusting the hue (color).<\/p>\n

Now, dawn light is inherently blue because the only source of illumination is the blue sky.\u00a0 This makes everything in the scene take on a blue cast.\u00a0 We can go with the blue which will give the image a cool feeling or we can adjust the color temperature and warm it up a bit.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to do the latter.<\/p>\n

\"hist_adj_5\"<\/a> Adjust Color Temperature<\/p>\n

Warming up the image by adjusting Color Temperature and Tint brings out the characteristic browns and tans of Zabriskie Point.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve preserved the beautiful soft light while giving the image a warm feeling.<\/p>\n

The change in this histogram is not as dramatic as when we were adjusting luminance.\u00a0 We just see the three channels (red, green and blue) starting to spread out.<\/p>\n

But Zabriskie Point is not all browns and tans.\u00a0 There are some very subtle greens in the formations.\u00a0 We can bring them out by adding some selective saturation.\u00a0 This is done by\u00a0 saturating individual colors.<\/p>\n

\"adj_6_saturation\"<\/a> Add Saturation<\/p>\n

In this step I added a little blue saturation to the salt pan.\u00a0 This helps to emphasize the whiteness of the salt.\u00a0 Next I found some green areas in the mud stone and increased their saturation quite a bit.\u00a0 Can you see them?\u00a0 Finally, I also added a little saturation to the yellows and oranges.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take a lot of saturation to bring out the subtleties in the color.<\/p>\n

The final adjustment was to use the Punch preset.\u00a0 This adds +50 Clarity and +25 Vibrance.\u00a0 Clarity is pure magic in the way it brings out more detail in the image.\u00a0 And Vibrance is a different kind of magic in the way it adds a bit more saturation to the less saturated colors.\u00a0 When pared together the image glows.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the final image side by side with the one we started with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"plus_one_ev\"\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 +1 EV RAW Capture<\/td>\n\"adj_7_punch\"\u00a0<\/a>Final Image<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

To recap the steps we went through, we began by adjusting luminance.\u00a0 First we corrected the one stop overexposure introduced by the ‘Expose to the Right\u2019 technique.\u00a0 Next we set a black point.\u00a0 Then we adjusted the highlights which had the effect of introducing contrast.\u00a0 The second major step was to adjust hue and the final step was to adjust saturation.<\/p>\n

This is a good sequence of steps to follow when working with an image and one that I would recommend.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say that one would never deviate from this order but in most cases it works out very well.<\/p>\n

So, the Expose to the Right technique can produce very striking photographs, especially when paired with low contrast scenes.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the wonderful dawn light is one of my favorite lights to shoot in.<\/p>\n

To see more of my photographs click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Join me on an upcoming workshop.<\/a><\/p>\n

(8089)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a followup post read http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/articles\/how-to-articles\/expose-revisited\/ The light meters in our digital cameras don\u2019t always give us the best exposure.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say that they give us the wrong exposure.\u00a0 But the \u2018correct\u2019 exposure doesn\u2019t necessarily produce the best image file as far as post processing is concerned, especially if we\u2019re shooting RAW. If … Continue reading “Lightroom Tutorial – Expose to the Right”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[32,87,278,15,13,10,268,93],"class_list":["post-1140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-how-to-articles","tag-california","tag-death-valley","tag-lightroom-tutorial","tag-national-park","tag-photography","tag-ralph-nordstrom","tag-tips","tag-workshop"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-io","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3972,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions\/3972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}