{"id":3088,"date":"2013-11-16T16:50:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-17T00:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/?p=3088"},"modified":"2019-11-23T19:07:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T03:07:40","slug":"mastering-exposure-expose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2013\/11\/16\/mastering-exposure-expose\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastering Exposure – Expose to the Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years there has been a lot of interest in the concept of \u2018Expose to the right.\u2019\u00a0 This is something that is commonly done in digital photography where you intentionally overexpose an image.\u00a0 The idea is that in digital images there is more information to work with in the brighter tonalities than there is in the darker.\u00a0 And this will give you more to work with in the darkroom (Lightroom and Photoshop) which will result in a better image.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written several posts on this topic and if the concept is new to you please read these.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to go into the theory here; that is spelled out in these posts.<\/p>\n

Lightroom Tutorial – Expose to the Right<\/a><\/p>\n

Expose to the right \u2013 Revisited<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, I understand the theory.\u00a0 I\u2019m a computer guy; I had better understand it.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve always wondered if the promise of a better image actually worked out in real life.\u00a0 So I did a test during our recent workshop to Big Sur.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I photographed the bark of an interesting redwood tree along the Old Coast Road.\u00a0 Here it is.<\/p>\n

\"0ev\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not all photographs are candidates for expose to the right but this one definitely was.\u00a0 How did I know?\u00a0 The histogram.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t indicate any exposure problems, no shadow or highlight clipping.\u00a0 But it\u2019s bunched up to the left, the dark side.\u00a0 Now this may be the tonality I want in the final photograph but because the histogram is way to the left I can get more information to work if I increase the exposure.\u00a0 I can do that without fear of getting any highlight clipping and that will move the histogram to the right, the bright side.<\/p>\n

So, using exposure compensation,\u00a0 I took another exposure at +1 ev; that is, one stop overexposed.\u00a0 Here are the results.<\/p>\n

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

Notice what happened to the histogram.\u00a0 It moved to the right as expected and there is still no highlight clipping.\u00a0 But because the image is lighter it is starting to look a little washed out.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what you get when you expose to the right, an overexposed image.<\/p>\n

It looks like we can take this one stop further so I made a third exposure at +2 ev, or two stops overexposed.\u00a0 And here are the results.<\/p>\n

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

The histogram is pretty much as far to the right as we dare go and the image is really washed out now.<\/p>\n

So much for the work in the field.\u00a0 It\u2019s now time to do some darkroom work.\u00a0 What I\u2019ll be demonstrating is done entirely in Lightroom (I\u2019m sure you figured that out already).<\/p>\n

Lightroom Step 1<\/h2>\n

The first step is to correct for the overexposures.\u00a0 So the +1 ev exposure gets a \u20131 Exposure adjustment in Lightroom.\u00a0 Same for the +2 ev overexposure.\u00a0 It gets a \u20132 Exposure adjustment in Lightroom.\u00a0 And here are the results.<\/p>\n

\"exp-corr\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the left is the 0 ev image and on the right is the +2 ev image.\u00a0 You can see that this simple Lightroom adjustment of correcting the overexposure results in three images that are very similar in overall tonality.\u00a0 But if you compare the 0 ev (left) image to the +1 and +2 images you can see that there is more contrast in the +1 and even more contrast in the +2.\u00a0 Already it\u2019s apparent that the +1 and +2 images are better ones to work with.<\/p>\n

Lightroom Step 2<\/h2>\n

The next step I want to show you is one I do at the start of my workflow \u2013 set a black point.\u00a0 Yep, I have a blog post for that too\u2026.<\/p>\n

Making a Photograph \u2013 Black and White Points<\/a><\/p>\n

I set the black point on all three images by adjusting the Blacks slider in Lightroom.\u00a0 They each required different amounts of adjustment but the resulting black points were identical.<\/p>\n

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

If you scroll back and forth between the previous and current photographs you\u2019ll see that there\u2019s more definition to the 0 ev image but not enough to make it stand out.\u00a0 The other two images gained even more definition and the +2 ev image is starting to look noticeably better than the +1 image.<\/p>\n

Lightroom Step 3<\/h2>\n

One of the great adjustments in Lightroom these days is Clarity.\u00a0 It basically does local contrast adjustments and it can really make an image spring to life.\u00a0 So the last step was to add +25 Clarity to each of the images.<\/p>\n

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

Again, scroll back and forth between this and the previous image to see the difference.\u00a0 It\u2019s subtle but still very real.\u00a0 And with this final adjustment the results are in.\u00a0 It\u2019s clear that the best image is the +2 ev photograph.\u00a0 It almost looks like the 0 and +1 images are out of focus although if you examine them carefully you\u2019ll see they are not.\u00a0 But the +2 image is much more dramatic.\u00a0 It has good definition in the shadows and highlights.\u00a0 This photograph is not done yet but the +2 ev image is the one I would choose to go forward with.<\/p>\n

Now I can work on getting it to express what I want it to say.\u00a0 I can make it warm and inviting with lots of texture and depth .<\/p>\n

\"big_sur_131107__SM38812-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can soften it to give it an impressionistic effect.<\/p>\n

\"big_sur_131107__SM38812-4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Or I can create a black and white with energy and drama.<\/p>\n

\"big_sur_131107__SM38812-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What I end up doing with it is up to me.\u00a0 But the +2 ev exposure gave me everything I needed to allow me to pursue my creative vision.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h2>\n

To summarize, when your image has a histogram that is well away from the right edge at 0 ev, it is a candidate for expose to the right.\u00a0 Start increasing your exposure (using positive exposure compensation) until the histogram has moved to the right but without highlight clipping.<\/p>\n

Next, in Lightroom the first thing you\u2019ll want to do is reverse the overexposure you applied in your camera by an equal amount using the Exposure adjustment.\u00a0 For example, if you used a +1.7 exposure compensation in your camera you\u2019ll want to use a \u20131.7 Exposure adjustment in Lightroom.<\/p>\n

From that point on you can follow your regular workflow.<\/p>\n

I hope you not only enjoy this technique but it helps you along your way to producing outstanding photographs that express your creative vision.<\/p>\n

\n

If you found this post useful please feel free to share it on Facebook or email it to your friends.<\/p>\n

We do photography workshops.\u00a0 Come on out and join us.\u00a0 Click here to check us out.<\/a><\/p>\n

You can also check out our photography.\u00a0 Click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

(2371)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Expose to the Right – put it to the test by creating and comparing actual images.<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[281,4,273],"tags":[300,371,373,1003,672,860,36,332,266,198,996,279,543,47,800,1222,1221,506,26,13,48,1220,995,127,46,93],"class_list":["post-3088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expoure","category-how-to-articles","category-lightroom-how-to-articles-articles","tag-big-sur","tag-black-point","tag-blacks","tag-clarity","tag-clipping","tag-darkroom","tag-digital","tag-expose-to-the-right","tag-exposure","tag-exposure-compensation","tag-highlight","tag-histogram","tag-image","tag-lightroom","tag-old-coast-road","tag-over-expose","tag-overexpose","tag-photo","tag-photograph","tag-photography","tag-photoshop","tag-redwood","tag-shadow","tag-tonality","tag-workflow","tag-workshop"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-NO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088","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=3088"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4667,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3088\/revisions\/4667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}