Expose To The Right

[boku]

[font color=\'#000000\']Do you shoot RAW files or only JPEG? "Exposing to the right" is intended to be a technique to maximize the amount of information available in the file for image construction in the computer. If all you do with that camera is make JPEGs, you would be best advised to get the exposure correct "in camera" so that tonal values are rendered to your satisfaction. Without RAW, you don't have the luxury of creating image files on a computer. They are already being created in the camera and being compressed, sharpened, and being adjusted for contrast, saturation, and white balance. "Exposing to the right" under these conditions might lead to sending biased information to the JPEG conversion algorithms in the camera.

To sum it up: exposing to the right is the luxury afforded those who shoot RAW. I believe the G2 shoots raw, if so, then exposing to the right is a credible technique. Look at your histogram after you shoot a picture and, if needed, adjust the exposure compensation as Michael described in the article and retake the shot.

All of this is my opinion of course. But if JPEGS were my output, I would make very sure that the exposure setting would produce an acceptable image right out of the camera.[/font]

[gigastar]

[font color=\'#000000\']Thank you for your reply,
I am presently shooting in Raw mode , I seem to be having a real hard time getting the proper histogram reading with my G2. I have just also discovered that there are a few dead pixels on my sensor. Wish me luck in my pursuit of the perfect Histogram. Terry[/font]

[gigastar]

[font color=\'#000000\']I recently read Micheal's article on exposing to the right, I own a Canon G2 and would like to know if it is actually attainable with this camera .[/font]

[Jack Flesher]

[font color=\'#000000\']I think Bob has given you some pretty decent advice.  

However, IMO even jpegs can bennefit -- to a degree -- from exposing to the right.  The basic concept is to get as much information or image data into the histogram as is possible.  And the easiest way to do this is to not leave a lot of "empty" space at the right as that can keep information supressed at the left end. Hence expose to the right.

HOWEVER, many in-camera histograms are not entirely accurate and if you expose too far to the right you can begin to clip one of the channels and it may not show.  If this happens, many of the issues Bob raised will crop up.  Hence my advice is to generally expose to the right, but leave a bit of room at the edge as insurance.  In this fashion, you will now have optimized your image's overall DR -- even with a jpeg.  

Now that you have more tone information, you can decide what to do with it after the fact with Contrast, HSB or Curves adjustments.

Cheers,
Jack[/font]

[BJL]

[font color=\'#000000\']One more point for Bob Kulon's idea that when you "expose to the right", you probably should also shoot raw: postprocessing is inevitable.

Exposing to the right inherently involves a non-standard exposure level, usually overexposure. So to get a good final image for printing or on-screen display, you then have to do some post-processing; at least adjustment of "brightness". At that point, you might as well be using raw, and start those adjustments as part of raw conversion. For one thing, raw conversion makes it easier to use options like contrast changes or setting of the black and white points.[/font]