I can see where he is coming from. I do street photography with a contrasty B&W image in mind. In street photography there isn't time to carefully meter the scene so underexposing instead of metering to preserve the highlights is the way to go. In processing I will darken the dark tones further. In this context I think his methods are perfectly acceptable and It is the final image that counts, not theoretically "best practice"
Hi,
What kind of exposure metering do you use that needs 2-3 stops of deliberate
underexposure only to preserve the highlights??? Exposure corrections on my camera are usually dialed in as minus 1/3rd or 2/3rd EV if highlights need protection, if on auto exposure.
A competent photographer can also get great results with manual exposure, but you need time to think ahead, and lighting conditions that do not fluctuate a lot.
I got the impression that Cole, despite proper (?) exposure metering, still underexposes to pre-visualize the image as it would look after postprocessing. That's very odd for someone with experience, that he cannot make the mental connection of how his image is going to look when he takes it.
Besides, after he took the shot, the exposure is frozen already, so how does he know how to
underexpose (did he measure it beforehand?), or is it a permanent -EV correction? If it's permanent, then how is it helping him to
pre-visualize after the fact?
It simply sounds like poor technique to me.
Cheers,
Bart