How to ‘expose to the right’

Maximise the detail in your Raw data with this professional technique

IF YOU’RE NOT familiar with the term ‘exposing to the right’ (ETTR), despite sounding like something you could get arrested for doing, it is actually a Raw-only technique designed to help you maximise image quality. The principle is to push your image’s exposure as far towards overexposure as possible, without clipping highlight areas. You do this by increasing the exposure length until the majority of pixels are grouped to the right of the histogram’s mid-point – with the brightest pixels nuzzled to the far right. While ETTR images look awful initially – too bright and lacking in contrast, and require more time, thought and effort to process – the final result is an image boasting more tonal information and smoother tonal transitions. Most digital sensors have a usable dynamic range…

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The Photographers’ Guide to AdobePhotoshop & Lightroom (Digital) - 1 Issue, The photographers__ Guide to Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom 2015

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