Exposure meter for highlights

alaios

Senior Member
Hi there all,
In the past I was shooting my cameras with matrix metring and compensating the exposure as I needed to (plus or minus). The d750 camera has a massive dynamic range and I have found that what also works lovely is to expose for the highlights (with a bit of plus... so you loose only a tiny bit) and then in post recover marvelously the shadow areas.

Did anyone else tried such technique?
Regards
Alex
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Hi there all,
In the past I was shooting my cameras with matrix metring and compensating the exposure as I needed to (plus or minus). The d750 camera has a massive dynamic range and I have found that what also works lovely is to expose for the highlights (with a bit of plus... so you loose only a tiny bit) and then in post recover marvelously the shadow areas.

Did anyone else tried such technique?
Regards
Alex
That's called ETTR, or "Expose To The Right".

In all fairness and like just about any theory, or pretty much anything photography-related for that matter, the concept has its detractors.

That being said, I use it whenever I can and find it works extraordinarily well.
 

J-see

Senior Member
I used highlight metering on my D750 and always on my D810 except for night photography. That combined with ISOless shooting ensures I never blow my highlights while maximizing my light intake.
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
OK I am not fortunate enough to be a D750 shooter so take this from whence it comes.

Whenever i shoot I try to analyse what my camera sees and how it interprets it. On an overall bright scene for example it will tend to underexpose so i will ETTR whereas on a darker scene it will overexpose and I will compensate by ETTL. It doesn't always work but generally my dynamic range is better than what the camera suggests is ideal exposure.

We are after all supposed to be artists so we have a bit of a llicence - that's my belief and I'm sticking to it.
 

singlerosa_RIP

Senior Member
Hi there all,
In the past I was shooting my cameras with matrix metring and compensating the exposure as I needed to (plus or minus). The d750 camera has a massive dynamic range and I have found that what also works lovely is to expose for the highlights (with a bit of plus... so you loose only a tiny bit) and then in post recover marvelously the shadow areas.

Did anyone else tried such technique?
Regards
Alex

yes. I use that technique and it's not limited to the 750.
 

alaios

Senior Member
whx is this exposure for the right? I would think of it mostly like exposure to the left. In matrix metering the camera many times blows out highlights while in exposure metering that protect highlight you pull the burned highlights all the way to the left. Is not that exposure to the left technique?
Alex
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
whx is this exposure for the right? I would think of it mostly like exposure to the left. In matrix metering the camera many times blows out highlights while in exposure metering that protect highlight you pull the burned highlights all the way to the left. Is not that exposure to the left technique?
They call it that because the idea is to push the histogram as far to the right as possible, without clipping the highlights. What you have to do to get to that place because of how the meter is responding to the scene is not really relevant, the concept is the same: push the histogram as far right as you can without clipping.
 
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