Photography Tip: Exposing to the Right (ETTR)

Exposing to the Right (ETTR)

One photography tip that has made a difference in some of my shots is something called Exposing to the Right (ETTR). The main way I use this technique is to bring out the details in the shadow areas of an image. Although ETTR can result in a slightly overexposed image, darkening that image in post processing will result in a more detailed image, especially in the darker areas, which would otherwise have little detail if exposing “correctly”. Let’s look at an example:

Here are two different exposures of the same scene: one shot with a “normal” exposure (left), and the one from above (+1.0EV, then darkened; right). Below each, I’ve zoomed in to the dark rocky area on the left. You should be able to see the difference in the details:

Now let’s brighten both zoomed-in images and take a closer look. You should be able to see increased noise (graininess) in the darker areas on the left image:

The differences between the two might be subtle, but looking at the whole photograph hopefully you can see the texture that we can get by using ETTR. Camera sensors have gotten pretty good at detecting details in the darker areas of an image, so ETTR isn’t something that is as widely used as it used to be. But there are times when using it will give a nicer image!

How to Expose to the Right

Using this technique is easiest if you have a histogram display in your viewfinder. You can still do it if you don’t have it, just by increasing the exposure value (EV). Typically this is done by lengthening shutter speed, although you can widen your aperture and/or increase your ISO setting as well. A few of my photographs have a positive EV, for example: +1.0 EV. This means that I exposed the photograph for an additional stop of light, making the scene brighter. It’s important to note that depending on your metering method and shooting mode, adjusting the EV will result in different exposures. Let’s go over how to read histograms before going over some examples.

Histograms and Clipping

The histogram display in your viewfinder can tell you a lot about the tones of your shot. Especially if you can display a red-green-blue (RGB) histogram. You will be able to see the contributions of the tones (or RGB colors) to your image. To read a histogram on your camera, darker tones (or “shadows”) appear to the left, mid-tones are in the center, and lighter tones (or “highlights“) are to the right.

RGB histograms really help when photographing scenes with many colors or a high dynamic range. Basically, the more your histogram peaks are to the right, the more brightness you have in a particular shot. Likewise, the more your histogram peaks are to the left, the more darkness you have in a particular shot. Clipping occurs when the histogram is hugging either side. This means that you probably lost detail in either the shadows or highlights in the scene. This helps a lot in composing an image.

Grayscale Histogram Examples

Here are some examples of images and their corresponding grayscale histograms to illustrate this. As the scene gets brighter, the histogram moves to the right. In the last image, there is a bit of clipping in the highlights.

RGB Histogram Examples

In this next set of images, I’ve included the RGB histograms associated with each exposure. As you look through the images, pay attention to the contribution of red, green, and blue colors to the histogram. Since the scene is mostly green, increasing the exposure will affect the green portion of the histogram the most. Likewise, since there are hardly any blue hues, increasing the exposure does not affect the blue portion of the histogram much.

If you are trying to compose a scene that has a wide range of colors, using the RGB histogram can ensure that as you change the exposure you are not clipping certain colors. Likewise, depending on the hue of the subject-of-interest, you can adjust the exposure to bring out, or tone down, that color accordingly.

Of course, this technique should only be used when you feel like your photograph can benefit from it. If you don’t want the details in the shadows to come out, for the sake of mood or something else, then I wouldn’t suggest exposing to the right.

The next time you’re out shooting, you should give ETTR a shot and let me know how it worked!

As usual, comments, conversations, feedback, and messages are always welcome!