Expose for quality

Capturing a well-exposed file is about more than just image brightness

We can control how much light contacts the sensor by altering the shutter speed and aperture size. A well-exposed image demonstrates a balance of the ratio, but it is possible to tip this further in our favour by overexposing slightly, to increase the amount of light harvested. This benefits both noise presence and colour reproduction, with richer tones and smoother gradation of hues in flatter image areas, such as the sky. The technique, known as ‘shooting to the right’ – a reference to the weighting of an image histogram to the right side – can be a difficult concept to adopt, as intentionally exposing ‘incorrectly’ may seem like an alien concept. However, while the shooting-to-theright technique requires us to pull back the exposure in RAW processing, it is essential to recognise that too much overexposure can also negatively impact image quality. Once a pixel is saturated with light it no longer produces data, so will show up as pure white. Highlights blown in this way cannot be rescued in software.