MAXIMISE LIGHTING SUCCESS

The adage ‘expose to the right’ holds true when capturing files in poor light for later post-production

When we seek to enhance the light in our files, it’s often because the existing light is dull, drab and murky. If there’s not a lot of contrast or colour, the landscape can look a little grey and lifeless.

There can be some good news if you are shooting in uninspiring light, however. If the scene is relatively low in contrast, due to overcast or shadowy conditions, this low-contrast light can be easily captured by our camera sensors, without losing important tonal information in the highlights and shadows. However, keep an eye on the histogram to ensure that what you are capturing is optimised for later use in post.

If you rely on automatic metering, cameras generally place these dull tones in the middle of the histogram and darker tones to the left. Often there isn’t much in terms of lighter tones to worry about. Later, in post-production, we may need to turn the darker tones into lighter ones to enhance the light.

However, if these dull and drab tones are underexposed (too dark), it may not be possible to lighten them up in post-production without ending up with excessive amounts of noise or banding, which are generally not attractive at all. Depending on your camera, its sensor, the ISO setting and the exposure, shadows don’t always lighten up very well, simply because there isn’t enough information recorded in the first place. If we want to end up with lighter tones, it is much better to start with lighter tones in the first place (because they contain more information). We can easily make a light file darker (provided you have been careful not to lose detail in the highlights), but we can’t as easily make a dark file lighter.

The basic technique for all image capture when you plan to edit a file is to have the lightest exposure possible, but of course without overexposing (clipping) the highlights. If this isn’t possible, take two or more exposures of the landscape, one with the highlights correctly exposed and a second that is much lighter, so if we want to lighten the shadows of the scene in post-production, we can do so and still retain good image quality.

If you take lighter exposures, the image might look bright on your camera’s LCD, but don’t worry about this, as you can control the overall exposure in post-production. If you know you are going to be processing your images in considerable detail, always keep this firmly in mind when shooting. Focus on visualising the end result, ahead of the LCD.

Right MAKE GOOD LIGHT BETTER

If you already have great light, don’t be satisfied with what your camera captures – use adjustment layers to enhance what is already there