SHOOTING TUTORIAL

Maximise shadow detail in your landscape shots using a technique that makes use of the histogram

Want more detail and less noise? Try out the technique of exposing to the right (ETTR) now

Detail in landscape photography is extremely important, and several techniques can be used to enhance it. One that’s all about maximising shadow and tonal detail is exposing to the right (ETTR).

Exposing to the right is a technique where you use the histogram as a guide and expose with the histogram as far over to the right as possible without touching the side and resulting in highlights blowing. What you’re aiming for is the brightest possible image without losing any highlight detail. The image is then darkened during RAW processing so the overall exposure is correct, but since the exposure was bright this means you can lighten shadows to maintain detail without introducing noise and reducing tonal detail.

To make the most out of exposing to the right, you need to shoot in RAW and ideally at the base ISO of your camera, which is usually ISO 100 and provides the largest dynamic range possible. This means that more detail between the shadows and highlights can be captured, but you may still need to use ND grads to maintain sky detail in a high contrast scene.

Exposing to the right looks and feels wrong at the point of shooting because the image on the LCD screen will look brighter than if you used the ‘correct’ exposure, and this can be a little disconcerting at first. But once the image is being edited and exposure adjusted, the image will look perfect on top of maximising detail in darker tones.

1 SHOOTING MODE

Choose aperture priority or manual mode so exposure compensation can be applied without adjusting the aperture. For aperture priority, add positive exposure compensation; reduce shutter speed in manual.

2 COMPOSE THE SHOT

Compose the shot and use the virtual horizon in Live View to help ensure the shot is level on the horizontal axis. Once happy, change the LCD view mode to show the histogram to assess exposure.

3 USE FILTERS

Attach camera to tripod and use ND grad or ND filters as required. For this scene, a polariser was used to increase saturation and to reduce shine on leaves, while a 4-stop soft ND grad balanced exposure.

4 CAMERA SETTINGS

Shoot with standard landscape settings such as ISO 100 with the aperture at f/11. Looking at the histogram in this view mode, we can see there’s lots of space on the right-hand side of the histogram where we can increase exposure.

5 ADJUST EXPOSURE

If shooting in aperture priority, add positive exposure compensation until the histogram is close to the right-hand side but not touching it. If shooting in manual mode, you’ll need to increase shutter speed to lighten the image.

6 ADJUST EXPOSURE IN LIGHTROOM

Usually, when exposing to the right you would at this stage reduce exposure to darken the image so it looks correct. In this misty and light-toned scene, however, the exposure has been brightened to maintain a natural look.