Exposing for detail, highlights vs. shadow?

I was taught to expose for the shadows and print for the highlights, but that was with film. Does the same go for digital? I've been shooting digitial for a bit now, but my photos have been off, and recently I was wondering if that is my problem.

I think of it more as exposing for the best image file and editing to get the result I want.

A prevailing theory in digital photography is that you get more color information/detail (and less noise) in the higher/brighter end of the spectrum. So to get as much detail as possible, you would want to bias your exposure to the bright side. This gives you a better image file to work on. Basically it's maximizing the signal to noise ratio. Of course, you want to avoid overexposing parts that you don't want to loose detail in.

With digital, a great tool is the histogram display...and this method is often called 'Expose to the Right' because the right side of the histogram is the brighter side. The idea is to set your exposure to give you a histogram that bias toward the right (for the parts of the image that you care about). You want it to be 'to the right'...but not clipped by the edge of the graph...as that might mean blown out and loss of detail.

I've heard both sides-- some people are ferocious in their argument that you should expose for the highlights to avoid clipping. My experience has been that when in doubt, shoot right is the best way to go about it because shadow noise is worse than white highlights in my opinion.

Thanks for the advice.

Sfood78 wrote: I was taught to expose for the shadows and print for the highlights, but that was with film.

That is for negative film. You expose for the shadows because underexposure means clear film and no recoverable detail. Technically you could recover detail from over-exposed highlights by burning or masking during the printing process.

For positive film you would do the opposite as it's the highlights that are clear film.

Digital has the problem at both ends. You can end up with no recoverable detail both at the shadow end and the highlight end. Fortunately with a tool like the histogram it's easy to see if you are getting into trouble on either side of the tonal scale. I recommend a strategy more like the Zone System. Be aware of the difference between important shadow detail and important highlight detail, and place Zone V (middle gray) in the middle. For instance if the difference is 5 stops then I would set exposure at 2.5 stops less than what my important shadow details meter at which is the same as 2.5 stops more than what my important highlight details meter at. These days I usually don't have to meter them both, because a quick glance at the histogram of a test shot shows me the tonal range.

If the difference is beyond the dynamic range capability of the camera then either a compromise must be made or other techniques used: add light to shadows, use grad ND filter to reduce highlight exposure, or the numerous methods involving multiple exposures, local contrast adjustment, masking, etc...

I follow the expose to the right school of thought, but I only shoot raw. It's better to darken than to lighten because there are many more tonal steps at the highlight end than the shadow end. Lightening a photo decreases signal to noise ratio and can cause posterization in the shadows. Darkening a photo increases signal to noise ratio. The higher the signal to noise ratio the less noise is apparent.

I'm not sure that ETTR works as well if you are shooting jpeg. If shooting jpeg I would recommend trying to place the exposure where it is desired in the finished print. Use the histogram to see where your tonal range is falling for a given exposure, and if there are problems at either or both ends make a decision based on your previsualization of the finished photograph. Different photos may have different requirements. I may be willing to put up with some shadow noise in one and blown out highlights in another. Saying that one or the other is better or worse doesn't take into account that the photographer can have different desired outcomes from one photo to the next.