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Conventional photographic wisdom suggests that you should avoid over exposure at all cost. Roasting highlights, we're told, can't be recovered and your picture will be irrevocably ruined.
And of course there is a lot of sense in such advice. But should we take this advice with a pinch of salt in the digital domain?
Below are two shots of the same scene taken within a fraction of a second. One was taken 2/3rds of a stop under the camera's metered normal exposure and one was taken 2/3rds of a stop over the ideal exposure. That's a separation of 1.3 stops.
Using the camera RAW files, I have manually normalised the images as best I could in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, using exposure, highlight recovery, and black level adjustments only. The results were re-sized and exported (sRGB colour space) for upload to my DPNow gallery.
[URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/17024][img]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data//766/P6120687.jpg[/img][/url]"][COLOR=#000000][URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/17024"][IMG]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data//766/P6120687.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/COLOR][/URL]
Image 1 (above)
[URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/17025][img]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data//766/P6120690.jpg[/img][/url]"][COLOR=#000000][URL="http://dpnow.com/galleries/showphoto.php/photo/17025"][IMG]http://dpnow.com/galleries/data//766/P6120690.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/COLOR][/URL]
Image 2 (above)
I'll reveal the answers in my next blog update and discuss why over-exposing slightly might be preferable to under-exposing for safety.
jo
Its scenes with very hard light & high contrast that will perhaps benefit to underexposure to save the highlights. In any case as Stephen suggest what is correct exposure anyway. When I studied the Ansel Adams zone system it very soon became evident correct exposure was what the photographer chose correct exposure to be. Putting zone 5 where he or she wanted. Its still a good maxim in contrasty light to ensure highlight detail by under exposure, shadow can usually be retrieved. In very contrasty lighting I often underexpose by as much as two stops, although now I have invested in a Cokin Z pro filter system I will use graduated neutral density filter 2 stop or 4 stop, for landscapes and expose more for the foreground. Getting it correct in camera or as close as possible is another good maxim, or at least what is right for you.
Patrick