ETTR (Expose To The Right)

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MattKing

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Is there a question?
 

koraks

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I assume this is about ETTR in the sense of Expose To The Right. If so, then we will never be able to draw any conclusions form these small jpegs. The whole concept of ETTR revolves around optimizing signal-to-noise ratio, which means you'll have to compare the noise in these samples to be able to determine whether there's a difference to them. One way you could do that is to load both images in your raw converter, take a shadow area (e.g. some tree foliage) and boost its contrast. It's essential in doing the comparison that the effective exposure as seen on-screen is the same for both images (so you'll have to dial in a negative exposure compensation on the ETTR frame), and that the contrast boost you apply to make the noise visible is the same. At this point you could even do quantitative analysis on the noise, but I assume that a qualitative assessment (a.k.a. eyeballing) will be sufficient for your purposes.

Btw, there are distinct differences in white balance between the images you posted in #1; that's not a good basis for comparison. Also, the photos in #1 and #2 are pretty dark; I assume you've run these through a RAW converter to adjust the exposure - if so, your monitor may be set too bright or your viewing conditions were very dark, resulting in a bias towards underexposure in the final/processed images. That's just a side note, but if you're in the process of splitting hairs w.r.t. image noise, then maybe the first place to start is to get the basics right. Learn to walk before you try to run, and all that.

Finally, to cut a long story short, in practice there's very little benefit to ETTR for general photography using a reasonably modern camera. You can save yourself a lot of time by just exposing for the highlights on a digital camera and call it good. In practice, that boils down to exposing to the right as much as you can afford anyway. Then in your RAW converter, adjust exposure and contrast to suit your vision for the image.
 
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Thank you for that explanation.
You’re right by describing those JEPGs as useless for any conclusions. The RAW DNG files show much more information.
My obsolete MAC desktop is unable to download anything that incorporates a RAW converter, which I prefer!
I’m trying to make photography as simple as I can since I’m not a rocket scientist…
 
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Thought I’d share this image in Tuscany…

It’s called the Leica Look because you’re looking at a image created by a Leica…
 

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Andreas Thaler

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Thanks for presenting!

ETTR is based on the fact that a digital camera stores more information in the bright areas than in the dark areas.

Therefore, it makes sense to adjust the exposure to the key highlights in the image. This can help to better differentiate the shadows and give you more flexibility when editing the image.

You can also use the zone system as a guide and place the key highlights, i.e. the bright areas of the subject that should still appear fully defined, in Zone VII.

You meter this area using spot meter mode, thus obtaining the exposure values for Zone V (middle) gray and correcting them with +2 EV (e.g. using the camera's override).

This makes optimal use of the camera's dynamic range, although this obviously doesn't help to prevent excessive contrast.

See

 
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