ETTR in photography
ETTR means Exposure To The Right, and it’s a technique in order to get properly exposed photographs.
It can be used in any photography style: Street, landscape, portraits…
The key is not only to rely on the camera’s light meter, but to check the histogram to make sure that the exposure will use all the sensor’s dynamic range.
How to apply ETTR?
Whenever you are shooting, check the histogram of your photograph to make sure that the highlights are captured but none of the pixels are burnt.
The theory is based on the idea that we can recover dark parts of a photograph, but it is impossible to get information from burnt pixels; therefore the trick is to expose the image as bright as possible without burning any pixel.
So, how do we know when we are exposing it to the brightest? Of course, checking the histogram:
How to read the histogram?
The histogram shows the dark pixels on the left and the brightest ones on the right. In this example, we can see that the photograph could have been brighter, as there are no “very bright” pixels (because of the gap in the right side).
If you are shooting and your live view shows the histogram, you will be able to adjust the exposure in order to fill this gap. You can use the exposure control or change the speed or the aperture in order to achieve this.
Otherwise, if your camera cannot show the histogram in the live view, you can most of the time check it after you have taken the picture, so you can adjust the exposure for the next one.
This is very useful specially for landscape photography, where we have time enough to check and adjust the parameters until we get the perfect shot.
If you are practicing street, it is good the check the last few pictures to see how your pictures are being exposed. You may realize that your camera is underexposing and adjust accordingly.
Is it everything clear? Don’t forget, always Expose To The Right!
