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© 2004, Glenn E. Mitchell II, Ph.D.The Light’s Right Studio
My photography extends back to the years before digital cameras. The advice for nature and landscape photographers was to underexpose by 1/3 to 1/2 stop, especially if they shot slide film. A slight underexposure would add “pop” by increasing saturation and contrast.
Michael Reichmann, the force behind theThe Luminous Landscape, recommends a different strategy for digital photography. He urges photographers to “expose to the right” and his advice has recently become pervasive in Web tutorials and printed articles. For the uninitiated, expose to the right involves overexposure. The idea is to use the histogram on the digital camera and overexpose just to the point that highlights are not burned out. The benefit is reduced noise, especially in the shadows. Lots of photographers get excellent results with this technique.

Figure 1. When you “Expose to the Right,” you risk burning...

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Michael Reichmann
Michael Reichmann
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Michael Reichmann is the founder of the Luminous Landscape. Michael passed away in May 2016. Since its inception in 1999 LuLa has become the world's largest site devoted to the art, craft, and technology of photography. Each month more than one million people from every country on the globe visit LuLa.
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