This is the best explanation of exposing to the right. An added way I could describe it is that white is every color added together and black is none. So more color information is in the right
This was not only your most informative video, it was one of the most informative videos I have watched on TH-cam in an extremely long time. I loved the way you broke this down and explained it.
Also, a good thing to keep in mind is the histogram is based on the JPEG preview, so you do actually have a little wiggle room if you do blow out a few highlights, but this depends also on how blown out they are. But if you don't see much or any highlights, you're in good shape (sometimes if you have a little small area that's blown out on the blinkies screen, if you're shooting RAW you can often times get those highlights back because the RAW file contains more data than the JPEG). But I would still strive for no blinkies / highlight warning in the preview because that will ensure you don't have any blown highlights.
Sometimes Nick, you betray the fact, not only are you a creative person but intelligent as well. That's a wicked good combination. When left brain and right brain get together you get a beautiful mind.
This is one of those vids that I save off, so I can watch it several times. All the way up to the parking lot, right before I step out for my shoot, haha. Great info sir. Thank you.
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This is the first time I've heard about how ISO 50 worked. I've been shooting all my photos at ISO 50... Well thankfully now I know. Better change it now then never. Great tips Nick. Thank you.
Remember though, the optimum iso is not always 100. For instance, the optimum iso for most professional cameras in the Nikon lineup has been 64 for the past 5 or 6 years at least, including D810, D850 and the Z lineup of cameras. But the same principles that Nick talks about do apply of course. Just not at the same numbers.
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@@freetibet1000 I'm using the Sony fullframe system. Thanks for the heads up tho. If I ever change systems I'll have to keep that in mind.
@ Great! It helps to know what the optimum iso is for the actual camera model we use, not just the camera brand. For instance, not all Nikon cameras have iso 64 as the base iso either. And in the future this is likely to change for all camera brands and particular models again.
ISO 50 gives you cleaner photos with more color depth at the expense of dynamic range. ISO 100 gives you maximum dynamic range but more grain. You should use ISO 100 for scenes with more extreme cases in shadows and highlights and use ISO 50 for "flatter" photos, or photos where you can bracket. I still use ISO 50 more often than ISO 100 for the color definition, but I expose them to the middle and not the right. I don't know how much color loss ISO 50 has on the edges of the histogram, but you can always be safe and take a shot in ISO 50 and one at ISO 100 as a backup, or vice versa. The great thing about digital is that we don't have to stick to one ISO. When I'm not sure and I can't bracket, I take both ISOs
@@rauldeandrade Could you link a source of where you got this info? As far as I'm aware, ISO 50 wont give you any added benefit other than a lower exposure.
Expose to the right and Ignore the meter, just use the histogram and highlight alert, even if the image on the screen doesn't look right - that might just be the most life-changing advice I've been given in many years of photography. Can't wait start trying this.
Not only are your images awesome, but the way you explain things is straightforward, clear, and easy to understand for most anyone. Bravo! It’s things like this that make me want to sign up for a workshop with you when that sort of thing starts up again.
Best exposure tip I have ever heard about putting the bulk your histogram in the highlight segment. I have been doing this for yours without articulating it the way you did here. Watching the histogram spread out when you adjust your highlights and shadows made the lights come on as to why I do what I do from years of trial and error.
Nick's video tutorials on exposure blending from his website are the best there are (the only ones I actually understand!). He also shows some great techniques for dodging and burning using luminosity masks, which I now use all the time. I highly recommend them, and this video is a great introduction. Great stuff.
Yep, really good solid technique. Where I live the weather is often unpredictable from one minute to another were everything changes so fast. Over the years I have become to understand that my real subject matter is movement within the landscape. Movement of light, shadow, weather and material forms, and so I have learnt to incorporate all of that into my exposure technique and routines, often making hundreds exposures of a scene in camera using a tripod. Sometimes I will ISO bracket from 200 to 6400 so as to get a grainy crunchy feel to the extreme shadows, and what helps further on in post production is to leave sharpness and noise reduction switched off.
Another way to align layers - set the blend mode of the top layer to "Difference." When not aligned, you'll see outlines of everything. When aligned, static objects will go completely black. It's VERY easy to see. When aligned, reset the blend mode to whatever is suitable for your plan for the image. Lighting the inside of the plane - Awesome!
Another good technique is to do nothing in LR or ACR other than export to PSCC creating smart objects. You can then use auto-align, turn them into smart objects and take them back into ACR to do whatever you have to.
6 or 5.5years ago, I watched one of your vids for the first time, and you showed me the wonderful world of astrophotography. (6 months after i bought my SL1) along with Rokinon lenses. I am just now at this level to where i need and must learn this, and your explination are always understandable, clean, and precise. I have pugilistica dementia. Obtaining new info is difficult a lot of times, BUT all your teachings have begun to enter my long term memory, and my photography has skyrocket overnight. Many people ask me what camera did i upgrade to, and i love telling them that its my SL1. I always boast your channel. Thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge with the world sir! 😊 Much Love From Iowa 😁
This is, for sure, one of your best free instructional videos to date. Almost touching the premium level I would say. Even if one could figure out a lot of this by sheer trial and error, it is far better to have this information in the back of your head once you are out in the field, than finding out afterwards during post, with lower quality material to work with. Possibly spoiling an image that could be potentially awesome. Thanks a lot Nick! The content and your personality keeps your channel on a solid first place.
A great vlog, Nick! I use Zebra warning rather than "blinkies" or the histogram for ETTR. One reason is that the blinkies seem to kick in before *true* blowout occurs in the raw file (somewhere below 240 out of a possible 255), presumably because it is assessing values in the jpeg rendition rather than the raw file. So I would suggest using a *custom* Zebra setting to about 108 on the Sony. I find that at that setting the Zebra warning kicks in at just below *true* highlight blowout. (I got this idea from Mark Galer's channel, btw.) I also prefer this method to examining the histogram which is not so easy to use on the Sony because it is kinda small. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this approach.
This is why i like using Capture One Pro..i can take a single image with the foreground exposing for the shadows and mask the sky and use luma range to recover the bright sky. Its super esy and i can stay in C1 to finish editing. All great things to keep in mind when shooting...thanks Nick.
Excellent video Nick! First time I've heard about dual-processing an image, but that makes so much sense. I've just arrived here from F4 Road Trip, and this is the first time in ages that I've binged a TH-cam channel. Your images are sickeningly good 🙂 Just beautiful. It also means a lot that you like everyone's comments. I'm sure other TH-camrs read (at least some of) our comments, but it's really good to see it explicitly.
Thanks Nick! This is by far the clearest explanation and set of directions and procedures I have found about this subject of exposure control. Just wonderfully clear and so very helpful.
Fantastic tutorial Mr Page ,been watching a lot of your videos over these last couple of weeks ,excellent . I'm new to photoshop and I'm finding it very daunting and I appreciate your videos so much . On a side note ,I normally loathe background music but I found your choice of music and volume level was perfection Sir ...
Nick you kind of touched on this when you mentioned the 5Dm3 but I think something incredibly important to this entire lesson is your results will vary based on what camera you are using, specifically how new it is. As you pointed out shadow recovery has gotten so much better in the last couple of years allowing us to expose for highlights and recover shadows a lot more than in the past. However for any of your viewers who might be shooting on mid/low range cameras or older cameras they might not experience the same abilities you were able to showcase here.
I think (I have never found technical documentation confirming) ISO 50 focuses the exposure curve and bit depth to the left at the expense of dynamic range and bit depth in the highlights. In practice I've always found ISO 50 cleaner as far as noise and with richer color depth exposing to the middle or to the left. This is why I bracket at ISO 50. Your photo of ISO 50 with color shift in the highlights is very interesting and something I've never noticed in my shots. I really wish there was more technical information on how the sensors work so we can better choose settings that better fit a given use case. Thank you so much for the wonderful video as always, you have a trove of information to share and I'm always grateful learning new things from you as well as the wonderful scenery. Keep it up :D
Dude can I just say that this video was the most helpful advice I have ever received for photography in a very long time. I went out to do seascape shooting recently and instead of exposing -1 EV like I normally do, I used ETTR and just took a separate shot for the highlights in the sky. The RAWs came out so much better. Thank you for putting together this video.
Hi Nick: The information contained in this video, is without doubt the best explanation of when to use Exposure Blending vs. ETTR. This has been extremely helpful. Cheers, Keith (Canada)
You have clarified this whole area for me Nick, I often bracket when there is moving objects like trees and then struggle to blend the images. I know better now, thanks.
This video ia a real public service, since so few people seem to understand the great revolution in digital sensor design in the past 12 years. I might suggest that people try a variation on bracketing. Take the simple case where you need only, say, three extra stops. Take one image, exposed to the right. Make a copy with three stops of exposure gain. Then set your sharpening and noise reduction separately for each copy. This will give either grainier or less-sharp deep shadows. However the images will almost exactly register since they are copies.
I feel like I know most all of this but I still watch cause you are so good and entertaining at it lol. And i know a good amount now largely because of you! Thanks for all you do brotha!!
I love the selective blending, I have just used "hdr merge" in the past but this makes me want to redo those images with your approach. thanks for the education.
I've tested it myself using 5D Mark III. You can blow up your highlight in raw a little bit, because the warning is only for the jpg. By pulling down the highlight in post, you will recover those details as well
Very clear explanations Nick and picked up some tips. Oh...I suspect nearly EVERYONE has heard of Squarespace, they seem to sponsor nearly every photographer on TH-cam! Merry Christmas from the UK, Stay safe.
This was a brilliant video done in such a subtle way. I learned more than I want to admit too. For almost a year I bracketed all the time. Lately I have stopped bracketing for everything but the situations you pointed out. However when I didn't bracket I did not ETTR because I did not understand it in the way you just taught it. This brought together a lot of things I have learned in a succinct way. Using luminosity masks as a selection to paint in the detail from another image really helped me understand how the two concepts differentiate. I think this video is going to help a lot of people become better photographers. Thank you Nick.
Ah Nick, I didn’t know how much I’d missed hearing “it’s going to act like a stencil”. It’s time to get back to those PS courses for a refresher. Great video, man, thanks.
Awesome vid Nick. I use ETTR for astro, but have never really considered it for other shots. Really good stuff. Technical, but not too technical. Anyone else mesmerized by the live audio meter behind Nick as well?
Lot's of great tips in this video. As someone who shot primarily transparency film back in the day, I was familiar with "exposing for the highlights" but did not realize how this affected the digital sensor. Thank you for explaining that Nick.
Yes, back in the days when I was shooting film positives I had a habit of intentionally underexpose 2/3 - 1 1/3 for best results. That is usually not such a good idea in the digital world of today though.
Excellent! It is not long ago that one of your TH-cam persr with a similar number of followers included ETTR in a list of the top ten most unhelpful pieces of advice he recieved when starting out because modern cameras allowed effective shadow recovery. Your point about data is well made I am amazed that people who would be appalled at the thought of a 50% decrease in the speed of their internet connection are happy to throw away 50% of the data in an image by deliberately under exposing by one stop.
Nick!! others are saying it and I'll say it again.,. this was by far one of the best, most information dense, yet easy to take in videos. I have so much work to do. Thank you thank you thank you
Woah! I gotta say man, jaded ol' me learned quite a bit from this video. Mind a bit blown with the bit about iso50 vs iso100. I'm shooting on an A7iii and just always figured that the lower the iso, the better, but you just helped me make complete sense of why I often select my shots at 100 or 200 rather than the ones at 50 or 64.
This was one of the best explanations of bracketing and exposing to the right I have ever seen/heard. The visuals absolutely helped. Also, Very few people that I talk to -even those that have been shooting for a really long time, pay any attention to what is the "native" or "base" ISO for their camera. Tons of landscape photographers go down to 50 ISO if they can, believing that this gives them the best image quality. You are the first to really point that error out. Most excellent video. You are an excellent teacher:)
Thank you so much Valerie... its one of those that only the most nerdy among us dare to try and unpack and talk about I think. Much easier to just record a top five tips video instead haha
The optimum iso is not always 100. For instance, the optimum iso for most professional cameras in the Nikon lineup has been 64 for the past 5 or 6 years at least, including D810, D850 and the Z lineup of cameras. But the same principles that Nick talks about do apply of course. Just not at the same numbers.
Thanks Nick, super helpful. Soo great getting this level of detail and the multiple examples really make it clear. Definitely learned a few things here.
Nick, outstanding video. Thanks for reviewing these topics. Not only a super refresher, your explanation of the histogram and ETTR is the best I've heard. And since we're in the snow season back East, dynamic range goes through the roof. Your tutorial will help immensely!! Gerry
Great one! I was very stuck with exposing the same way as did with analog cameras and film. Started discovering of ETTR last summer. But this video really made me understand why. Didn’t know the bit about the iso either. Another analog knot I hade untied here. Thank you
Excellent and very useful video! I am subscribing now! I am trying to compensate a bit the dynamic range limitations of my APS-C camera. The information presented here is exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you!
Very useful overview, thanks, particularly re when to bracket and when not to. Something I’ve been struggling with recently. Bracketing has become my default but produces so many images and I was never sure really how much benefit I was getting.
An excellent instructional video - well explained, detailed enough, and at the right pace for most of us learners to glean all the essentials. I am most grateful to you. Many thanks.
First of your videos I've seen & I enjoyed. However, it must assume use of a tripod or prior understanding about length of exposure. ETTR requires longer exposure, which can introduce blur if hand-holding & is likely why you didn't go all to the right on your telephoto rolling hills shot...I feel you nearly said it. The 3 exposure blend at the end was lovely.
Thank you for sharing that video. The content is realy great and it was pleasure to watch you. Light painting inside of plate - realy cool idea. I have to check your other videos.
Good video Nick. I became disillusioned with luminosity masks a while ago as some of the example I was seeing were creating these muddy images where so much detail was recovered it didn't even look real. They absolutely have their place but I'm glad you pointed to the fact its not a style of photography but rather a tool for specific conditions.
Glad to hear you say that you look at the histogram, ignore the rest. Photography is about feeding light to your digital censor, or your film, people think photography is about manipulating your lens and camera, oh no.
I just bracket all the time. If anything is not good at the blending it is likely that one of my 9 photos would work as an ETTR alone. That increase my possibilities although in the case of trees I did get the movement point. If you have moved objects at the highlights just get a good exposure to the highlights use blending for the shadows instead. Anyway, for me they are not mutual eliminating concepts. Use both at the same case.
A tip: when lining up two PS layers, temporarily set the blend mode on the top layer to "difference." It will make registering them easy. BTW, if I had a choice between background music in the video or silence, I pick silence.
yep I use that blend mode all the time, but I didn't want to get sucked into a rabbit hole about blend modes, I was trying to talk about something else.
Such a great video Nick!! It's taken me years to learn this stuff. One thing for people to keep in mind is that the histograms and highlight warnings in camera are generated from the jpeg previews and not the raw sensor information so you can likely get away with pushing it a bit more than you might think. On my sony a7r iv, I set the highlight clipping to 106 and that has worked really well for me. YMMV though and you will want to test it to see where you actually start clipping your highlights.
I often bracket to get the best beginning image for post processing ... but it is amazing just how much range is actually capture in one image. As indicated by others, I hardly need to use multiple images to bracket for HDR photography.
Fantastic! I have watched a ton of videos while trying to improve my photography and eveyone says expose to the right but no one has ever explained why. Thank you so much for the info and it explains why I have some of the issues I do, I always underexpose in camera cause thats what looks good on the screen 🤦🏼♂️
This is the best explanation of exposing to the right. An added way I could describe it is that white is every color added together and black is none. So more color information is in the right
This was not only your most informative video, it was one of the most informative videos I have watched on TH-cam in an extremely long time. I loved the way you broke this down and explained it.
Wow, it was exactly what I thought through the middle of the video. Nick Page this is my first time seeing you and I'm really glad.
@@likiroki After hearing about ETTR twenty times I still wasn't sure what it meant(not my fault, it was poor explanation). Pretty simple.
Also, a good thing to keep in mind is the histogram is based on the JPEG preview, so you do actually have a little wiggle room if you do blow out a few highlights, but this depends also on how blown out they are. But if you don't see much or any highlights, you're in good shape (sometimes if you have a little small area that's blown out on the blinkies screen, if you're shooting RAW you can often times get those highlights back because the RAW file contains more data than the JPEG). But I would still strive for no blinkies / highlight warning in the preview because that will ensure you don't have any blown highlights.
I was there yesterday at Boot Arch , alabama hills !
Sometimes Nick, you betray the fact, not only are you a creative person but intelligent as well. That's a wicked good combination. When left brain and right brain get together you get a beautiful mind.
This is one of those vids that I save off, so I can watch it several times. All the way up to the parking lot, right before I step out for my shoot, haha. Great info sir. Thank you.
This is the first time I've heard about how ISO 50 worked. I've been shooting all my photos at ISO 50... Well thankfully now I know. Better change it now then never. Great tips Nick. Thank you.
Remember though, the optimum iso is not always 100. For instance, the optimum iso for most professional cameras in the Nikon lineup has been 64 for the past 5 or 6 years at least, including D810, D850 and the Z lineup of cameras. But the same principles that Nick talks about do apply of course. Just not at the same numbers.
@@freetibet1000 I'm using the Sony fullframe system. Thanks for the heads up tho. If I ever change systems I'll have to keep that in mind.
@ Great! It helps to know what the optimum iso is for the actual camera model we use, not just the camera brand. For instance, not all Nikon cameras have iso 64 as the base iso either. And in the future this is likely to change for all camera brands and particular models again.
ISO 50 gives you cleaner photos with more color depth at the expense of dynamic range. ISO 100 gives you maximum dynamic range but more grain. You should use ISO 100 for scenes with more extreme cases in shadows and highlights and use ISO 50 for "flatter" photos, or photos where you can bracket. I still use ISO 50 more often than ISO 100 for the color definition, but I expose them to the middle and not the right. I don't know how much color loss ISO 50 has on the edges of the histogram, but you can always be safe and take a shot in ISO 50 and one at ISO 100 as a backup, or vice versa. The great thing about digital is that we don't have to stick to one ISO. When I'm not sure and I can't bracket, I take both ISOs
@@rauldeandrade Could you link a source of where you got this info? As far as I'm aware, ISO 50 wont give you any added benefit other than a lower exposure.
Expose to the right and Ignore the meter, just use the histogram and highlight alert, even if the image on the screen doesn't look right - that might just be the most life-changing advice I've been given in many years of photography. Can't wait start trying this.
Not only are your images awesome, but the way you explain things is straightforward, clear, and easy to understand for most anyone. Bravo! It’s things like this that make me want to sign up for a workshop with you when that sort of thing starts up again.
I really appreciate that thank you.. some people try to sound wise when the speak.. I just try to get my info across with common simple language
As I'm progressing in my post processing education, Nick Page and Greg Benz are becoming my go to teachers.
That was the best explanation of "exposing for the highlights" that I've heard yet. Thank you!
My mind is now blinkening, blendably, full. Thanks
Stay safe.Peace
Great explanation with examples to illustrate when to use exposure bracketing and ETTR. Well done and thank you for your clarity.
Best exposure tip I have ever heard about putting the bulk your histogram in the highlight segment. I have been doing this for yours without articulating it the way you did here. Watching the histogram spread out when you adjust your highlights and shadows made the lights come on as to why I do what I do from years of trial and error.
Nick's video tutorials on exposure blending from his website are the best there are (the only ones I actually understand!). He also shows some great techniques for dodging and burning using luminosity masks, which I now use all the time. I highly recommend them, and this video is a great introduction. Great stuff.
I appreciate that! Thank you!
Yep, really good solid technique. Where I live the weather is often unpredictable from one minute to another were everything changes so fast. Over the years I have become to understand that my real subject matter is movement within the landscape. Movement of light, shadow, weather and material forms, and so I have learnt to incorporate all of that into my exposure technique and routines, often making hundreds exposures of a scene in camera using a tripod. Sometimes I will ISO bracket from 200 to 6400 so as to get a grainy crunchy feel to the extreme shadows, and what helps further on in post production is to leave sharpness and noise reduction switched off.
Another way to align layers - set the blend mode of the top layer to "Difference." When not aligned, you'll see outlines of everything. When aligned, static objects will go completely black. It's VERY easy to see. When aligned, reset the blend mode to whatever is suitable for your plan for the image.
Lighting the inside of the plane - Awesome!
Another good technique is to do nothing in LR or ACR other than export to PSCC creating smart objects. You can then use auto-align, turn them into smart objects and take them back into ACR to do whatever you have to.
One of the best explanations for ETTR I have ever heard. Great information and great video. Thanks man.
6 or 5.5years ago, I watched one of your vids for the first time, and you showed me the wonderful world of astrophotography. (6 months after i bought my SL1) along with Rokinon lenses.
I am just now at this level to where i need and must learn this, and your explination are always understandable, clean, and precise. I have pugilistica dementia. Obtaining new info is difficult a lot of times, BUT all your teachings have begun to enter my long term memory, and my photography has skyrocket overnight.
Many people ask me what camera did i upgrade to, and i love telling them that its my SL1. I always boast your channel. Thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge with the world sir! 😊
Much Love From Iowa 😁
This is, for sure, one of your best free instructional videos to date. Almost touching the premium level I would say. Even if one could figure out a lot of this by sheer trial and error, it is far better to have this information in the back of your head once you are out in the field, than finding out afterwards during post, with lower quality material to work with. Possibly spoiling an image that could be potentially awesome.
Thanks a lot Nick! The content and your personality keeps your channel on a solid first place.
A great vlog, Nick!
I use Zebra warning rather than "blinkies" or the histogram for ETTR. One reason is that the blinkies seem to kick in before *true* blowout occurs in the raw file (somewhere below 240 out of a possible 255), presumably because it is assessing values in the jpeg rendition rather than the raw file. So I would suggest using a *custom* Zebra setting to about 108 on the Sony. I find that at that setting the Zebra warning kicks in at just below *true* highlight blowout. (I got this idea from Mark Galer's channel, btw.) I also prefer this method to examining the histogram which is not so easy to use on the Sony because it is kinda small. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this approach.
This is why i like using Capture One Pro..i can take a single image with the foreground exposing for the shadows and mask the sky and use luma range to recover the bright sky. Its super esy and i can stay in C1 to finish editing. All great things to keep in mind when shooting...thanks Nick.
Excellent video Nick! First time I've heard about dual-processing an image, but that makes so much sense. I've just arrived here from F4 Road Trip, and this is the first time in ages that I've binged a TH-cam channel. Your images are sickeningly good 🙂 Just beautiful. It also means a lot that you like everyone's comments. I'm sure other TH-camrs read (at least some of) our comments, but it's really good to see it explicitly.
This is like 5 videos worth of info in one with a nice flow. Easy to understand
Thanks Nick! This is by far the clearest explanation and set of directions and procedures I have found about this subject of exposure control. Just wonderfully clear and so very helpful.
As usual, Nick puts some meat on the bone in this one. Not just a bunch of talking he actually gives some valuable tips and insight.
Fantastic tutorial Mr Page ,been watching a lot of your videos over these last couple of weeks ,excellent . I'm new to photoshop and I'm finding it very daunting and I appreciate your videos so much . On a side note ,I normally loathe background music but I found your choice of music and volume level was perfection Sir ...
Nick you kind of touched on this when you mentioned the 5Dm3 but I think something incredibly important to this entire lesson is your results will vary based on what camera you are using, specifically how new it is. As you pointed out shadow recovery has gotten so much better in the last couple of years allowing us to expose for highlights and recover shadows a lot more than in the past. However for any of your viewers who might be shooting on mid/low range cameras or older cameras they might not experience the same abilities you were able to showcase here.
Thank you so much for explaining ETTR in terms of depth of data capture. Lightbulb moment for me. It'll change the way I expose images.
I think (I have never found technical documentation confirming) ISO 50 focuses the exposure curve and bit depth to the left at the expense of dynamic range and bit depth in the highlights. In practice I've always found ISO 50 cleaner as far as noise and with richer color depth exposing to the middle or to the left. This is why I bracket at ISO 50.
Your photo of ISO 50 with color shift in the highlights is very interesting and something I've never noticed in my shots. I really wish there was more technical information on how the sensors work so we can better choose settings that better fit a given use case.
Thank you so much for the wonderful video as always, you have a trove of information to share and I'm always grateful learning new things from you as well as the wonderful scenery. Keep it up :D
I am in awe of the amount of technical knowledge you have. Thank you for sharing these tips!
Fantastic video Nick. A really well explained process that seems almost obvious when simplified in such a clear way. Have a good one. 👍
Great point on the ISO 50 vs. 100. Never knew that it would inadvertently clip highlights.
Thanks Nick for explaining exposing to the right in an easy to understand manor!
Dude can I just say that this video was the most helpful advice I have ever received for photography in a very long time. I went out to do seascape shooting recently and instead of exposing -1 EV like I normally do, I used ETTR and just took a separate shot for the highlights in the sky. The RAWs came out so much better. Thank you for putting together this video.
Hi Nick: The information contained in this video, is without doubt the best explanation of when to use Exposure Blending vs. ETTR. This has been extremely helpful. Cheers, Keith (Canada)
You have clarified this whole area for me Nick, I often bracket when there is moving objects like trees and then struggle to blend the images. I know better now, thanks.
This video ia a real public service, since so few people seem to understand the great revolution in digital sensor design in the past 12 years. I might suggest that people try a variation on bracketing. Take the simple case where you need only, say, three extra stops. Take one image, exposed to the right. Make a copy with three stops of exposure gain. Then set your sharpening and noise reduction separately for each copy. This will give either grainier or less-sharp deep shadows. However the images will almost exactly register since they are copies.
Fantastic tutorial Nick. Great info. Amazing images here. Thanks.
I feel like I know most all of this but I still watch cause you are so good and entertaining at it lol. And i know a good amount now largely because of you! Thanks for all you do brotha!!
Absolutley loved the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion-sounding music in the background
Thanks Nick. during this video the light turned on, and I realized what I needed to do to make my photography better...... happy new year....
Loved how you explained your editing process. Thanks
I love the selective blending, I have just used "hdr merge" in the past but this makes me want to redo those images with your approach. thanks for the education.
I've tested it myself using 5D Mark III. You can blow up your highlight in raw a little bit, because the warning is only for the jpg. By pulling down the highlight in post, you will recover those details as well
It’s been a while, but I’m glad I’ve come back to this channel
Very clear explanations Nick and picked up some tips. Oh...I suspect nearly EVERYONE has heard of Squarespace, they seem to sponsor nearly every photographer on TH-cam! Merry Christmas from the UK, Stay safe.
This was a really great video with clear explanation of the why behind the concept. well done.
Great stuff as usual, thank you. It would be great to see how you blended the last shot.
This was a brilliant video done in such a subtle way. I learned more than I want to admit too. For almost a year I bracketed all the time. Lately I have stopped bracketing for everything but the situations you pointed out. However when I didn't bracket I did not ETTR because I did not understand it in the way you just taught it. This brought together a lot of things I have learned in a succinct way. Using luminosity masks as a selection to paint in the detail from another image really helped me understand how the two concepts differentiate. I think this video is going to help a lot of people become better photographers. Thank you Nick.
Ah Nick, I didn’t know how much I’d missed hearing “it’s going to act like a stencil”. It’s time to get back to those PS courses for a refresher. Great video, man, thanks.
This was so informative! I've tried the ETTR with my small Olympus camera and I get much much cleaner images! Thanks a lot Nick
Awesome vid Nick. I use ETTR for astro, but have never really considered it for other shots. Really good stuff. Technical, but not too technical. Anyone else mesmerized by the live audio meter behind Nick as well?
Thanks so much for the explanation! I’ve watched all kinds of photo videos and never understood how it all worked. I’m so glad I found your Chanel!
Great explaining how to work a photo with editing in mind for the best outcome.
Lot's of great tips in this video. As someone who shot primarily transparency film back in the day, I was familiar with "exposing for the highlights" but did not realize how this affected the digital sensor. Thank you for explaining that Nick.
Yes, back in the days when I was shooting film positives I had a habit of intentionally underexpose 2/3 - 1 1/3 for best results. That is usually not such a good idea in the digital world of today though.
Excellent! It is not long ago that one of your TH-cam persr with a similar number of followers included ETTR in a list of the top ten most unhelpful pieces of advice he recieved when starting out because modern cameras allowed effective shadow recovery. Your point about data is well made I am amazed that people who would be appalled at the thought of a 50% decrease in the speed of their internet connection are happy to throw away 50% of the data in an image by deliberately under exposing by one stop.
I like the way all is explained. Clear and with beautiful examples, thanks
Great video Nick, very informative. Never considered blending 2 edits of the same file before.
One of the best explanations of ETTR I’ve seen! You’re a master of your craft, Nick! Keep inspiring! 👍🏼
Nick!! others are saying it and I'll say it again.,. this was by far one of the best, most information dense, yet easy to take in videos. I have so much work to do. Thank you thank you thank you
OMG! I finally understand this. And now it seems obvious! Thanks for such a clear explanation without condescension.
Woah! I gotta say man, jaded ol' me learned quite a bit from this video. Mind a bit blown with the bit about iso50 vs iso100. I'm shooting on an A7iii and just always figured that the lower the iso, the better, but you just helped me make complete sense of why I often select my shots at 100 or 200 rather than the ones at 50 or 64.
Fantastic video Nick personally think its one of your best tutorial vlogs.
Do you also expose to the right you base image when you're about to bracket? All the best for 2021 Nick!
This was one of the best explanations of bracketing and exposing to the right I have ever seen/heard. The visuals absolutely helped. Also, Very few people that I talk to -even those that have been shooting for a really long time, pay any attention to what is the "native" or "base" ISO for their camera. Tons of landscape photographers go down to 50 ISO if they can, believing that this gives them the best image quality. You are the first to really point that error out. Most excellent video. You are an excellent teacher:)
Thank you so much Valerie... its one of those that only the most nerdy among us dare to try and unpack and talk about I think. Much easier to just record a top five tips video instead haha
The optimum iso is not always 100. For instance, the optimum iso for most professional cameras in the Nikon lineup has been 64 for the past 5 or 6 years at least, including D810, D850 and the Z lineup of cameras. But the same principles that Nick talks about do apply of course. Just not at the same numbers.
@@freetibet1000 that’s why I said “base iso”
Thanks Nick, watching your channel is like clearing my cache, I always process better after your tips and instruction.
Thanks Nick, super helpful. Soo great getting this level of detail and the multiple examples really make it clear. Definitely learned a few things here.
Awesome video Nik! Always very clear and useful presentation! Thanks
Wow...for the first time I think I get the ETTR concept.
Great video man...thanks for this
Excellent presentation Nick.
Nick, outstanding video. Thanks for reviewing these topics. Not only a super refresher, your explanation of the histogram and ETTR is the best I've heard. And since we're in the snow season back East, dynamic range goes through the roof. Your tutorial will help immensely!! Gerry
Glad you enjoyed it!
Impressive video. I will definitely spend more time thinking about post processing when I am shooting.
Great one! I was very stuck with exposing the same way as did with analog cameras and film. Started discovering of ETTR last summer. But this video really made me understand why. Didn’t know the bit about the iso either. Another analog knot I hade untied here. Thank you
Such an informative video Nick. Love that you included both the techniques of taking the images and processing them. Thank you .
Excellent and very useful video! I am subscribing now! I am trying to compensate a bit the dynamic range limitations of my APS-C camera. The information presented here is exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you!
Very useful overview, thanks, particularly re when to bracket and when not to. Something I’ve been struggling with recently. Bracketing has become my default but produces so many images and I was never sure really how much benefit I was getting.
An excellent instructional video - well explained, detailed enough, and at the right pace for most of us learners to glean all the essentials. I am most grateful to you. Many thanks.
Double RAW editing is going to change my work flow for sure, never thought of doing that!
Thanks Nick, from Nick. Hope you have a Merry Christmas.
First of your videos I've seen & I enjoyed. However, it must assume use of a tripod or prior understanding about length of exposure. ETTR requires longer exposure, which can introduce blur if hand-holding & is likely why you didn't go all to the right on your telephoto rolling hills shot...I feel you nearly said it. The 3 exposure blend at the end was lovely.
It's been a while since I have watched you. This reminds me of why I love your vlogs. Really clear, informative and just great to watch.
So much information here. Thank you. Going to save and revisit ... often. Thanks!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Thank you for sharing that video. The content is realy great and it was pleasure to watch you. Light painting inside of plate - realy cool idea. I have to check your other videos.
Good video Nick. I became disillusioned with luminosity masks a while ago as some of the example I was seeing were creating these muddy images where so much detail was recovered it didn't even look real. They absolutely have their place but I'm glad you pointed to the fact its not a style of photography but rather a tool for specific conditions.
you beaut, you have helped me solve a non aligned milky way exposure blend. Have a great Christmas. Thank you
Glad to hear you say that you look at the histogram, ignore the rest. Photography is about feeding light to your digital censor, or your film, people think photography is about manipulating your lens and camera, oh no.
Thanks. Merry Christmas 🎄🎄🎄 and Happy New Year.
this is the best discussion and details relating to how to expose and why to expose for the highlights. Very Good :)
I just bracket all the time. If anything is not good at the blending it is likely that one of my 9 photos would work as an ETTR alone. That increase my possibilities although in the case of trees I did get the movement point. If you have moved objects at the highlights just get a good exposure to the highlights use blending for the shadows instead. Anyway, for me they are not mutual eliminating concepts. Use both at the same case.
Fantastic information sharing there Nick. As an amature, I find your insight invaluable.
A tip: when lining up two PS layers, temporarily set the blend mode on the top layer to "difference." It will make registering them easy. BTW, if I had a choice between background music in the video or silence, I pick silence.
yep I use that blend mode all the time, but I didn't want to get sucked into a rabbit hole about blend modes, I was trying to talk about something else.
Such a great video Nick!! It's taken me years to learn this stuff. One thing for people to keep in mind is that the histograms and highlight warnings in camera are generated from the jpeg previews and not the raw sensor information so you can likely get away with pushing it a bit more than you might think. On my sony a7r iv, I set the highlight clipping to 106 and that has worked really well for me. YMMV though and you will want to test it to see where you actually start clipping your highlights.
An excellent and very practical video. So great when something is explained like this using real life examples. Have a great Christmas.
Nick, Thanks for sharing your knowledge/experience....it really helps. All the best for 2021
Such a great video, you truly are one of the best photographers I know!
Once again Nick dome great advice. I have been to Iceland and it is an amazing and challenging !
Love the DC3 light painting.
I often bracket to get the best beginning image for post processing ... but it is amazing just how much range is actually capture in one image. As indicated by others, I hardly need to use multiple images to bracket for HDR photography.
Fantastic! I have watched a ton of videos while trying to improve my photography and eveyone says expose to the right but no one has ever explained why. Thank you so much for the info and it explains why I have some of the issues I do, I always underexpose in camera cause thats what looks good on the screen 🤦🏼♂️