Small aperture shots are very sensitive to lens dust.
Not right! I expose minus 1/3 of a stop by default, in order to avoid blown-out highlights. Using raws I am practically always able to keep those highlights (think white clouds, white clothes) detailed and not washed-out.
So you meter the brightest area using spot. That means that those areas will be well exposed, and you add 1EV to make the scene a bit brighter. That also means that you donât care about the shadow parts in your scene. In my view this is the very reason why your original photo turns out quite underexposed when opening in Art with a neutral profile!
Using spot-metering is quite a tricky thing, because you must be very well aware what you are metering and how that compares to the rest of the scene.
A thing I forgot to mention in my first reaction was that the Expose-to-the-Right technique implies that you do that while shooting and not in post-processing. So take a shot, look at your histogram and change exposure compensation until the histogram touches nearly the right side.
I nearly always use matrix or center meting with named minus 1/3EV to get good results.
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Ouch, I missed that. Metering on the brightest spot does necessitate -EVâŚ
I tried that briefly a while back, as with all of the ETTR pet tricks i tried it got in the way of considering composition, my first priority. The closest I came to success was mid-point metering with +EV, which I think is what @gadolf is thinking about, but even then with, say, +1EV, you can still blow highlights in scenes with large differences in illumination or reflection.
My new camera has a âhighlight-weighted matrixâ mode, which is oriented to the JPEG exposure so it typically leaves 1 or so stops of headroom, but the camera is also so-called âISO-invariantâ, so the shadows can usually be lifted aggressively without much if any noise penalty. Iâm a lazy sort, so thatâs working well for me right now⌠
Light is noisy. The most perfect camera in the world would still make photos with noise.
ETTR would help here. If the camera had been opened up by one stop, almost no pixels would have become saturated.
Personally, I donât mind noise when it occurs in the shadows, or on textured surfaces like wood or concrete. But this image has a very dark smooth surfaces as prominent features, looming monsters dwarfing the human-scale but miniature cars and people. The noise on the big dark building spoils the effect.
That building is about 9 stops down from the brightest part of the image. We canât expect much better than that from a 14-bit camera. So the question when taking the photo would be: do we blow out the sky, or get good noise-free detail in the dark building? If we want both good sky and good dark building, we would need multiple exposures and HDR, or wait for better light.
From that single image, I would be tempted to aggressively remove noise from the building, and replace the sky with a looming storm.
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Here is where I think Iâm making a mistake: if I measure light in the most bright spot of the scene, then that spot will be middle grey and everything else will be underexposed. So per the histogram (before applying any modules), I understand that I have room to compensate +2EV (say, 1.7EV to stay safe):
EDIT: The arrow in the middle of the scene points to where I think I spot metered it, but maybe it was the cloud above, not 100% sure.
EDIT2: Actually I think I should compensate +3EV, since that histogram is from an image which was shot with +1EV
Now thinking about it, I think hereâs the most difficult part of ETTR. If the dynamic range is very big, even the +2EV compensation might still leave the shadows very dark.
Agreed, although usually I donât look at the histogram, once I have already determined the average compensation value that works most of the time. Then, itâs as easy as aiming the brightest spot, lock exposure, recomposing and shooting. I kind of get used to it (although I agree I loose some seconds on this)
This way you just compose, meter and shoot, right?
@snibgo I liked your interpretation of the scene! I work at that corner and always got some kind of feeling that matches, now I see, your description. And a good reminder that sometimes blowing out highlights might be an option. In other words, to always be aware of trade offs we must make in some scenes. This is something I have to practice a lot, no doubt, and it means training the look, more than anything else. Thanks for that.
You took the shot at ISO 640, then raised the exposure by 2.5 EV (-1EV applied by darktable to counter the in-camera +1EV, then you raised it by +3.5EV), ending up at âeffective ISOâ of 640 * 2^2.5 = 3620 for a daylight shot. Maybe a wider (faster) aperture (instead of f/11) would have given enough DoF, given the wide angle lens.
You applied contrast EQ and sharpen, which both raise noise levels if youâre not careful.
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This is probably why thereâs no traction among the camera manufacturers to support real ETTR - itâs nigh well impossible to mechanically know the tone curve needed for all the possible DRs, so they canât deploy relevant in-camera processing. I have highlight-weighted metering in the new camera and I use it, and know that my data has unused headroom. But I can easily tone-curve it to perception, with little to no noise accentuation. Lazy way to do it, but it works well for walk-about grab-shootingâŚ
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EDIT: I think the pixls website isnât offering a large version of that image, so the glorious gloom canât be seen in gorgeous detail. So Iâve uploaded the large JPG to http://snibgo.com/imforums/7146_comp.jpg .
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Thanks for keeping the creative spirit alive @snibgo!
I miss the adventurous takes and by extension @chroma_ghost RIP.
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I didnât read 100% of this thread, so my apologies in case I took the too early exit.
My 2ct
If you are that new to a cam, you shouldnât think that fast to ditch it again. But learn the new beast and where it differs from the former beast
AFAIK Canon is stronger in preserving highlights, where Nikon is stronger in preserving shadows.
That being said, ETTR implies âas much as possible without ruining wanted highlightsâ
I shoot several bodies, one is D7100. My way of shooting often does not allow me to take quality time. Hence I have -0.7EV as std. and matrix measurement. If Iâm afraid of blown highlights, I further decrease exp. comp and take a second shot. That usually suffice.
Besides denoise wavelet auto as @Jade_NL explains is also my way of handling and it is pretty sufficient on the even W-A-Y more noisy OMD Em5 mk2
yep, +3EV is usually about right if you want to take this sort of spot-metering approach.
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And finally my take. Thanks for that nice picture
DSC_7146.NEF.xmp (76,9 KB)
(sorry 3rd revision, I should really finish first)
Hope you like it
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Yeah, I over reacted, definitely 
. And I completely agree on that. Maybe the drama comes from the fact that it was me who probably bricked the 5D, against all odds 
Still digesting it.
It took me around a year to feel at ease while shooting with the 5D (and it was the ettr/spot meter way 99% of the time) so I know Iâll have a learning curve in front of me.
And thanks for sharing your usual shooting mode.
I do!
Tough decission to make a system change, which forces you to get new lenses and and maybe other side-toolsâŚ
Be aware, that is my way of shooting, which I am only an enthusiast and there are ppl, not agreeing with me and my way. So find yours and digest what I said about sensor differences between Canon and Nikon.
At the end, your style as a photographer will prevail anyways 
[off-topic]
if you need a cool new lense and if that range fits you. Here is my big hate-love
Definitely you would need the USB-docking to do calibration and still you will hate the AF accuracy in certain circumstances
I do love the pure glas quality, which is brilliant.
If you want, I can send you some samples via PM
[/off-topic]
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Ettr doesnât always work. The noise and dynamic range characteristics of the camera might mean that certain scenes canât fit the dynamic range of the camera without loss of colour accuracy or detail.
Many (most) architecture photographers clip highlights when they have to. They just try to handle it in a good way. See famous ones like Iwan Baan or Bas Princen.
So ettr can be an ambition but its not a foolproof rule. You have to make exposure choices. Image might look fine with bleached out details in the clouds. Noise or detail loss in the main subject is not worth it.
I personally try to avoid it and my camera is now good enough to almost always manage. I do know that I should be less worried about clipping and that ettr is a simplistic crutch or one of those basic rules that experts break with joy. Iâve just not quite managed to let go of the crutch myself yet
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Agree with @nosle.
See neunzehn72.de that guy often blows highlights. From conversations I know, he is fully aware of proper exposure
