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Expose To The Right - How To Get Less Noisy Pictures - Learn Photography by Zone

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jeffreygovender5745

The document discusses a technique for reducing noise in photographs called "exposing to the right". It recommends taking photos with the lightest exposure possible without blowing out highlights, as this captures more light and detail. Though the initial photo may appear too bright, darkening it on a computer reduces noise. The document demonstrates this by comparing photos of a lighthouse taken at different exposures, showing less noise in the overexposed photo after editing. It advises bracketing photos in case the overexposed photo is unusable.

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Expose To The Right - How To Get Less Noisy Pictures - Learn Photography by Zone

Uploaded by

jeffreygovender5745
85 views4 pages
The document discusses a technique for reducing noise in photographs called "exposing to the right". It recommends taking photos with the lightest exposure possible without blowing out highlights, as this captures more light and detail. Though the initial photo may appear too bright, darkening it on a computer reduces noise. The document demonstrates this by comparing photos of a lighthouse taken at different exposures, showing less noise in the overexposed photo after editing. It advises bracketing photos in case the overexposed photo is unusable.

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Expose to the Right – How to Get Less Noisy Pictures _ Learn Photography by Zone

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The document discusses a technique for reducing noise in photographs called "exposing to the right". It recommends taking photos with the lightest exposure possible without blowing out highlights, as this captures more light and detail. Though the initial photo may appear too bright, darkening it on a computer reduces noise. The document demonstrates this by comparing photos of a lighthouse taken at different exposures, showing less noise in the overexposed photo after editing. It advises bracketing photos in case the overexposed photo is unusable.

Copyright:

© All Rights Reserved
Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
85 views4 pages

Expose To The Right - How To Get Less Noisy Pictures - Learn Photography by Zone

Uploaded by

jeffreygovender5745
The document discusses a technique for reducing noise in photographs called "exposing to the right". It recommends taking photos with the lightest exposure possible without blowing out highlights, as this captures more light and detail. Though the initial photo may appear too bright, darkening it on a computer reduces noise. The document demonstrates this by comparing photos of a lighthouse taken at different exposures, showing less noise in the overexposed photo after editing. It advises bracketing photos in case the overexposed photo is unusable.

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© All Rights Reserved
Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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You are on page 1/ 4

Expose to the Right – How to Get

Less Noisy Pictures


Todayʼs article isnʼt about composition or about what camera
angle to use. Itʼs also not about wearing a swimsuit in winter.
Instead itʼs a trick that will give you less noisy pictures—in other
words, better picture quality.

Camera manufacturers are always pushing the envelope of technical


quality, and so todayʼs cameras combat noise very well. But anti-
noise techniques are still useful, because you sometimes need to
make large prints or make major changes to a pictureʼs color, and
both of these really make noise stand out.

Itʼs a simple trick: Instead of your usual shot, take the lightest shot
you can (the longest exposure you can) without getting blowout, i.e.
loss of detail in the brightest areas. Naturally the initial photo wonʼt
look too good. But it can be darkened on a computer, and that result
will look just fine. Meanwhile, the darkening reduces noise, which is

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exactly what you wanted.

For illustration Iʼll use two photos I took of the ruins of the
lighthouse in Santander, Spain. I took them right after each other
with different EVs:

The first photo was taken with a time of 1/40 s, the second with 1/15
s, giving a difference of 1+1/3 EV. Canon 5D Mark III, EF Canon 16–
35mm F2 II USM, 15 s, f7.1, ISO 100, focus 23 mm

The first photo is lighter than it needs to be, and the second is even
farther “to the right.” But I chose the second one for further
processing! Of course for this trick you should check for major
blowout before the picture even leaves the camera. To do this
check, use the histogram, or use the camera function that makes
blowout blink at you—it will have a name like blowout preview or
overexposure check. Letʼs take a look at the histograms:

Here are the histograms of both photos. The right histogram points
to some problems

The right photo is visibly pretty extreme. The left photo is OK; the

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right one is on the way to being problematic. But even still I knew
that the blowout was not extreme, and that thanks to having shot to
RAW I had a small reserve available at the edge of the histogram.
Still, I kept the “left” photo on the card, just in case Iʼd gone too far
with the brighter one. When I checked on my computer, the reserve
turned out to be enough. Both photos look almost the same after
editing:

After editing, the two photos are almost indistinguishable on the


Web

But thereʼs a difference in their details—in their noise levels. Noise


manifests itself in different photos differently, but itʼs usually most
visible in the sky. You can see this when zooming in:

Details from both photos at 300% zoom; now the difference is clear.
At this zoom level itʼs crystal-clear that the overexposed photo

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helped reduce noise and other artifacts in the image. If Iʼd gone for a
black-and-white picture and more dramatic edits to the sky, I would
have appreciated this approach even more.

Of course, taking light pictures does have a disadvantage: When


you want to show off your freshly-taken pictures to your friends
right on the camera display, and all they see is a white haze, theyʼre
going to think youʼre a little weird.

One tip in closing: Personally I bracket all of my travel photos with


three shots, each 1 to 1+1/3 EV apart. Out of each set of three, I
leave the one whose histogram is “right on the line” and the one
thatʼs one step darker. That second one is useful whenever the first
one turns out to be too bright or e.g. blurry. I go through the photos
at home and delete the unneeded one out of the pair at the end.
Because of this I almost never lose out on a picture, and I get high-
quality source photos quickly, which non-photographers travelling
with me always appreciate.

Last updated 6. May 2014

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