ETTR and Knowing You'll Need To Up Contrast In Post

[fjrabon]

So, about 90% of the time I use ETTR for my exposure settings. However, when I'm shooting a scene that has very flat natural lighting and I know I'm going to want to up the contrast a significant amount, I tend to try to give myself some room to work with on both ends of the histogram, so I tend to expose to the middle of the histogram a bit more.

My thought, and what I've seen play out in practice, is that when you up contrast, part of that is going to push both ends of the histogram out. If you started with the brightest parts already close to touching the right edge of the histogram (ie ETTR), that's just going to blow them out when you add contrast in post. Obviously the same thing is true of the dark side of the histogram, but that's normally less of a concern when you're trying to increase the dynamic range of a shot without much natural dynamic range.

The other option, I guess, would be to use ETTR for your exposure method, then in post lower the exposure to give you wiggle room, then add contrast to the lowered exposure. Would this be better?

Is this wrong? Is there a better way to expose for shots you know that you are going to want to increase contrast in post than what I'm describing above? Am I totally confused?

Thanks!

 

[fjrabon]

Yeah, I'm not really 100% sold on it either. I kind of use it as a guideline, but in a lot of situations I back off on it, at least a bit.

The other option, I guess, would be to use ETTR for your exposure method, then in post lower the exposure to give you wiggle room, then add contrast to the lowered exposure. Would this be better?

Yes, that would be better. The idea behind ETTR is to maximize your exposure. More light is always best.

I'm not really a fan of ETTR, but if you're gonna do it, might as well do it right. Always push as far right as possible during exposure.