Exposing to the right - brilliant or bullock?

[Kerbouchard]

But is it worth doing if you're overexposing by going up one stop with the sensitivity? Adding noise in order to get more detail? Sounds counter-intuitive, but I suppose I'll have to try it for myself.

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, increasing ISO does not always increase noise. It depends on your camera's software, how much native noise it has, what ISO you are changing(i.e. going from 400 to 800 may be a non-factor on your camera body while going form 3200 to 6400 probably is), and the type of scene you are shooting.

ETTR does have merit and a lot of the reason is because most modern sensors(and file types) have a lot more dynamic range at the high end than they do at the low end. It's just a matter of how a digital file is recorded.

I can easily shoot a shot at ISO 1600 that has less noise than an identical shot at ISO 400. It all depends on the signal to noise ratio and how the image is processed.

 

[Derrel]

The blogger Compaq referred us to is making a very oddball assertion that ETTR is in some way changing the ISO...proof that he has a very,very sketchy grasp of what ISO means in any real sense of the word...altering the exposure does not constitute raising or lowering the ISO in the proper,conventional sense of the word.

Secondarily, ANY photographer who worries about the slight increase in noise when shifting his camera's ISO from baseline upward to the next higher EV value has a serious fixation with noise; those who constantly worry and fret over their personal fixation with "noise" are almost universally newbies who never shot that bad, grainy, awful old stuff called film... they worry about noise,noise,noise, to the point that they'll shoot at base ISO even if it means f/1.4 at 1/60 second and blurred motion, just to aboid that bad old "noise".

Noise is almost always a product of UNDER-exposure; with any sensor made within the past two years, even ISO 800 is good enough for government work. Modern noise reduction software is also superb.

The blogger also referred to ETTR in under-exposure situations...the guy really doesn't seem to know what he's talking about.

 

[shmne]

The blogger Compaq referred us to is making a very oddball assertion that ETTR is in some way changing the ISO...proof that he has a very,very sketchy grasp of what ISO means in any real sense of the word...altering the exposure does not constitute raising or lowering the ISO in the proper,conventional sense of the word.

Secondarily, ANY photographer who worries about the slight increase in noise when shifting his camera's ISO from baseline upward to the next higher EV value has a serious fixation with noise; those who constantly worry and fret over their personal fixation with "noise" are almost universally newbies who never shot that bad, grainy, awful old stuff called film... they worry about noise,noise,noise, to the point that they'll shoot at base ISO even if it means f/1.4 at 1/60 second and blurred motion, just to aboid that bad old "noise".

Noise is almost always a product of UNDER-exposure; with any sensor made within the past two years, even ISO 800 is good enough for government work. Modern noise reduction software is also superb.

The blogger also referred to ETTR in under-exposure situations...the guy really doesn't seem to know what he's talking about.

Regardless they are correct in their statement that exposing to the right helps improve the amount of data your image retains. It isn't just about noise, highlights retain more detail than shadows do. This is why it is easier to drop down from highlights than increase from shadows.