Have you been exposing your photos wrong?

Just setting the light meter to zero might not be the right move. Discover the secret to perfect exposure! Expose to the right is the way to go!

Have you been exposing your photos wrong all this time? Just setting the light meter to zero might not be the right move. Discover the secret to perfect exposure!

Hi there, I’m Rich Dyson from Edinburgh Photography Workshop. Welcome to Coffee Break Photography! Every week, I dive into a photography topic that’s perfect to explore during your coffee or tea break. When I’m not busy shooting or editing, I love catching up on your comments—so feel free to leave one! I do my best to reply to everyone.

This week, I’m going to talk about an alternative way of measuring light when taking photos. If you are used to exposing your pictures manually then you’ve probably been setting the light meter, so the indicator is set to zero. If the scene is well lit and there’s a balance between sky and ground, the resulting image was probably good in terms of exposure. However, was it as good as it could have been? To understand that we need to introduce the concept of a histogram.

In most editing software, a histogram displays the distribution of data in a photo, from pure black on the left to pure white on the right. Starting from the top-left pixel, we plot each pixel's brightness level on the x-axis of the graph. If a brightness level is repeated, we stack the new pixel on top of the previous one, increasing the height of the y-axis. By the time we reach the bottom-right pixel, we've completed the histogram. 

Most cameras display a histogram when viewing a picture. Refer to your manual to find it on your camera. Some cameras also show a histogram while shooting, and this will make the technique I am about to show you easier and faster. Again, you can look in your manual to see if your camera has this feature.

I’m about to shoot this scene of the iconic Forth Bridge. You can see that the light-meter is set to zero. Let’s take the shot and then have a look at the photo.

The histogram's looking great, with all the data nicely between the edges and no clipping. Clipping happens when the data spikes at the far left or right, making it tough for editing software to get any usable info. Want better photo edits? Steer clear of clipped data. 

As I say, the histogram looks pretty good, but it can definitely be improved. See how there’s a bit of empty space over on the highlights side? That’s what we’re aiming to fix. To do this, I’m going to let more light into the camera. In this case, I’ll slow down the shutter speed. As I adjust the shutter, you’ll notice the histogram gradually shifting to the right. I’ll keep going until it just touches the edge on the right. This technique is called "expose to the right." Let’s take another shot and see what happens.

When we look at the histogram of this second photo, you can see that the gap has been filled, and the photo looks generally brighter than the previous one. The key thing though, is that none of the data is clipped.

So, why does this even matter? Well, it all comes down to a couple of linked reasons. Let’s take a look at the file sizes for the two photos. The first one, taken with the light meter set to zero, has a file size of 47.5 megabytes. Now, compare that to the second photo—its file size has increased to 50 megabytes. That’s a increase of about 2 percent! So, what’s causing this difference? 

Let’s break it down simply. Imagine the histogram divided into ten equal parts, or deciles if you want to sound fancy. The decile on the far right holds a huge chunk—half, half of all the image’s data. The next section grabs 50% of what’s left, and so on, all the way to the left-hand decile, which barely holds anything. So, here’s the deal: if we gently shift the data towards the right without letting anything clip, we end up packing more data into the image file. And more data means we’ve got a lot more to work with when it’s time to edit. Makes sense, right?

Another great advantage of exposing to the right comes down to how data is spread out in your photo. You see, there’s not much data on the left side of the histogram, and that often leads to more noise or grain in the shadow areas. By shifting more of the data to the right when you take the shot, you reduce that noise, making your shadow areas cleaner and sharper. It’s a win for your editing process there too! So let’s head back to the studio where I’ll walk you through how I polish up these photos.

Here’s the first image—remember, it was taken with the light meter set to zero. Now, to the second image where we exposed to the right, we added an extra 2/3rds of a stop. Let’s get into the editing process, I’ll use the exposure slider to pull back that extra 2/3rds of a stop, so it matches the look of the first photo. But here’s the interesting part—take a closer look at the shadow areas in both shots. You’ll notice that the shadows in the image exposed to the right are much cleaner and better in quality compared to the one with the light meter at zero. Pretty cool, right?

I’ll apply a few more tweaks to the second photo to add a little more punch, and you can see we have a great looking shot with the best quality possible in the shadow areas.

I know this "expose to the right" technique isn’t always practical, especially when you’re shooting fast-moving subjects or dealing with constantly changing light. But when the conditions are right, it’s a game-changer for improving your photo quality. What do you think about this method? Have you tried it before? If you have, I’d love to hear your experiences—share them in the comments below!

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