How to AVOID Blowing-Out Your Highlights FOREVER! 

As a 40+ year photographer, 30+ of those years learning to expose without a histogram, your meter can be trusted if you know how to properly use it. Your meter was averaging the scene and was correct for how you were using it. If you had metered for 18% grey your meter would have told a different story. I'm not trying to throw any shade here but exposure is the very basis of photography and learning to judge a scene and know when your meter can be fooled and why is very important. I know we have all these gadgets today that take a lot of the skill out of photography but I think it's important to have a solid understanding of exposure before we use the technology available. Love your channel, appreciate you.

One tip to remind people about is that the histogram is based on the jpeg version of the image and that it's modified by the camera's film simulation and contrast/profile settings. So for example if you change the film simulation you may have to take a few test exposures to find and understand the changed histogram safety margins.

I never used to use the histogram, even the light meter used to baffle me sometimes, but now I understand it as your video was very simple and clear, thank you

Thank you for totally explaining how to use a histogram, when to use it and why you need to use it and understand it. I have watched several videos on this subject, but your explanations were by far the best I have ever watched. I have subscribed to your channel, Henry. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge!

Fantastic video.I fought with this problem for a good deal of time.After watching this video everything is absolutely clear.Tons of thanks and and May God bless you.

What a great video. I am not shooting as much as I used to be and this is due to living in Southeast of England and not much opportunities for landscapes but I do bracket if I shoot sunsets or sunstar effects. Miss the lakes already.

Hi Henry yes I must admit that I was not bothered about the histogram till I had a one to one workshop with you and now I use it all the time thanks mate.👍

Enjoyed this one, and the gentle nudge to learn something.

I used to bracket a bit on my Canon EOS M6 (only when using a tripod). Since getting the Z7 I don't think I have ever used a bracketed shot for editing, the dynamic range is just too good imo. I let the histogram just about clip the whites (Z7 has a decent wee bit of overexposure recovery) and then I don't really worry about the blacks. Not to mention, bracketing at 46 megapixels is oppressive on the memory cards! That was a beautiful church shot, imagine how it would look on a misty winter's morning!

Another helpful vid, Henry. I set my U1 settings for bracketed exposures - and my setting include not just the bracketing settings, but also renaming the bracketed files as "HDR," so I can easily find them when I download the shots. All I need to do when switching to U1 is make sure the shutter is on high-speed ("H") and I'm ready to go. I find that for high contrast shots, bracketing and blending provides a better starting point than shooting without bracketing and adjusting shadows and highlights.

Thank you, another enthusiastic and interesting update. 👍👏

Coming from a film background I still use ND grads to balance exposure most of the time. But whereas I used to carry 3 or 4 different grads I now only use a 3 or 4 stop and compensate in post. I do exposure blend occasionally, when the dynamic range gets above 20 stops, say. But the big problem with blending is subject movement; on windy days or if there are animals (or even people!) in the shot they can mess up the blend and you have to get into ghost elimination etc. The ND grad avoids all that extra effort. The other trick is to use the camera's spot meter to find out what the dynamic range is within a scene. Measure the brightest and darkest areas and work out how many stops between (and, of course, know the DR of your sensor so you know when its out of its range).

I could of done with the bracketing feature last night there was a combine harvester cutting in the field across the road and a gorgeous sunset oh well maybe next year !!

Hi Henry, been watching you since your DSLR days. I want to thank you for the positivity you exude in your videos, as well as the helpful tips/advice you've given. Your passion really shows through not only in your photos, but in your videos as well!

Very well put together lesson Henry

Very interesting again, I’ve started using the histogram far more than I did previously. I’m also slowing things down a touch to make source I get the correct composition I’m after 👍🏻👍🏻

I have a camera with a good dynamic range, however I do bracket some of shots just in case, especially when I go somewhere where I may not return in the future.

Slightly off topic. I like the borders you apply to your photos. Would love a video on framing.

I’m finding that I’m using focus bracketing more and more for my landscape photos rather than exposure bracketing. My experience with the exposure blending photos (or HDR when I’m blending in Lightroom) is that they don’t end up looking all that natural, and I don’t mind the moodiness of darker shadows. I do shoot micro 4/3s (I also do wildlife) and I am finding that blown out skies are a bit of an issue - I have even considered using graduate filters to try to solve that problem.

I tend to bring out the areas of shadow in post processing - my Nikon Z6 I think is similar to your Z7 in what it gives you by default

Is there any practical difference between exposure bracketing and using a camera's HDR function? Do those not effectively do the same thing?

Hi Henry, another great video, find them very interesting. One question, I notice you did not mention about exposure compensation, but had it activated on both images.. can you explain in way?

The one time where you're allowed to blow out highlights is when shooting sunrise or sunset... 😉 Apart from landscapes I also love shooting city night scenes. There is a lot of contrast in those and it can be impossible to get a properly exposed histogram with a single shot. My experience with HDR bracketing and merging is unfortunately not great either but it's best we have sometimes! So I tend to lean into the shadows, trying to preserve highlights and making my images darker with more silhouettes rather than brightly exposed landscapes or buildings.

Nice movement blur add around 55 seconds.

excellent little lesson, my only thought is that I wished you had touched on the practice of 'exposing to the right' in relation to your technique. thanks

I use the bracketing option on my Canon cameras frequently. I set it for how much I want to over and under expose and it takes 3 photos in quick succession. Excellent for times when the light is changing fast such as sunrise or sunset.

Hi Henry, another grand day out thanks for sharing. Useful tip that about exposure and the histogram. One technique I occasionally use when not needing to bracket, is to expose to the right so as to retain as much shadow detail as I can. I also find that even if I do clip the edges of the histogram occasionally, provided that I don't take too many liberties I often get away with it YES i shoot raw .. even on a D3500 ( without a live histogram😞 ) Keep up the good work mate !

That was awesome and I will now pay more attention to the histogram than I did before. I was looking for how to adjust photographs using exposure compensation when using an extreme zoom lens because of the loss of light at either end compared to fixed focal length lenses. So I was looking for a tutorial on that subject when I stumbled upon your video. I must admit I much prefer your video to the other 'American' ones out there...Now subscribed...

Great explanation of the histogram. I have not heard it expressed that way, and it worked for me. I still bracket a lot of my shots, but do not blend them very often. Once they are on my computer, typically one of the shots is good enough to avoid the blending. Thanks for another great video. Cheers.

great video again henry, i would love to use the histogram for my exposure, i have just swapped cameras to a Nikon D7500 so not sure yet if it has the ability to show it on screen, i beleive it's mostly high end cameras that have the feature, also if we are using the histogram to change the exposure and use the lets say iso to adjust are we sure of getting a correct image, i must admit i dont understand how on earth you look at a scene and know what aperture or shutter speed to use.

Hi Henry, you got to what was going to be my point right at the very end - Expose for the highlights and pull back shadow detail in post processing. What could have been mentioned is to always shoot RAW. You've probably just considered it a given. 😉

Great video as always! Having no live histogram on my d5200, this is very useful info! I have done some bracketing, as it is a 10 year old camera and would like to get better at it.

Ok henry that's for general exposure, now how about, the RGB histogram for when certain colours are exposed within the limits of oversaturation or not, plus tell us how and why histograms lie to us, for example black on black or white on white, there are many quirks to using the histogram, dependent on the subject/scene.

Hi Henry, a little remark. The live-histogram shows the information similar as an 8bit jpg-file, so there is a little bit more headroom at the right hand side in the light area before it burns out - if you use RAW-files

Useful review, Henry. I have a decent amount of experience with exposure bracketing/blending, and agree it is an essential technique to master. Like you, as I have progressed through cameras with increasingly greater dynamic range, I find the need to bracket/blend limited to more extreme situations - mostly sunrises and sunsets with interesting foregrounds. Recent advances in specialist noise reduction software also help, since lifting overly dark shadows in post often leads to very noisy shadows. This means I can focus on protecting the highlights, without worrying as much about the impact on the shadows.

Great job Henry! I don't exposure blend much any more either. I would love to see camera manufacturers put most of their efforts into advancing and expanding dynamic range rather than high ISO performance, especially with the excellent noise reduction software options available now. BTW, the histogram and bracketing is something I'm well-versed in but I still love watching you talk about it on your photo journey in this video. Your channel is always a must-watch!

Interesting. I've always just clicked the HDR button in lightroom rather than manually blending the images. How do you find the two compare?

Hey Henry, I also shoot z7 but tend to use the auto 3/5 bracket. I suppose its the lazy way. Maybe I should just take the 2 shots as you suggest. Keep up the good work. Like the Berlingo 👍

Thanks again Henry.... another great video tutorial sharing your experience & comments.... cheers from Australia 🦘🦘😊

I can't understand why they can't make a sensor that has a huge dynamic range. It's not rocket science.

Henry, you were using the display spirit level, how do I find out if mine has that feature, I’ve looked without success

Hi, I watch you every week and love your videos and images, what external hard drive do you save your images to, please thanks

That seems like good advice Henry but my camera doesn't have live view or a histogram how do I achieve perfecr exposure?

Thanks Henry - Watching the histogram is something I MUST remember to do more. I do shoot brackets frequently, usually 3 shots but if really wide dynamic range shoot 5. Software make it easy to exposure blend. Love your channel - take care.

An idea for a vid for us newbies is on post production What software to use and how to use it

👍📷😎

I always expose for the brightest part of the image which is mostly the sky. I do in certain situations use bracketing but most of the time shooting in raw I find bringing up the shadows in post is not much of a problem. Thanks for another great video .. always good to see how other photographers work and stops me from being set in my ways and trying out other techniques. 👍

My biggest problem with (automated) exposure blending is that there's too little control over the process. It all too often ends up looking HDR-ish and fake. It's more trouble to manually blend, but it works. I try to balance / adjust exposure on the "replacement" image in post (usually the sky) to provide some tonally-matching areas that allow masking / blending without halos. Luminosity masks help, as do layer blend ranges (as they're called in Affinity Photo). I think they're related to blend-if ranges in PS. Good fundamental information, as usual!

You have to be careful with modern LCDs - manufacturers often put a dynamic range effect to make the preview look acceptable, which can lead to under-exposure. I think Sony call it DRO or something. Best turned off so you don't think the histogram and the preview are contradicting each other.

I really need to come back to Lake district soon...

I use the histogram, Zebra pattern and judgement. If you shoot in RAW, you have some latitude to touch the RHS and still be able to pull back details from the highlights. ETTR! Sometimes you just have to bracket too.

love that chapel !! I bracket on occasion and usually with three shots on my Canon R5. I don't think the shots ever turn out as good as I would like.

I'm still bracketing to ensure i don't miss that shot but have stopped blending as much as i used to for the same reason you are my camera i have the R^M2 and it's a great sensor with a great range and can get a lot out of the shadows .

This one of the best advises, I've seen so far on youtube as to help beginners and more experienced photographers who never got this advise when they started learning easy to understand. Brilliant

Back from Austria and watching all the videos I've missed while I was gone. Interesting video, good tips for people who aren't sure how to use the histogram. I have to say I never really do exposure blending anymore either, I used to for a while but usually the dynamic range of the D7100 is plenty for me.

Before I got a Nikon 5300 now I have also a Z6. It's easier to get the exposure right with the Z6. Since I got Z6 I haven't done bracketing. Lightroom has also improved.

Quite a good video. Having only more recently delved into better cameras ( Z50,Z7II,Z9.... went nuts) , getting the facts on what is a realistic expectation from any of my cameras is not that easy to come by. This histogram thing has had me beat for a while . I have 12 stops of dynamic range so is that the width of my histogram ?. From your explanation , yes. Also importantly , that's it ,no more. Other measures must be found if outside that. No one actually states that.

Thank you for making that so clear. I don’t understand histograms and therefore never paid attention to them. I do try to keep the light meter to 0, but then some photos are over/under exposed and it confused me. So, from watching your video, if I had paid attention to the histograms, and I had the ISO, f-stop and shuttered speed I wanted, I could have altered my exposure compensation then my exposure would be right (even though it wasn’t at 0)! 🤯 I love taking photos, but the technical side of it I find mind blowing, but now it’s starting to make sense.

Exposure blending is fine... but these days many sensors/processors have such a DR in the raw file- especially Nikons, a nice image more often than not can be puled from one file. I'll always err on the side of caution with highlights however- as I find Nikon sensors have much more latitude for shadow recovery...

I've watch quite a few utube videos of adjusting the photo . You turned me onto the nikon z7 verses the D850 . Thanks 👍

Hi Henry, I do exposure bracket from time to time if histogram looks like it needs it, usually 3 steps and let the camera do it, or manually if only 2 images required. Certainly use the live histogram when on a tripod, however due to having a DSLR (Nikon D7500) I obviously don't have a live histogram in the viewfinder so have to use the light meter and review afterwards, sometimes matrix isn't great due to the "average" scene and I use centre-weighted/spot metering. Although more often than not I find I can work with one image in Lightroom and I didn't need to exposure bracket, but usually an insurance policy if on a particular trip. We also have to remember the histogram is a JPEG representation of our image based on the picture profile, so we have a little bit of give if shooting RAW. I certainly do push the histogram to the right (ETTR), however with some cameras being ISO Invariant these days, lifting the shadows isn't such a big deal in post processing. But that is a whole different subject as you know 😀.

Thanks Henry for another very informative video. Very much appreciated mate. Always look forward to next video. Many thanks, Graham

Iv always endeavoured to capture in one shot …. I think its because I learnt the basics back 30 years ago using film where blending was not really an option bar a bit dodge and burn in a dark room. Ive defo found it a lot easier as the dynamic range of cameras has improved. Exposure blending is something I have always felt like learning but never really have. I guess because iv used the HDR tool as a short cut in affinity… but that doesnt work if you are shooting seascapes or water as the foreground water and clouds can be different in each shot. U must be able to do it manually in affinity but ive never quite worked it out or found out how… i think you are right and I should…. But more often than not the R5, a soft grad filter and exposing for the highlights and pushing the shadows gets me out of jail… so 10 years into digital and i still dont really know how to blend bracketed images! 😂 …. I guess iv found my photography goal for the rest of the year!

Cheers Henry, I was struggling this weekend with bright cloudy white skies and the dynamic range. I tried to merge 3 HDR images in Lightroom but it makes the final image a bit false. I'll watch the histogram a bit more now and try and get it mostly correct in camera.

I have been one to go by eye than use the histogram, but maybe I should double check by trusting the histogram as you put it. Since I have gone to a a ff camera with dynamic range to spare, I will purposely underexpose and use post. why not, particularly as LR is getting better and better at that all the time.

It's nit about 'believing" the exposure meter, the meter in the middle just means the cameras default mid exposure. It's about judging the scene & knowing where the meter should be for the scene ( & metering mode ) The default exposure was decided in a factory somewhere.

Hello Henry, interesting topic! I've been out with some pros who say that you just don't need to bracket these days because modern cameras have such great dynamic range. They do, but I still think that there is a time and place where bracketing works better. sure it's a bit more work, but worth it for the end result. This might just be me and my lack of post processing skills, but I find that it can be very difficult to recover blown highlights, whereas I can normally recover dark shadows more easily. So, if I'm struggling to get my histogram right, then I will normally bracket, and job done, bish, bosh, bash! Have a great weekend....

Nice video. I'm also tending to take single shots on my canon 7DII. I can brighten the shadows, duplicate the layers, Denoise AI one of the layers then blend the Denoise AI layer with the regular layer. I tend not to Denoise the whole image as it can over sharpen clouds and remove texture from water on long exposures. Last night I did work on a bracketed image of a sunset in Ilfracombe. The colours were clipped in the sky and I tried adjusting the individual colour channels in curves to recover the clipped colours selectively in the raw file, whilst retaining the colour reflections in the water. It worked great and I think I will do this again. I learn huge amounts from your channel. Big thanks for your great content.

Hi Henry, nice video as usual. I didn't read all the comments already posted (but I read quite a few), and i didn't see anything about this. the first example you gave, the waterfall shot, is, I think, not quite right. the histogram, and/or meter, reads the instantaneous overall scene, not the accumulated scene of the 1/4 second exposure. i mean, usually they're the same, but with a cascades scene in particular, the 'white' parts of the image move around quite a bit, accumulating 'white' in different parts of the image milliseconds apart. said another way, what is dark one millisecond, is light a millisecond later. and its the light that accumulates, changing the gritty instantaneous scene that we see with out eyes, or with a fast shutter speed, into the smooth silky flow of water. Therefore, I believe the histogram prior to taking the shot, and the histogram of the image taken, will differ, with the image showing much more white than the scene. its worth reviewing the image after, to make sure you have the level of detail in the water flow you want.

Very helpful thanks. Nice you (Henry) someone exited about photography

I have to say that exposure blending I stopped doing when I shot with a Sony because it had better dynamic range. I went back to an older DSLR and found that I actually have more play with pushing and pulling files than I ever did with a single exposure from the newer camera. So I would say that you will have more play and better images if you bracket them even with a newer camera.

Thanks Henry now I understand the histogram on my camera. Don't know about bracketing as I don't use any proper editing bit great video

Great video! One thing I'd do - bit 'old school' is expose for the optimun ISO of the sensor - keep noise to a minimum and dynamic range to the maximum. But also I'd probably try using a graduated ND filter on a rotatable filter holder - to 'blend' in camera so as to get the extremes closer together in the one shot, but then also do a couple of high/low bracket frames to have something to tweak in post. I'd use auto bracketing too so as the freeze any motion as much as possible.

Great spot to end the vlog Henry, looked like your camera battery was running on empty. Thanks for sharing again. Stay safe 🇦🇺

I only ever take the one image and do all the adjustments using masks etc. in Lightroom. Great video, have always used the histogram ever since I got my first DSLR. It is much easier now with a live histogram on a mirrorless camera.

Hi Henry, yeah totally agree with you....I use my ND filters a lot less now and as a Sony alpha user the shadow recovery is amazing 👍

Hi Henry I use a Nikon d5200 and you are right to go by the light meter is not great but it is a guide,I often have to take a shot and check it if not happy with it adjust and take again but for wildlife you often cannot repeat the shot as the animals have moved or even left the scene but hay ho must get myself a better camera I suppose nice video thanks

Another great video Henry. Very good advice. I must use my histogram more often. Look forward to the next one.

Hi Henry - long time follower - and had the joy of being down at Buttermere today - what a joy. looking forward to some more photo ops tomorrow and processing them when I get home on Saturday,

Very helpful thank you for making it easy to understand. Love your channel.

Thank you I certainly am guilty of histogram as never understood what to do with it so learnt something more cheers.

Nice images Henry and agree with your comments. Would rather bracket if in doubt and not need the extra exposures rather than regretting it later when back at the comptuter

The live histogram is the number one reason I opted to upgrade to a Z6. I just wish there was a way to map it to a button so it could be toggled on and off. It’s a bit of a pain having to press the disp button multiple times.

Just popped in my head at the point where your pointing out the exposure meter is out the old saying camera never lies lol oh yes it does 😂😂😂

Absolutely love your videos, Henry. Thanks so much !

Another awesome video! Thanks for what you do Henry.

Pretty basic…but always good to review!

Thank you for all the info and help you give

Great video once again Henry 👍📷

Thank you!

For older Canons DSLRs you can install Magic Lantern (at your own risk) and once you take a shot you can also have it display a false colour image that is grey (good) with Blue (very dark) and Red (overexposed) and overlay the histogram too. This is nice on older cameras as sometimes the screens and histograms are harder to see due to dull reflective LCDs etc.

was there a histogram on the 7200

Hi Henry, I dont take many photographs any more but will say my top tip is not so much settings or cameras. Nearly all my images were at F11, iso 100, aperture priority mode and focused 3rd into image for everything :) The secret to good images I believe is getting out to locations nobody ever goes to. Have been lucky enough to win 3 major awards for my photography and it was all down to my hiking and wild camping all year round. It lets you explore places nobody normally goes to and often with unusual or interesting weather. Great channel and Atb.