What is ETTR in photography, and when should you use it? 

In England they use ETTL.

More tutorials like this, please! Excellent explanation and well illustrated.

Back in the film days, we used to call this 'exposing for shadows and developing for highlights'. We would overexpose the film and under-develop it to get a great tonal range in the negatives used for printing.

I’ve been waiting for a raw histogram for ages. Closest thing I have found on my Nikon is to use the flat profile. It shows more of what you are capturing.

Welcome back Chris Niccolls! This is DPReview TV viewers. We appreciate your wonderful videos :)

Nikon (maybe others?) has a super handy mode called Highlight-Weighted Metering, which does a great job at preserving highlights. It’s ideal for stage events, but really for any scene with extreme range.

As some others have pointed out, it would be great if camera manufacturers would give us the option of a histogram that truly represented the raw range, but in lieu of that I keep my picture profile (Nikon) set to ‘Flat’. I tested every standard profile and ‘Flat’ came closest.

On the fujifilm cameras that I own I turn the picture effect preview setting to off when shooting raw and ettr. This give me a closer idea how far I can go with the exposure because of its flatter tone curve.

Can’t believe this information is free

Love this video, but I do have an objection! In defence of iso...High iso gets labelled as noisy and Chris has implied this by demanding an increase in actual light. I’d love a follow up video showing nine controlled light exposures where aperture, shutter speed and iso are all adjusted 1 stop at a time. Ie three batches of three, where 2 parameters are unchanged. This will show that an increase in iso “adds” less noise than reducing aperture or shutter speed 1 stop. In other words, use iso to capture a better, fuller exposure, but don’t get lazy and rely on a high iso when it IS possible to lower the shutter speed or open the aperture without impacting your vision of the photo.

That was great. I had thought I understood this, but I had not realised that it involves letting in "more actual light", rather than playing with ISO settings. Thanks for a very helpful video.

Highlight, lowlight, Chris looks good in any light!

This was really useful. No one else has explained about adjusting your aperture and shutter speed, not your ISO.

Thanks for covering this Chris.

Good tutorial. I think the basic understanding of the exposure triangle: Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO is suitable for practical daily use when shooting. As we advance in skill it helps to go deeper and understand that ISO is not increasing the amount of light but amplifying it in the camera after capture. ISO is in fact a post-processing tool even though we choose it prior to the shot. It is also good to understand that a high ISO doesn't increase noise, rather less light increases noise and a higher ISO reveals the noise. I agree that a histogram giving us the true dynamic range of the camera would be helpful, I test my cameras by pushing them to the right by 1/3 stops and then viewing the shots in LR to see where the whites are acually clipped. In the case of my current camera I can go 2 stop to the right and still maintain details. Keep up the good work.

Absolutely brilliant video!

This was very well researched, well balanced, and well presented. Way to go!

Chris I don't think telling people to unsubscribe is how this thing works! haha

Yeah, totally these kind of videos are game changers. Thank you Chris.Those details make the our work Better and more efficient.

“When you have the opportunity “ - we’ll said . Having my formative years shooting film cameras without photoshop left us with having to plan for the final shot, so ETTR was a must - you had to nail the shot and make sure your photo lab exposed and printed your shot correctly . I had a highly decorated pro photographer come see me once after getting his prints from me that I though he messed up with . Once he showed/explained his method and I saw the results - ETTR - wow, we were both very happy . Great explanation and use of a real example . Well done :)

Very well explained. Your articulating skill is amazing, Chris!

Even with all the Pentax bashing, the K-3 III has a sort of ETTR mode, at least for when you want to underexpose. It preserve most of the highlight, and if the shadow are too much pronounced, I just need to save as DNF, and boost them in post, instead of my usual JPEG format. Which I often overexpose, at least with wide angle, when the sky isn't the subject. The Pentax Highlightweighted metering is doing the job so well, that I use it most of the time, and that I rarely override the metering (which I did a lot on the K-5).

Great tutorial so easy to understand. Cheers guys

Well explained and 100% accurate

Great explainer. It’s a great technique for landscape photography and other static subjects. The key is to bring your photo down in post… seems obvious but for some reason I had a mental block to bringing exposure down for many years.

Thanks for the information. You and Jordan are now the faces of Dpreview.

This is one of the best videos maybe the best one all time dpreview

Great stuff Chris. Very interesting and well put across.

I found that explanation really useful - many thanks for the clarity.

Oh man, DPReview is sooooo going to be missed - what a great video and explanation. Love(d) it.

Excellent explanation. Thanks.

Nice reminder, thank you

Thank you Chris! Very useful!

Your camera reviews are excellent, your learning or explanation videos are over the top, keep them coming thank you 🎉😊

Thank you, guys. Great video.

Great explanation of ETTR. I’ve always been a fan of your content since getting into digital photography 10 years ago. I’m going to miss DP Review. RIP

Excellent suggestion! I tested it today and you're right. I shot based on what the histogram showed as you suggested. The monitor showed part of the photo way over exposed, but when I ran the file through Luminar Neo HDR, it evened it all out. The bright part which was a window that in camera was washed out, now was very clear after the software processing. I have to say though, that I shot in dark places before where the software did not have problem recovering all the details, but the image was very noisy.

You talked about manufacturers providing an option to push the exposure for you "automatically" based on the meter. Olympus has a function that sort of accomplishes that. "Exposure Shift" in the menu allows you to either push the exposure or pull it by up to 1 stop in 1/6 stop increments. Not a complete solution, but at least it is there for those who want it.

I am currently a digital camera user. This was a good explanation and obviously works well as far as not blowing out highlights and easily bringing back shadow detail with digital. It got me to reflect amusingly back to my time in the darkroom when I was a die hard fan of Ansel Adams zone system while exposing my film. Back then it was all about exposing for the shadows and developing the film to place the highlights. Similar results, just 180 degrees opposite while using a different medium.

Referencing Jonathan Tr comment "that he used to underexpose slide film to not blow out highlights"... The common exposure approach to slide film and digital is they are both positive media - expose for the highlights and develop for the shadows. This is consistent with Ansel Adams' approach when exposing negative film: exposure of the shadows and develop for the highlights... "the more thing change, the more they stay the same"... or ... "the more we learn the more we understand!" I've written a book (The Optimum Digital Exposure] that explains the benefit of [ETTR} and defines "the optimum digital exposure" - "place the brightest part of your scene to be 99% brightness in your software"... I even explain how to achieve it for your camera - ONWARD

Excellent!

Great video, great learnings! Thank you!

Very well and simply explained. You guys rock! And yes, camera manufacturers, PLEASE give us histograms based on the raw files.

Ok, now we need a video focused version of this, please!

VERY helpful - thanks!!

I never knew ... but now I know... I will test this new technique. Thanks Dpreview

Fully agree with you on the RAW file histograms in camera! Been wishing for that myself for some time already.

IMO: This is a great video. He hit on all the points I work through. I have used Auto ISO and ETTR to optimize my primary subject. Now I have to consider, going back to the basics. Please continue to release the types of videos. Not only are they very informative, but the presentation is very good.

Finally! Someone to properly explain this (without saying to increase the ISO). You could have also talked about UNIWB.

Very interesting. Thanks!

I use histograms along with zebras in my Sony A7iii. By setting my zebra settings to 109 I can see specific areas of potential highlight blowouts in the photo and adjust to eliminate them or minimize them. This works very well when shooting RAW to keep the shadows without blowing out the highlights. I am referring to stills here.

This is great, thank you!

Very interesting and useful, thanks!

Bravo!! Finally someone who tells the whole story re jpeg histogram

excellent video, thank you. Olympus cameras works very well with ETTR and can very well work with even over-exposed RAW files easily

I love that Sony already has a "Highlight priority" metering mode. I use it pretty much 90% of the time and have my exp-compensation set to +1ev. That way it usually exposes for the bright parts of my image when I use Aperture-Priority-Mode and still overexposes just so much that the image is not underexposed. About 1ev - 1.1/6ev overexposure also happens to be the leeway I have in my RAW files for recovery, so setting the compensation to +1ev in highlight priority metering usually results in a well lit image. But I still want those RAW histogram options and more you talked about. Especially when I'm not in the studio with workhorse Sony and rather on my own hobby and holiday stuff with my personal Fuji.

Great video thanks

Finaly some real knowledge about ETTR. For me correct exposure depends on a zilion different criteria, among them the dynamic range of the sensor (film anyone?) and the dynamic range in the subject. A very grey subject will present you with a lot of exposure latitude (=not that critical) while the high dynamic range subject you showed makes a correct exposure impossible, choices will have to be made, as you do. IMHO the biggest danger with digital sensors is blown 'highlights' (read = bright elements in the picture), a problem that we do not see with film, a good reason to use film for certain subjects or styles, as the movie industry and some photographers do. Great video, but more like the start of something pretty vital for photography? IMHO this is much more important and basic then, let's say, burst rate or auto focus etc. Automated ETTR would have to allow for some user input, as it would have to allow for some differences between 'development' software in the way these programs treat the raw files. Not simple I think

Nice video. Thanks.

this is a great review of EttR, thanks! also worth mentioning: some cameras have an RGB histogram option, really helps with getting EttR right

Great rundown, Chris! One other consideration, with respect to blown highlights, is that no ink (generic term) is deposited in those areas when you print (I'm old school and don't think a photo exists until it's been printed). Whether or not this is detrimental to the image depends on a host of variables, including overall tonal range and paper used.

Thank you very much!

Excellent! Thank you. Better histograms: there is a trivial solution that might work on all modern digital cameras: take a picture with the lens cap on and use that dark frame to create a custom white balance. When using that custom white balance, the image will be mostly green, but the histogram should be exact. I agree that an important argument against ETTR is risk management: clipped highlights will never be recovered while dark shadows can usually be recovered with some post-processing work. As Chris mentioned, multiple-exposures is a meaningful alternative, particularly when using a tripod. With cameras that don't combine self-timer and bracketed exposure (yes, manufacturers can make really bad design decisions), self-timer with multiple identical exposures is just as good in most situation as long as you use EFFTR (Expose Far From The Right) and enough images. Stacking identical exposures is a trivial post-processing operation that doesn't introduce any risk of unappealing HDR artefacts while reducing noise and opening up a lot of flexibility for shadow recovery.

Excellent content. (Everything was correct!). I would like to add that in my Sonys, a7R III and RX100 VII (and other Sonys of course) it is possible to set the Zebras level above 100, and when set to 109+ (the max), zebras match pretty well with the limit in the raw file. This gives some of the functionality that is missing from the histogram being based on jpeg. And one can expose with more light than by just judging the histogram. One can also see which parts are at or just above the limit and then reduce exposure so the zebras disappear. By doing this, the headroom in the raw file (to recover highlight in post) is being spent and will not be available during post processing. But that is part of the game of (real) ETTR, and works fine when done accurately.

Thank you, YES we need RAW Histograms in camera. Also: 1-degree spot metering to check specific areas of the scene.

Great video! I'm an old guy that was used to shooting slide film and underexposing to not let the slides blow out highlights. This is good to consider for digital sensors.

very good video.. thank you

FWIW , you can add the Ricoh GRiii to the list of cameras that have a Hightlight Weighted Metering mode. I use it when appropriate and it works perfectly.

Very good video, guys, thank you. While we're making a list for the manufacturers, I would like a bracketing option that would automatically choose the two exposures that minimize brightest highlights and darkest shadows and then lets me choose how many exposures to capture between the two outer limits. For example, if we're using aperture priority, a bracket set could automatically start with 1/60 at f4.0 to preserve details in the shadows and 1/500 at f4.0 to keep the highlights from blowing out. Then I can tell the camera to also shoot two or more images to split the difference equally. If I ask for one image to split the difference, then the camera would automatically pick 1/180 (or some such speed) at f4.0 for the third shot of three. If I ask for two images to split the difference, then it would automatically pick 1/125 and 1/250 at f4.0 for the third and fourth shots of four. Please, folks, tell me if such a set-up is already available.

So talking about beginner photographers Chris throws up photos by Jordan. Nice Canadian burn there Chris. This is what makes the DPR videos so enjoyable.

Really excellent, clear and thoughtful presentation - thank you Chris and Jordan and DPReview TV. (And to hell with Amazon for closing down DPReview - absolutely disgusting behaviour).

Totally agree: Manufacturers should add RAW histograms and an auto ETTR mode. I use my Nikon D750's highlight weighted metering to help achieve this. I find that if I have highlight weighted on and over expose by about 1 stop, then usually I end up pretty close to being properly "ETTR'd", but it's always a bit of a guessing game that requires some trial and error.

I expose to the right whenever it's possible. And I did one test with ISO. I exposed a subject with ISO 1600 and to have a " good" exposure I selected a certain apperture and speed. The I set ISO at 200 and with same apperture and speed values. Of course it was underexposed. Then, in Lightroom I raised exposure until it was similar to the exposure of the ISO 1600 picture. The noise was worse on the ISO 200 picture with exposure raised in post production than on the ISO 1600 picture! So, in some situations it is better to raise the iso to get the speed we want than to underexpose!

At last, a youtuber who understands it!

Just saw the breaking news from Fro Knows . Just want to say thank you DP review for guiding me back in 2012 when getting my first dslr back then (canon 6d ) thank you

This has a perfect analogy to recording music. For example when you record a guitar, you want it loud and full of high frequencies. It often sounds nasty and annoying. However, when you start editing and work it in the mix with other instruments, you have the ability to shape it by removing signal because you had such a high signal-to-noise ratio. If you hadn't had much level and high frequencies, you'd just be introducing noise and making the mix sound worse. Basically you want to have all the necessary signal (in terms of level and quality) needed for the end product there from the beginning, you only want to remove extra signal instead of trying to make something that you don't have. And you often find that those originally nasty high frequencies can be invaluable in giving the song some air and making the guitar audible in its own space, and it sits just fine there in the actual mix. And to be fair it just makes everything so much easier if your original material is good quality and you don't have to do any tricks to get what you want and avoid creating problems. This is why you'd want to have histogram visible easily and not behind multiple menus.

very well explained, i always expose to the left, but you're arguments are very valid

This video is a model for what photography training videos SHOULD be like. You are teaching a CONCEPT rather than simply giving instructions to do a single thing.

Hi Chris - my Alpha A7R* cameras are always set to protect highlites in custom setup 1 (my landscape defaults ISO 100, Aperture priority, f8, single focus Highlite protect metering mode) It saves me time and i can tweek from there. This works for me ETTR. There are a few times I will bloe the hilights but thats my creative choice!

Great video ! Many of us would love to have more videos like this one. Maybe next time a video about how to properly expose vlog ? That would be fantastic ! Thanks.

I can absolutely see the use in another 'metering mode' that exposes for the right or left of the histogram instead of an area of the frame to an average. I don't know how often I would need to use it over manual correction, but in a studio portrait shoot with a dark background, that would be awesome to have available.

One thing we should conside,r and help a lot, is that a typical sensor normally gets 2 times as much shadow than highlights. Ok this is a VERY big simplification (every sensor is a bit different and some get more DR than others and there are a lot of other factors), but it works to think that you can basically recover 4stops of shadow to 2 stops of highlights. So overexposing by 1 to 1.5 stops is normally ok. But it highly depends on your scene, of course, and your sensor, so you should test it out thoroughly to know what are it's limits actually.

Good explanations. To be very pedantic, increasing exposure usually doesn't decrease the noise, but increase it. It's the signal-to-noise ratio that goes up. That's because in a Poisson process (that typically dominates over thermal noise) the noise goes like the square root of the mean (the exposure), so signal-to-noise ratio improves likes square root of the mean (x ^1 / x^0.5 = x^0.5).

Thank You

It is about TIME! No. Chris, we don't mind to watch similar great contents in your new PetaPixel channel!

I always expose a little more to the right, kind of like ETTR+, because I know that the Raw file will be able to handle it. Each camera and sensor vary so it takes some experimenting with how much further right you can go, but until we get a RAW histogram, that's my work around.

Great video, I would however be cautious about ‘letting some of these highlights go’, as depending on the lit surface sometimes they are part of the micro-texture reflections (e.g. sweaty skin or some reflective fabrics) or also the sensor will manage colors and Bayerian transformations differently in more or less lit photographs, with dramatically diverging results even using raw (color science can be complicated at the sensor-electronics level). That’s probably also why manufacturers don’t turn on an auto-ETTR option or try to have more readable base-histograms.

Zebras is an option to histograms that is not based on jpg, and some cameras do have an "expose for highlights" alternative (e.g., Sony). It does not work well in video, since it can change exposure dramatically depending on what light sources happen to be in the frame at any given moment.

Nicely done! Absolutely agree on a histogram based on the RAW sensor, not a jpg. You might have emphasized the loss of highlights if overexposed and show the sky image trying to recover blown out highlights vs one recovering detail from the shadow. Thanks! Geoff

You have a great way of explaining things so that I can understand them. Pleeeease do a set of DPR tutorials, that would be fantastic. ATB MMMD

Great video! I was personally already aware of it, but I'm introducing a friend to photography and I was wondering how I was going to explain it to her :)

Always wondered about this since learning how to expose slog3. Where many people say to overexpose up to +2.0 and using zebras with 70 IRE and then bring down the exposure in post. Where as I've learned to underexpose photos a tad especially when lowering the ISO and then recover the shadows in post especially to retain any information in the highlights, depending on the sensor and the lower ISO from underexposing, the noise has been acceptable (for me).

Imho with sensors getting more and more iso invariant exposing to the left is the way to go with raw. You can get much more oit of dark and mid tones (up to 5 EV) than recover blown out areas

Also massively agree histogram from RAW would make such a difference as well - well suggested - lets hope ....

An excellent video. It reminds me of Michael Reichmann's comments some 20 years ago. I fear camera manufacturers simply ignore such requests concerning ETTR and raw histogram.

I use the zebra when in trouble with the Sonys and it works very well to see where I went to far. Perhaps the noise in the shadows doesn't bother me much for two reasons: 1. the dark place of the image are general not as important. 2. if the noise makes trouble I run it through DXO anyway, which adds 2-3 stops to the dR. I'm actually more concerned to loosed the impression the place conveyed to me and pretty much ignore ETTR by setting the exposure to match the picture. That may not be a good idea all the time. Often the colours get smashed by ETTR. Usual the red comes first and gets crashed. A good ETTR would be to use all three colours. Do this will not really allow the ETTF because the red often get oversaturated and the picture is darker then the ETTR based on a simple brightness histogram. One more thing to that would be the need to have y-axis in the histogram to be log of the amount of pixel per brigtness, so you don't overlook the smaller areas in the picture you not want to saturate. Perhaps more important to me overall is that I will miss Chris and his team so much in the future. It is such a sad time to loose their inspirations and fun for all of us.

Fuji cameras have something close to a RAW histogram. You can turn off film Sim preview then the EVF and histogram is much close to the RAW than the output JPEG.

On the topic on the manufactures. Leica and Ricoh has in their recent models highlight-weighted exposure modes.

When shooting RAW, that is something I have wanted, a histogram that shows the full RAW latitude which would be more helpful than the limited JPEG range. I have wanted a ETTR option in cameras for a long time for an auto ETTR so the camera, if there is enough light, won't go below a certain exposure. I have set up my camera in the past to shoot video of birds at my bird feeder and I have just left the camera on a tripod to record and went away from it so the birds would come and I'd get the videos I wanted. I prefer to shoot in LOG so I can grade it, which means I use a Variable ND to control exposure to get it how I want, but being away from the camera, I couldn't physically adjust the ND on the lens. If there was a way for cameras that have in built mechanical NDs Variable NDs or electronic ND to have an auto ETTR, I think that could work well as the camera could control the ND setting to achieve the exposure if you want to keep the shutter speed/angle, Aperture and or ISO fixed, especially if you are remote shooting and don't have a wireless connection to the camera t control it. When I used a Panasonic GH6, to keep noise down, when shooting RAW, I always overexposed where possible to the point where the highlights would clip, bit not clipped and I was able to get the highlight information back while having brighter shadows with less noise and better dynamic range. I have done that for years and still do it where possible.

At least on Sony, you get two great tools: 1. Zebras configurable to brightness valiues higher than 100% (which is JPEG maximum), thus set to 107 or 108 they provide an excellent RAW exposure indicator better than any historgram. 2. "Highlight" metering mode which exposes for the highlights, thus giving a much closer starting point in semi-automatic modes such as aperture priority. Especially helpful in situations with a bright sky (landscape, architecture), where the maximum negative exposure compensation the according dial allows for would not be enough to avoid blowing the highlights with the other metering modes. With (old enough) Canon there is at least MagicLantern, which from what I understand provides both a RAW histogram and some fancy Auto ETTR function. For most (but Sony) you can go a more or less practical route of UniWB.