You’ve read all the usual stuff—shutter speed, aperture, ISO, the exposure triangle. But once you’ve got the basics down, it starts to feel a bit stale, right? Here are some tips you actually need to know.
Expose for Highlights…
You’ve probably heard the golden rule: “Don’t blow out your highlights.” It’s drilled into our heads because, once your highlights are gone, they’re gone. No amount of editing wizardry is gonna bring back detail in a patch of pure white.
But sometimes, especially when you’re shooting something moody, say, a shadowy alleyway or a dusky concert scene, you might actually want to prioritize your shadows and let some highlights clip. The key question is: What’s the most important part of this shot?
Try this. Head out at noon (harsh light), shoot high-contrast scenes, and experiment with deliberately letting some highlights clip. It’s super eye-opening to realize how much you can still get a killer shot even when parts of it are “technically wrong.”
Your Camera’s Light Meter? It Lies.
Your camera’s meter is just guessing. Its entire purpose is to make whatever it’s seeing turn out “middle gray”—about 18% gray to be exact. Which works until you’re photographing snow, or a black cat, or basically anything that’s not middle gray.
An easy way to fix this. Find something you know is around middle gray, could be an actual gray card, or tiles, or even your palm if it’s light enough. Meter off that in the same light as your subject, lock exposure, and done, that is way more accurate exposure. If you’re feeling fancy, switch to spot metering and meter off a key midtone area instead of letting your camera average out the whole scene.
ETTR: The Edit-Or-Forget-It Rule
You might’ve heard of this thing called ETTR—Expose To The Right. Sounds fancy, but it’s actually simple: it means pushing your exposure as bright as possible (without clipping highlights) so you capture the most data. More data = cleaner image, especially in shadows.
But here’s the catch: ETTR is useless if you’re not planning to edit. If you’re just shooting JPEGs and uploading straight from camera, don’t bother. ETTR images often look too bright and flat until you bring them into post and edit them. So if you’re a RAW shooter who loves editing? Absolutely give ETTR a shot. If not? Just don’t care.
TL;DR: The basics matter, but real magic happens when you start making intentional choices. Expose for what matters most in your scene. Don’t trust your camera meter blindly. And also don’t stress too hard about “getting it right”—sometimes “wrong” is exactly what makes your shot stand out.