Don't Rely On Photoshop - Better Photos... Now!

When it comes to photography, it seems that there are two different schools of thought about getting your photos right in-camera.  This couldn't have been more apparent after hearing a few different photographers speak at different events a few months ago.  One photographer believes it's all about the moment and missing a moment while you try to get a perfect exposure just isn't worth it.  Another photographer believes that getting the exposure perfect in-camera is the only way to shoot.  Regardless of where you fall on this topic, you should probably try to get your photos as close to perfect in-camera as possible (by anticipating the moment if necessary).  Although photo editing programs can work wonders with RAW files, you'll save yourself lots of time and probably get better results if you just get a proper exposure the first time.

When you properly expose an image, everything is balanced.  Shadows are dark but still retain detail.  Highlights are bright but not blown out.  Skin looks normal, colors are saturated and contrast isn't too strong.

When you over or underexpose an image and try to fix it after the fact, shadows can start to show noise and run to deep black with no detail.  Highlights can be completely blown out with no recoverable detail.  Contrast gets much stronger than normal.

Of course, there's always a little wiggle room.  You can be off by 1/2-stop without any real issues.  In a scene without a huge dynamic range you can probably even be off by around 1-stop and get a great looking image.  Any more than 1-stop and your results may or may not be acceptable.

There are always going to be photos that are under or overexposed.  Maybe a moment caught you off guard and your settings weren't perfect.  Maybe you just metered incorrectly and didn't nail the exposure.  It happens.  The less often it happens, though, the better your overall images will be.

Here are a few quick examples from a recent wedding that illustrate the importance of getting the exposure correct in-camera.

Here's a photo that was incorrectly exposed.

While it's possible to recover lots of the information, the highlights
are blown out beyond recovery and the image
doesn't look very good.

Here's an image captured under the same conditions that was properly exposed in-camera.  Much better...

Read all of my DSLR tips here.