I recently read a book titled “The Landscape Photography Workshop” in which the authors talk about Landscape photography in the digital age and techniques on how they achieve quality digital images. In it they advocate exposing so your histogram is pushed to the right, or in other words, over expose the image. In the past I have always followed the philosophy of proper exposure for what I am shooting. Proper exposure is totally subjective but let me explain what I mean and how I qualify proper exposure.
In any given scene what I give the most importance is what I generally expose for. If a scene has a dynamic range greater than the camera can handle I have to make decisions. Do I want the shadows exposed better because what is there is what caught my eye or do I let the detail drop off and expose for something else. I have followed this technique and it has really helped me “see the light” and focus not so much on what I am seeing in my histogram, rather, what I see in my mind’s eye.
In my opinion the authors of this book have it completely wrong. There are those of you out there that will say I am wrong and that is cool with me. Photography is just that, very subjective and therein lies the beauty. No one ever sees the same thing. You can stand beside someone who is photographing a scene and not see what they do and when you see the image either on screen or in print you get a piece of them.
I did experiment with their technique and have to say that it is definitely not for me.
