Situations where exposing to the right is not necessary
Thursday 12 November 2026, 16:16 by Nando Harmsen | 15 views | 0 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
Exposing to the right may be better known by the English term Exposure to the Right, or EttR. It is a good starting point for your exposure. But there are situations where exposing to the right is not necessary.
The idea behind exposing to the right is as follows. You make the photo as light as possible, without creating clipped highlights. This also makes the darker parts of the photo as light as possible.
Because the darker parts are as light as possible, you avoid having to brighten them in post-processing. This minimises the chance of noise in those areas. You make maximum use of the camera's dynamic range.
You can expose to the right, but it serves no purpose here. There are no dark areas in the photo that need rescuing. It is better to expose as optimally as possible so that you capture as many brightness levels as possible.
There are also situations where there are hardly any dark areas in the photo, or none at all. Think especially of photos with lots of light areas. These could be photos with lots of snow, or photos taken in fog.
If there are few or no dark areas, there is no need to make them lighter than they already are. Exposing to the right is therefore not necessary in this situation. After all, there is nothing that needs brightening.
An optimal exposure of this photo in fog. The histogram is already mostly on the right, but it has not been exposed to the right. There is enough room for the desired post-processing.
There is a risk, however, that when the image consists mainly of light tones, the measured exposure produces a photo that is too dark. After all, the light meter tries to make everything it measures 18% grey. Exposure compensation is certainly needed in that case.
The light meter tries to turn it into 18% grey. You obviously need to correct this. But it is not necessary to expose as far to the right as possible.
Do you have low contrast? Are there no dark areas in the image? Expose correctly, rather than necessarily as far to the right as possible. That way, you capture as many brightness levels in the photo as possible.
It is worth remembering that exposing to the right is intended for photographers who shoot raw. Do you shoot jpeg? Then never expose to the right.
About the author
Nando Harmsen has been photographing for more than 40 years. He specialises in wedding photography and landscape photography. Nando also gives talks, workshops, masterclasses and photo trips, and regularly reviews new and interesting equipment.
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