Originally posted by photog I follow the ETTR rule with the proviso the highlights with the exception of spectral highlights (reflections) should NOT be clipped.
Do keep in mind that, to get the most meaningful histogram when shooting ETTR, you should dial the camera's contrast setting down as low as possible.
Settings for an Accurate Histogram
This matters even if you're shooting raw. NOTE well that shooting this way means your photos are going to look a little washed out when you review them on the back of the camera. But you will get the best raw exposures this way. So what looks incorrect turns out to be best after all.
Quote: The image on the LCD screen mat appear too bright, but who cares, The camera previews using the JPG settings selected in your setup. This will deliver an image with little of no shadow clipping.
I don't think the K20D overexposes. Actually, I tend to push my exposures to the right more often than to the left.
The words "correct exposure" have two meanings: the meaning to the camera, and the meaning to the photographer. Correct exposure for the camera is easy to understand: it's the exposure that makes the meter balance right in the middle. But correct exposure for the photographer is often something quite different. And ultimately the proof is in the capture not the chase.
Here are two examples from a bridal shoot.
In the first photo, the camera and I agreed about the exposure. The histogram is a level line of low hills stretching all the way from left to right - a balanced and "correct" exposure, albeit not a classic mountain-in-the-middle graph.
The other shot was, honestly, a mistake. We had been shooting in the shade, and the bride walked over and sat in this chair - the wind was blowing, I saw the shot, and I shot instantly without taking time to think about exposure. The shot was WAY overexposed. Some might consider it way overexposed still. I might even agree with them. But I managed to pull the exposure down in Lightroom, found a lot more detail in there than I expected - and the bride and her mother really liked the shot. So that was an exposure that I would have sworn was incorrect but apparently turned out to be correct after all.
Will