"Exposing to the right" is over exposed, what now?

Porte Rouge wrote:
I set my exposure to slide the histogram to the right, without clipping
( when I have time), to capture the most tonal levels . So, now when I
am editing the photos they are over exposed(not clipped). A sunrise is
a good example. The deep colors are washed out. The obvious fix(to me
anyway) in Lightroom or CS4 is to reduce the exposure. Now my question
is, by reducing exposure in post, am I just ending up in the same place
(histogram to the left) as if I had just ignored the histogram when I
was shooting and set the exposure to properly expose the image using
my light meter? I guess in short I am asking if Lightroom or CS4 loses
tonal values when you reduce exposure in editing.


Porte

There is no simple answer. It depends on whether you shoot raw
or jpeg, and whether you use 8 or 16 bits in Photoshop.

If you shoot raw and go to 16 bits in Photoshop you will indeed
capture more tonal levels and better shadow detail if you correctly
set the histogram in the camera as far right as possible. Significant
improvements in shadow detail are possible compared to "politically
correct" exposure in the camera.

If you use jpeg and 8 bits, maybe, maybe not.

Doug McDonald