effectively all digital sensors (and film does too) have more noise in the shadows than in the highlights. when shooting in RAW, it might look like after shooting like you have clipped shadows, you might discover that the DR of your expensive camera surprises has saved your ass, and you can recover them it's less likely you can get the highlights backģ. the scene you're shooting might actually fit in the dynamic range, but if you meter for 18% gray default, you might still clip even in RAW.Ģ. The analogy is a real thing, for a few reasons:ġ. (If you are set to JPG, you are stuck with the dynamic range of that color profile with RAW, you have the entirety of the dynamic range available in post, especially shadows). The 'why it works' to the analogy is more that the default matrix meter in most digital cams expose for middle gray, which can leave sometimes shadows, sometimes highlights clipped. I think the analogy 'expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights' to 'expose to the right, and let the shadows fall where they will' is pretty accurate and good advice for a technically careful photographer wanting to use their gear to the best. Also, it's more of a strict cliff than analog, where old films had a gentle fall-off in the 'shoulder' or 'toe' which still have some data, which you could use as-is, or compensate for by changing the development time, at least for highlights. Jan Kruize, you're right that once you've gone past the dynamic range of your sensor, the data is indeed lost. You can read more about this method in my previous article. By temporary converting it to black and white, it might become possible to successfully use the zone-system of Ansel Adams again. Sometimes it can be difficult to recognize the different highlights in a color photo. How about color? The zone-system of Ansel Adams is invented for black and white photography, of course, but it can be used for color photography as well.

It is almost as if we stepped into the darkroom of Ansel Adams again. With proper post-processing you will end up with a perfect contrast in your black and white photo. The black point and white point slider will let you manipulate the boundaries, and locale adjustments make it possible to optimize any part of the photo to your liking. When using Lightroom you can use the sliders highlight and shadow to manipulate the shades of gray. The detail in the shadows is present, thanks to the Exposure to the Right method.

The latter makes it possible to make small adjustments in the photo. With just four sliders in Lightroom, we can manipulate the contrast in the photo.

Ansel adams