Exposing to the right

In digital photography, exposing to the right is the technique of deliberately slightly over-exposing an image to get the best results out of the digital image sensor. The name comes from the fact that the resulting histogram is thus shifted to the right. Advantages include less noise in dark areas and fuller use of the colour spectrum. However, the danger of blown highlights is a major risk. The principle is also applied in film photography in order to maximize the negative's latitude and density and achieve richer blacks when the image is printed slightly down.

The technique is best used when shooting in a raw image format so post-processing can be done on the resulting file. If this technique is used with JPEG files (the default on most consumer cameras), it may result in over-exposed pictures.

ources

*http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml
*http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/restore-clipped.shtml - "some pitfalls of this technique"