Montana Stream and Forest

One of my favorite images taken on a trip through Glacier National Park. I had recently purchased my Nikon D700, and this trip was the first opportunity to use it. I was amazed at the painterly effect that the D700 can impart to a photograph, with very little Photoshop adjustment, other than the standard black and white point, etc. Many photographs taken with a DSLR can be too dark right out of the camera, unless exposed properly, utilizing the ETTR principle. In other words, DSLR cameras have a default exposure where the exposure is too far to the left on the histogram. I learned about this principle on the Luminous Landscape website. ETTR means to expose to the right, utilizing the histogram to monitor this. Doing so can eliminate a lot of camera noise, which is more prevalent in the shadows. Exposing to the right maximizes exposure so that noise is drastically reduced. There is much less noise at the highlight side of the histogram. Still, you need to be careful not to clip at the high end. The best way to achieve a proper exposure is to set the compensation to about +2 EV.