Modern sensors, especially from Nikon and Sony, bring enormous dynamic range that really enhance the possibilities for landscape photographers. There was a traditional school of thought: Expose to the Right (ETTR) in order to avoid noise. In other words, you would avoid noisy images by slightly over-exposing and thereby lifting the shadows, and then dropping the exposure in post processing.
The newest sensors have so much dynamic range and some degree of “ISO Invariance,” meaning you don’t really get a noise penalty by lifting shadows in post. (An image taken at ISO 800 and then exposure lifted by 1 stop in post processing will have the same noise as an image taken at ISO 1600 in the first place).
Because of this, those shooting landscapes with the newest sensors can expose to the left — Keep the exposure level low in order to preserve the highlights and lift in post.
Below, see how I processed a sunset photo taken on a cruise ship. The photo was taken with the Nikon D750 and Nikon 18-35 g lens.
Read more about:
Shooting landscapes with a tripod
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