YouTube Tutorial - RawDigger

This video explains how to determine if you are underexposing your photos and getting less-than-optimal results. You can’t tell this from Lightroom or Photoshop because what they show you visually always include some processing, and their histogram and highlight warnings don’t show it either. It also covers a lot of other basics on reading a file in RAWDigger—all in just 6.5 minutes!

Using RAWDigger is how I discovered that using the histogram to Expose to The Right (ETTR) doesn’t actually work, and that I needed to invent a new way to expose to achieve my goals. The methods I have developed have helped me get better results and a higher success ratio.

Few tools have changed they way I photograph like RAWDigger, but you’ve probably never heard of it unless you’ve taken one of my workshops. I made this video in an effort to help more people discover it.

I think RAWDigger is a necessary tool that every serious photographer should be using. Much of what I am writing about in my exposure book relates to it. Using RAWDigger effectively will require some some understanding of how digital cameras record data and how to interpret that data, but it will help you unlock new skills.

Please consider sharing this video with your photographer friends, and let me know in the comments what other videos you’d like me to make.