Photo tip of the week: Should you underexpose your images on purpose?

Although it may seem to be completely against what you should do when taking photographs, there is a good case to be made for under exposing your images in certain circumstances, something that photographer Manny Ortiz explores in his latest tutorial video.

As Ortiz explains, the value in under exposing one or two stops is it allows you to protect highlight detail. If you under expose, it can be brought back, but if you over expose, you can't always get blown highlights back as easily.

Ortiz is known for his portraiture work in natural light, which can throw up all sorts of varied and complex lighting situations. As he explains, if there are bright highlights in his background he will generally under expose to keep them intact, or at the very least expose for the highlights. Doing this gives him much more flexibility when editing.

It's worth noting that your camera's ability to manage dynamic range will effect your end result - not every camera manages shadow recovery well. 

You can see more of Manny Ortiz's videos on his YouTube channel.