Exposure Compensation

[bend the light]

Hi,

I have been doing a few birdy shots recently. I know that to expose the bird against a bright sky, that exposure compensation is necessary, so I cranked it up...and it works.
Question: If I then forget to reset the exposure comp back to zero, then all my images will be overexposed. If I then adjust the exposure in Adobe RAW, effectively back to zero, how is that going to affect my image quality?

I have tried it a couple of times, and it actually looks ok...providing I don't completely blow out the whites with the +ve compensation.

Thoughts?

[Arthur53]

Far from an expert on image quality but do the same sot of thing. Expose to hold the high lights and work the shadows in Photoshop. If the camera histogram looks well out them I bracket expose and combine in PS. Don't claim its the right way but works for me.

[bend the light]

Thanks Arthur. Bracketing is an idea, but not for a moving bird or animal. I have used it for static things, however, to quite good effect.

Cheers

[miketoll]

My understanding, such as it is, is that if you overexpose the highlights to the extent that detail is lost (blown) then even in RAW you have lost it although RAW has a little more leeway than JPEG. Better to expose for the highlights and get them right and sort out the shadows if necessary as they are much more rescue-able. Even here if the exposure is too far out then rescued shadows will exhibit noise.
In other words you have got away with it so far but better to get it right in camera! So easy to forget to change settings back.