Expose to the right or left? Need help with highlights (video inside)

[JoeThePro]

I have been playing with different picture styles and exposures trying to find out what makes the ridiculously easily overexposed highlights in the Canon DSLRs manageable. In this little test I "exposed to right" a bit, overexposing by 1/2 to 1 stop so that the shadows would not be murky when if tried to bring them up. How do you think I handled the highlights in the video? What could I have done to make them look better, or the whole video overall? Any tips/feedback are appreciated. (And yes, I definitely missed focus a couple times! Need a monitor...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glnbvx-IpJs

I used the Lightworks NLE, along with Neat Video via Virtualdub. I dont have any compositing software of any kind, I just used the color correction tools available in Lightworks. I heard the free version of DaVince Resolve was pretty nice, I may try that out.

 

[Samuel H]

It all looked fine to me, except for the big reflection in the wood panel.

In any case: to me, "expose to the right" doesn't mean "overexpose", but "bring your brightest points close to the white clipping point -but without crossing it- and let everything else fall wherever it falls". With digital, it's what I usually do, unless it is causing severe underexposure in important areas of the image (skin!).

 

[JoeThePro]

It all looked fine to me, except for the big reflection in the wood panel.

In any case: to me, "expose to the right" doesn't mean "overexpose", but "bring your brightest points close to the white clipping point -but without crossing it- and let everything else fall wherever it falls". With digital, it's what I usually do, unless it is causing severe underexposure in important areas of the image (skin!).

I think I worded it wrong, I just had to over expose (based on the on-screen meter) a bit to get the histogram where it should be for exposing to the right. I think I actually went too far, though, as I couldn't get that bright part on the wood panel to calm down without messing up other parts of the clip. I think I need to mess with Lightwork's masking tool (its actually a user created fx, not built into Light works), maybe that could have been used to reduce the exposure only on the cabinets.