Expose for the Highlights
My photography class students learn to "expose for the highlights'". Here is an example of that technique.
The image above was taken at the Page United Methodist Church in Aberdeen, North Carolina using my new Nikon Z7 on a recent Photo Walk. It was taken at 1/50 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100 in RAW. The lens was the Nikkor 24-70 mm, f/4 that came with the camera.
The next image is the original shot by exposing for the light coming thru the stained glass. I took the exposure by pointing the meter at the stained glass, holding down the Exposure Lock button, and recomposing before tripping the shutter.
The image below is the original shot by exposing for the light coming thru the stained glass. I took the exposure by pointing the meter at the stained glass, holding down the Exposure Lock button, and recomposing before tripping the shutter.
Since the original was was shot in RAW at ISO 100, I was able to bring out the details in the shadows using Lightroom. If I did not use this technique, the camera could have taken an average meter reading - making the light coming thru the stained glass pure white without any detail. We called that blown out.
The first image was more like my eye saw the inside of the church that day. Because even the best cameras can not capture as much dynamic range, the difference between light and dark, we as photographers need to use methods like this to bring the beauty in the scene.