A Trick for Sharp, Contrast-Filled Photos (and a link)

Update: 12/12/2012: Here's a good reason NOT to do this: DPS - Expose to the Right

I found this to be a good read, on the B&H Photo blog:  http://www.bhphotovideo.com/insights/blogs/bh-insights/just-what-sharp.html.

The one thing that's mentioned in this article that I've always done is shoot with my exposure turned down -1/3 or more. It depends on the lens I'm shooting with, but I always turn it down this much, and with wide angles such as my fisheye, I may turn it down even more. When you shoot underexposed, it will do a few beneficial things: First, as a side effect, it reduces your shutter speed since you're intentionally underexposing the image, reducing the probability of camera shake and subject movement. Second, as the blogger adds, it will add black to your image, punching up the colors and give you more contrast. Third, an underexposed photo is always easier to correct in post than an overexposed photo, so this will help you recover detail lost to black. I'm a huge fan of high contrast images saturated with black, so if you are as well, give it a try!