When taking photos of buildings or statues or things in bright light, I often wanted to get a shot where curves or bricks or other features were highlighted more than the camera judged when in full automated mode.

To fix this, I’d just dial down the exposure compensation two clicks (2/3 of a stop) and in most instances, sure enough, the shadows appeared to “pop” more. It doesn’t always work, especially if you have other things in the shot that are already in shadow, but it was useful often enough that it’s worth writing here.

In contrast, I almost never dialed the exposure compensation up.