Shutter speeds at certain depths

While I need to update it with more 'severe' examples, I did put together a quick web page last year to demonstrate that what I post does not come out of camera like that. Not even close on a lot of my subjects.

http://www.cjcphoto.net/beforeafter/index.html

I did not shoot in RAW mode until I got my RX100, but since then I've made good use of it.

It's important to realize that I can get away with this much processing because I typically shoot at low ISO's where I have maximum dynamic range.  And the dynamic range of a D810 or D850 at ISO 100 is incredible.

It's also (very) easy to see a lack of dynamic range in an image when you process it, because it just looks ... harsh.   Usually I am unable to properly bring down highlights, and at the same time I already have some noise before bringing up shadows, and I'm unable to achieve a truly good white balance.   Almost always when shooting wide angle.  With macro I'm usually controlling the lighting completely with strobes (and can shoot at ISO 64 as a consequence).  This sort of loss of dynamic range affects me very quickly - I have lots of troubles post-processing my ISO 320 wide angle shots.

When shooting at base ISO, I don't necessarily pay a lot of attention at getting exposure just right in-camera.  (Partly because I'm still learning how to deal with manual strobe power adjustments rather than TTL).  I just glance at the histogram to make sure I've not blown a highlight, which I can't recover from.   I have more issues with blown highlights in reflective corals than underexposure I can boost in post.

But if shooting at ISOs higher than about 200, I really need to nail the exposure in-camera so as to reduce shadow boosting and highlight pulling as much as possible.

Adjust your expectations, but at least shoot in RAW.  Here is a good example.   This shot was out of camera with no adjustments applied in Lightroom.

Typical out of camera shot at ISO 400, F8, 1/200th.  Decently exposed though.

Their is no way to take the above JPG and turn it into my finished image (below).  You need a RAW file to do this much adjustment.

After cropping and getting white balance right, plus other adjustments: