Tree Swallow Singing
The answer is easy for me - shooting in the camera's native ("raw") format rather than JPEG allows for a high degree of recovery when you "miss". There are other reasons (ability to adjust white balance, use camera profiles after the fact, etc) but exposure recovery is number one for me. The image below is the original raw file from the camera.
As shot - underexposed
Big difference! The first step in processing this image was to increase exposure 1.5 stops. That's a lot! There were some standard edits made as well (contrast, color, noise reduction and sharpening) but 90% of the change was the ability to pull the exposure out of the shadows.
Shoot in the raw, you won't regret it!
Stay in focus,
Mark