Exposure
Ever wonder why your photos keep coming out too dark or too light? Always been taught to keep the sun to your back? Why doesn’t the photo look the way we remember the scene? It’s time to learn about exposure. The human eye is pretty amazing in what it can do. We can see detail in both the bright and dark areas of a scene. Even the best cameras that we have today are nowhere near the capability of the human eye and are able to reveal only a limited range of contrast. Cameras are getting better no doubt, but we need to understand that when humans look at a scene we see far more than our camera is able to reveal and have to help our camera to render the scene as we experienced it. This limitation can also be… manipulated to creatively interpret a scene to present an emotional response.
So what is proper exposure? That depends on you the photographer and what you are trying to achieve. There is no single answer but rather a series of choices you will make to create the image that you want. Simply, exposure is controlled by how much light is allowed to reach your cameras sensor and for how long that light is allowed to reach the sensor. The amount of light is controlled by the size of the aperture-opening of the lens expressed in f-stops. Confusingly the larger the f-stop the smaller the aperture or the less light allowed. An f16 lets in less light than f5.6. Think of it in terms of slicing up a pie. If you slice a pie into 16 equal pieces, each piece will be smaller than a piece of a pie sliced only 6 times. The aperture chosen will also affect the depth-of-field, or how much of the scene is in focus. Again, exposure is a combination of choices.
Published by Wiley as part of their Photo Workshop series of books “Exposure” deals with the subject in a clear easy to understand manner. Written by Jeff Wignall the book covers a full range of exposure challenges. Each chapter offers an assignment to practice the concept covered in the chapter. As with all the books in the series, Wiley maintains a website that encourages photographers to upload the chapter assignments for review and critique. I recommend not only this book but the other books in the Wiley Photo Workshop series as well. If you’re ready to improve your photo results regardless if you have a point-and-shoot or a full featured Digital SLR this is a great place to start.
About the Author: James Scott is CBW (Chief Bottle Washer) of James Scott Photography. Involved with Digital Imaging, Photography, Video and Software Development for 30 years I've learned 14 things. As soon as I remember what they are I'll pass them on, because I think they are important. But I'm not sure.
