Getting Down to Basics: Exposure

Posted on Dec 14, 2016 in Featured

Today's Post by Joe Farace

In response to several suggestions from new readers of this blog, I wanted to back to the basics with a look at some subjects that challenge new photographers—especially these shooters moving up from cell phones to an SLR or mirrorless camera.

When teaching at workshops, the number one question that I get from students and one that usually permeates the entire event is a quest for perfect exposure. Back in the 1970's I used to tell my Basic Photography students at Howard Community College that the perfect exposure was the one they liked.

As is true for all aspects of photography there are no one right way, although some program presenters may disagree and argue that only their way is the one, true perfect road to correct exposure. I disagree. There is no "my way or the highway" in this blog of photography; you get to choose the method that works best for you. Even a road less traveled is OK if it produces the results you want. If it doesn't produce results you want its time to look at some alternatives and fine-tune them to your favored subject matter and preferred way of working.

For example, if you have a light meter setting reading for a subject of 1/500 sec at f/11 and want to use a slower shutter speed allow for normal subject blur and set choose 1/125 sec you will have to adjust the aperture (make it smaller) so that that the same (equivalent) amount of light will fall on the sensor. By selecting aperture (A) or shutter priority (S) mode, your camera will do equivalent exposure for you, eliminating the all of the guesswork.

Sometimes you will see the term exposure value (EV) used that denotes all of combinations of camera shutter speed and aperture that produce the same exposure. This term originated in Germany during the 1950s and persists to this day with purists who are more comfortable with it than using "stop."

So what's the perfect exposure? It's the one that you like. Go make a few tests, shooting brackets either manually or automatically and find out for yourself. One of the advantages of using digital is that it won't even cost you a whole lot of money to find out.

Along with photographer and Mirrorless Photo Tips contributor Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography that's now out-of-print but new copies are available at collector (high) prices or used copies for giveaway—less than a dollar—prices from Amazon.

Source: Getting Down to Basics: Exposure