Flip your photo Friday: Exposure ~ Dayton Photographer

Introduction

     I want to start by saying this was meant for last Friday’s blog post but, as usual I did not meet the unrealistic deadlines I place upon myself because I have to be so thorough! ;)  This is a new feature I wanted to add to my blog because part of my photography journey and the teacher in me compels me to help improve everyone’s picture taking abilities. 

      “How many pictures will you let pass you by if you wait till you get a better camera, better lights, or better vision?,”  Chase Jarvis. 

     The photography tips/tutorials I will try to leave on here each Friday (at first it will probably only be once a month instead of once a week) are meant for the “average Joe” photog and if it is helpful advice for my  photog friends than that is great as well. Eventually I think this section of my blog will also serve as a great resource for my digital media students.

     Your feedback will determine what I post next so, please let me know what photography issue/problem you have been struggling with and want to improve.  I will pick a topic

randomly and the person chosen will be eligible for future giveaway drawings (I say future because it might be a while before I can collect items to “giveaway” but, I will start a list of entries…)  

Disclaimer:  By creating these tutorials I am by no means saying I am an expert at photography but, I do feel I have gained quite a bit of knowledge in the years I have taught it/practiced it myself.  I also frequently stalk blogs and forums which have taught me many things as well but, unfortunately I might not always be able to distinguish what I have learned from them or what I have learned from classes I have taken/my experimenting.  Due to this lack of memory on my part I want to apologize up front if any information I include on here was someone else's idea and I will always leave links to those who deserve the credit.  Last thing I want to add is this new post idea is partially due to the fix it Fridays that I heart Faces holds each week so, don’t forget to check out their contest as well- I Heart Faces

     With out further ado here is this week’s Flip your Photo

Eliminating Exposure Errors before they happen:

The biggest struggle I personally think most people struggle with when it comes to taking pictures is exposure.  I see so many photographs people have taken that are either too dark (underexposed) or too bright (over exposed).  Here are some examples I have taken and exaggerated the settings so you can clearly see the difference:

Underexposed- It is hard to see information that describes the babies' faces because they are hidden in the shadows.

Overexposed-detail in the background and the Grant's face is missing because it is too bright.

Fixing the exposure with the camera and metering your available light

Copyright 2007 Liz Masoner licensed to About.com, Inc.

A light meter showing proper exposure in manual mode.

This can be found in the camera’s menu or on the bottom of some camera’s viewfinders

How a camera meter works:

      Hopefully from glancing at the images above you can clearly see that with either exposure issue you have a loss of detail and lack of all the information you could have had in the photograph.  I think this problem often occurs because we expect too much out of our camera’s auto setting (and I am not just referring to point-and-shoot cameras; DSLR owners are guilty of this too).  The problem is each camera’s meter in the auto setting only reads the amount of reflected light an object gives off so, it is only guessing at how much light is actually hitting a subject.  


Does each object reflect the same amount of light?  NO!  Therefore the camera’s meter reads what is often called a medium gray/neutral amount of reflected light (This is where a gray card comes in handy-to be explained later if requested :) ) and for most scenes it does not work.   Some extreme examples of this are beach scenes, snow scenes, in front of the sun or a bright window (the camera often can not find a neutral gray reflected amount of light so, it is forced to read the reflected light from one of the other objects = underexposed or overexposed image depending on where you point the camera’s meter).  


Now sometimes you might want this silhouette effect but, if you do not then you must learn more about your camera’s other settings.  I know taking a camera off of auto is scary but, if you do not take the plunge then the quality of your pictures will not change no matter how expensive your camera is!  If you think using that there camera’s flash will correct this problem then think again…

...If you are still reading then you care about the quality of your photographs and I will do my best to briefly explain to you how some of the other settings on your camera works in terms of correcting your exposure (each camera is vastly different however so I recommend you pull out that manual!).

Metering Methods usually found in the camera's menu
  
(photo courtesy of http://www.karbosguide.com/books/photobook/chapter17.htm)

-         Evaluative/matrix:

-         Partial or center weighted:  the camera will read part of a scene and sometimes this will work depending where you point the cameras auto focus area/point.  Often this method works if you do not have high contrast scenes (extreme differences between light and dark). 

-         Spot: probably the most effective method of metering the amount of reflective light a specific object has and is great when you have extreme contrasts-dark object on bright background or light object on dark background.  When taking of portraits of my clients I often use spot metering because it allows me to make sure my subject is properly exposed no mater what type of background they are in front of.

Metering camera modes

(photo courtesy of http://dpnow.com/1886.html) 

                   
(photo courtesy of http://www.steves-digicams.com/camera-reviews/nikon/d70-slr/nikon-d70-slr-review-3.html ) 

Camera Meter can be found in the viewfinder for DSLR's or look on your display LCD screen menu for point-and-shoots        
                                              
      

-         M; Manual: allows you to choose from one of the metering methods listed above and in turn gives the photographer more control in how your camera reads reflected light in a scene.  This mode also opens a whole new set of options so; bear with me because it can take some time at first to learn.  

After you choose the appropriate metering method you have to consider 3 other factors before the camera’s meter (refer to the meter photo above for location/how to use it)
will read as 0 or “perfect exposure.”

 ·        aperture- controls how much light hits the camera’s sensor (in film days it controlled how much light hit the film).  The aperture of a camera also controls how much of a scene is in focus or the depth of field (which will be talked about more later if focus is a requested topic) and is measured in f stops (or fractions).  The lower the f stop number (wider aperture) the more light will enter the camera but, you will have a shallow depth of field meaning less of your subject will be in focus and the higher the f stop number the less light will enter the camera and more of your scene will be in focus.      

·        Shutter speed- Since you can often compare a camera to the human eye ball I love to think of the shutter on a camera like the lens of the camera.  It controls how long the light enters the camera when you push that button.  Just like aperture shutter speed can also affect the focus of your subject because the slower the shutter speed the more you are at risk for blurry objects (this is how many photographers create smooth silky waterfalls/streams, cars that create colorful trails as they drive by or light paintings).  SO BE VERY CAREFUL ADJUSTING THE SHUTTER SPEED TOO LOW UNLESS YOU HAVE A TRIPOD!  If you are using a DSLR camera and even some point-and-shoots the general rule of thumb is to not use a shutter speed (amount at the bottom of the fraction: 1/50 for 50mm lens) below the length of your lens.  However since I frequently shoot children who never stay still my shutter speed NEVER goes below 1/200. 

·        ISO- finally you can adjust the ISO (in film days this meant actually changing the type of film you were using) or the sensitivity your camera has to light.  The higher the ISO the brighter your subject will be but, in the digital age where we deal with pixels (the small dots of color that make up a digital image-like a grid) noise/grain can become a problem when you go above an ISO of 800.  Most of the time I keep my ISO at 200 whenever possible except when I am inside and it prevents me from having a blurred image.

-     P; Auto Multi-Program (program PE for canon) is so much better than auto if you have to decide between the two because you can change the amount of each of the above factors (aperture, shutter speed or ISO) and the camera will adjust accordingly.  This is where using spot metering might be very important however. 

-         A; Aperture Priority (AV for canon cameras) allows you to choose the aperture or f stop number to control how much light enters the camera (just remember it also changes the depth of field or how much is in focus) and the camera automatically chooses the shutter speed.  Usually you can still change the ISO amount.

-         S; Shutter Speed Priority (Tv mode for canon) lets you set how slow or fast your shutter is on the camera and the camera will choose the appropriate aperture.  This works great for sports, kids or other fast moving objects.

A few more in camera exposure tips:

    

       ~ exposure compensation- most cameras have an exposure compensation option which works well if you know your camera’s meter tends to overexpose or underexpose frequently.  This also helps those high contrasted scenes where the subject is darker than the background (use a positive amount) or vise versa (use a negative amount).

      ~ your camera will usually warn you if your exposure is underexposed with a LO indicator light or a HI if the image will be overexposed.  Just remember that there camera is not always “correct.”

      ~ If the camera thinks the subject will be underexposed or "blurry" the flash indicator will often blink.  Remember it is best to ignore this and instead try changing your settings elsewhere first.  Sometimes however the camera’s on board flash must be used; two instances are usually night scenes or when a subject is in direct sunlight to help fill in the shadows (what I like to call monster face and I usually try to shoot my subjects in open shade to avoid this).

     ~ Some cameras also have program settings for specific scenes (every once in a while these can successfully work and when using a camera that does not have many bells and whistles such as a DSLR then it is another option).  Read your cameras manual to see what settings you have available.  The following are some I have encountered and they are named after the scene you should use them for- portrait, sports, kids, water, beach, fireworks, landscape, macro (for close up photography), night scene, back lit subject ect…

     ~ many cameras also have an exposure lock button which allows you to read the exposure of one object use the button to lock the exposure in place (helpful because many cameras automatically read the exposure at the same time they focus) and move to focus on your main subject.  Re-composing will prevent subjects from being smack dab in the center which allows for more interesting compositions.




~Since it can be very time consuming and tricky when you first start in manual only mode there are two sayings to help you get started: the best tip I have every heard was during one of the many photography classes I have taken and it is where I place my camera on a nice day- Sunny 16 refers to setting your f-stop or aperture at 16 when it is a nice bright day outside (usually your shutter speed would be set at 200 and always set your ISO on the lowest possible amount; Nikon 200 or Canon 100) and when I used to shoot with film I remember the saying f 8 and be there (meaning set your f stop to 8 and use the meter to set up your shutter speed where it should be, ISO again should be the lowest amount possible).  Photo.net also refers to this saying http://photo.net/making-photographs/exposure

~ the histogram on a camera can let you also double check exposure.  It looks kind of like mountain peaks and a properly exposed

 photograph usually reads with a nice tall peak

 in the middle. 

    (photo courtesy of http://thedigitalstory.com/2006/01   /learning_the_histogr.html)  

If you have gaps on the right

side or another small mountain peak then something in the 
photograph is               

underexposed and if you have gaps in the left side or another small mountain peak then something is overexposed.

 Since I did try to adjust my meter before I took these photographs the actual photographs my camera took  looked like this (still a little too underexposed for my taste but, a little post processing tweaking would fix this):

A few more great places for you to visit that also cover this whole exposure issue:

http://www.better-digital-photo-tips.com/photo-exposure.html

http://www.iheartfaces.com/tutorials/

http://photo.net/learn/basic-photo-tips/correct-exposure/

http://digital-photography-school.com/learning-exposure-in-digital-photography

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Exposure/Exposure_01.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/modern-exposure.htm

Great resource for those of you who use point-and-shoot cameras!!!!

http://photo.net/learn/point-and-shoot-tips

Alright that is my spiel at using the camera settings to prevent exposure issues so, what do you want to see on here next?  I can continue with exposure tips and how you can fix minor exposure issues in GIMP (a free on-line photo editing program very similar to Adobe Photoshop) or I can cover a topic you have been struggling with-THE CHOICE IS YOURS.

You will determine what is in the next Flip your Photo Friday…


For all of your who entered the free end of summer portrait session I will be posting the winner sometime mid next week since, I will be M.I.A. this weekend when it comes to the internet.  Thanks for your patience and understanding.  Look for more special offers and giveaways in the near future that are currently in the works...