Sep 11
26
Exposing Exposure…
Have you ever had the pleasure of re learning something you’d forgotten or became so habituated to that it was taken for granted? I did recently. Today’s modern digital cameras take a ton of old fashioned calculation out of exposure settings so it’s easy to forget what’s going on. The other day I flipped to page 72 of the April 2008 Outdoor Photographer and found a lesson on the old Basic Daylight Exposure principal. It wasn’t always “point and shoot” so here is the basis of how your exposure is set and how to adjust it to your needs with each shot:
Try basic daylight exposure when shooting outdoors. Photo by Gordon Campbell www.swfloutdoorphotography.com.
Assuming sunny but not shadowy or glaring lighting on your subject, exposure is set like this: In manual mode Speed= 1/ISO at f16. So at ISO 200 your manual setting would be 1/200th at f16. If as in the example shown you in the magazine you were interested in a faster shutter (perhaps to avoid blurs with your zoom lens while shooting birds or sports) you might move to 1/800th and compensate by opening your aperture 2 stops to f8. Now you are learning the thought and practical process of exposure.
Need a break? Your DSLR contains a key tool to help automate this when your subject is surrounded by extra light or dark backgrounds and it’s called the spot meter. This way you directly expose for your subject and not the surrounding area. Perfect for the nature photographer.
Armed with these two tools for metering you can both understand and apply solid exposure techniques. The reason they are so helpful is because you learn to readily and confidently make changes as your subject and lighting does. This is as technical an article as I’ve written lately- does it help, could you see how it would? To learn more, subscribe by email to this blog or read it regularly right here. Coming up Wednesday- tips for bird photography, Gordon.
Link to Outdoor Photographer
Professional Photography from Ft. Meyers & Sanibel to Naples, Marco Island and the Everglades.
gordon@SWFLOutdoorPhotography.com
239-776-4743
copyright 2011 Gordon Campbell/Southwest Florida Outdoor Photography.
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