Tag Archives: exposure

The Most Important Exposure Decisions You Need to Make

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In my two most recent video lessons on my YouTube Channel, I’ve talked about how to ensure proper exposure when using mirrorless cameras, and also how you can use aperture, shutter speed, ISO and the histogram to gain even more control in your process of trying to get the best exposure. 

In my latest lesson, I talk about about the most important decisions you’ll need to make into order for all of this to fall into place and get the best exposure for your scene. If settings like aperture, shutter speed and ISO are the ingredients, think of these decisions as your master recipe for getting a good shot. As good as modern cameras are, it’s these decisions that ultimately determine how your photos will look.

For as much information and detail that modern sensors can record, digital images still can’t match the tonal range that your eyes and brain can recognize out in the world. No camera can render accurate detail in both the extreme highlights and the darkest shadows at the same time. If there’s one thing you remember from this lesson, it should be that.

Of course, you can do this with HDR photography and by blending multiple exposures, but it doesn’t look quite real and our brains know that. That’s why a lot of HDR imagery has such a unique look. 

Due to the way that camera sensors record light, it’s technically better to overexpose your images. However, that doesn’t take into account what looks aesthetically better to us as viewers. We actually prefer it the other way around. We’re drawn much more to darker, more saturated colors over less saturated highlights.

So how do we get around these limitations and contradictions and shoot imagery that is both appealing to your viewers and that preserves enough visual information without blowing out with too much white?

Here’s the answer:

Expose for the most important bright subject matter

This is where your own creative decision making process enters the equation. Knowing that the camera won’t be able to record everything you see, you need to evaluate your scene and prioritize your subject matter in terms of overall importance and go by this all important guideline.

If there’s one exposure rule that you permanently burn into your mind and remember for the rest of your photography life, it should be this:

Your BRIGHTEST SUBJECT MATTER and your MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT MATTER must be IN THE SAME LIGHT, or else you’ll have too much contrast.

Let’s say you’re shooting a scene that contains both bright, colorful skies and dark shadows. And let’s assume that your subject is moving in and out of the shadows. Maybe there’s some important subject matter in the darker areas of the frame that, ideally, you’d like to preserve.

In this kind of situation, if you were to expose for the highlights, your shadows will drop to black and any subject matter in those areas will completely indiscernible. However, If you expose for the shadows, your nice, rich blue sky will end up as a washed out field of white, which as I pointed out above, won’t look very good.

So…

In order to shoot the scene in such a way that lets you create the most dynamic, exciting image, you need to establish the hierarchy of subject matter in terms of visual/creative importance and do one of these four things:

1. Wait for different light

Wait until the shadows pass, or come back and shoot the scene during another time of day perhaps at sunset, or when the sun has shifted enough to illuminate your shadowed areas.

2. Wait for your subject to come out of the shadows

If your subject is moving, maybe you just need to wait a few seconds or minutes for them to pass through the shadows and come back into the sunlight. When they do, you’ll be able to capture the subject in the same light as the sky and preserve details in both.

3. Recompose and exclude the highlights

Instead of trying to show both, recompose your scene and exclude as much of the highlight detail as possible. This way you won’t have to worry about it washing out. Simply remove it from the equation. This could involve changing vantage points or zooming in with your lens.  

4. Let your shadows drop to black

Instead of trying to look into the shadows, let them drop to black. If there’s no way you can get your subject out of the shadows, then take a different approach and shoot the scene as a silhouette. This will preserve your bright sky, (this works very well with a dramatic sunset) and it will create a suggestion of your subject. 

With many scenes, you don’t actually need to show every single detail in the subject to tell the story. Sometimes the less you show, the more powerful your image will be. Silhouettes can make for very powerful compositions.

These four rules will allow you to better deal with high levels of contrast in your scene. Learn them. Remember then. Pull them out of your hat whenever you’re shooting in challenging light, and you’ll find that they’ll let you solve difficult contrast issues in a multitude of photography situations.

In the next post, I’ll bring it all together, and show you how to combine these decisions with your other exposure ingredients, so that you can effectively nail the look you want for your scene.

EXPOSURE TIPS: How to Use Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO and The Histogram

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Last week, I posted a video lesson on how to ensure proper exposure when shooting with mirrorless cameras. It’s actually a surprisingly easy method, and it will get you by in most situations, even when shooting in tricky and challenging light.

In that video, I share my exact exposure method when I’m shooting with my FUJIFILM mirrorless cameras, even when dealing with very tricky and challenging light. Note, these methods work for other types of mirrorless cameras as well, which make getting the right exposure a much easier process than when using DSLRs. (They also work when shooting in Live View mode with a DSLR)

>My second lesson in the series is called EXPOSURE TIPS: How to use. Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO and The Histogram. In this tutorial, I explain even further the exact method I use when espouse for my photos, and show you how to combine these fundamental exposure components into an efficient workflow when you’re shooting your own images on location. I also teach you a couple of important tips that can help you be even quicker with the camera.

Proper exposure is one of the most vital aspects in photography, so this is pretty important information. You may already know it, but it’s worth a refresher and to see how I handle tricky scenes with my own cameras.

Enjoy the video and let me know what you think by leaving a comment!

You can also read a blog post version of the entire two lessons combined here.

Exposure Basics for Shooting With Mirrorless Cameras

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I often get questions from readers and workshop students about how I exposure for my scenes.

Which exposure mode do I use, how often do I bracket, and in what increments? Which metering pattern do I prefer, center weighted, spot or multi segment? How do I handle challenging light? What should the histogram look like? Do I exposure for the right or the left?

Since proper exposure is such a vital part of photography, I thought I’d give you a quick primer on the exact exposure methods I use with my Fujifilm mirrorless cameras. Note, these techniques work with pretty much any kind of mirrorless camera.

I’ll start by saying that my technique looks a lot different than it used to, simply because mirrorless camera technology makes exposure a whole lot easier.

Compared to digital, color slide film had very narrow latitude, only about five stops, so you either nailed it, or else you threw the picture away. Anyone could get it right in easy light, but when the light got really tricky…

…Let’s just say that this is what separated the men from the boys. Your exposure chops were the most important skills you had as a photographer and serious shooters were forever chasing the dragon of being able to perfectly expose for every type of scene, no matter how challenging the light.

Oh, and I say “men” & “boys” because it’s us male people who tend to obsess about the technical aspects of photography, like how big our lenses are and how good we are at exposure. Women are perfectly capable of making a perfect exposure in tricky light, they usually don’t flap their wings so much when they nail it.

With DSLRs, things are kind of the same. Even though modern sensors have a much wider latitude than film, unless you shoot in Live View Mode, you still have no idea what the picture will look like until you actually shoot it and press the playback button. However Live View on most DSLRs doesn’t give full functionality and performance, especially with regards to autofocus.

Also, if you’re shooting fast breaking scenes, waiting to see if you nailed it might mean the difference between nailing the scene or missing it.

The Magic of Mirrorless

It’s a whole different world with mirrorless cameras. Real-time Live View with full performance and WYSIWYG viewfinders shows you what the picture will look like before you take it, simply because what you’re looking at on the screen is an exact view that’s being fed directly from the sensor.

It’s like magic. There is no surprise. No more “oops.”  No more blowing the shot because you underexposed when you should have overexposed, or because you used the wrong type of meter.

Even in the most challenging lighting situations imaginable, you can still see EXACTLY what your final image will look like. And that changes everything. 

With this in mind, here’s my basic exposure workflow:

  1. Turn on camera and set to Aperture Priority Mode.

  2. Point it at the scene.

  3. Look at the LCD or peer through the EVF.

  4. If I like what I see, I press the shutter button. 

  5. If it looks too dark, I turn the EV+/- Dial a few click up until I like what I see. Then I press the button.

  6. If it looks to bright, I turn the EV+/- Dial a few click the other way, until I like what I see. Then I press the button.

 

I’ll say it again: IF I LIKE WHAT I SEE, I PRESS THE BUTTON. 

It’s as simple as that. Most of the time, the camera gets it right, but if I want something different than what the camera is showing me, I simply turn the EV Dial until l get the look I want. Even if I’m using a different exposure mode, like Shutter Priority or Program.

In other words: The EV+/- Dial is your friend. 

Here’s an example:

The other day, I was riding in an airplane. I looked out the window and saw beautiful sunset light hitting the “winglet.” I grabbed my camera and pointed it out the window.

Hmmm… what should I do to ensure “proper exposure?” Set a spot meter and point it at the winglet? Or maybe at the brightest part of the sky. (That’s what we used to do.) Nah, that’s too much work.

I simply looked at the screen and decided that the current exposure at 0EV was a little to bright. The color on the winglet was a little bit washed out, so I turned the EV+/- Dial to -3 and pressed the button.

That’s all. I turned the EV dial until I liked what I saw. Then I pressed the button and immediately Tweeted it to Alaska Airlines as soon as we landed.

Here’s another example.

In the scene below, the camera told me that “The right exposure” was one thing, but I wanted a slightly darker background and more contrast, so I turned the EV+/- Dial to -7 and took the second photo.

What About Shutter Speed and Aperture?

Ok, now we’re getting a little more complicated. But not really.

For some picture situations, you’ll want a high or low shutter speed in order to freeze or blur the motion. Other times, you might want a wide or narrow aperture in order to get a shallow or wide depth of field.

In Aperture Priority mode, you can control both of those parameters by simply turning the Aperture control until you see either the shutter speed you want or the f/stop you want. The camera will compensate by changing the shutter speed, which you can see right in the display.

So, for most scenes, I simply point the camera and think about how I want my scene to look. Sharp? Blurry? Lots of stuff in focus? Only one thing in focus? Once I figure that out, I turn the Aperture ring until I see either the shutter speed or f/stop that will create that effect.

For the first picture below, I wanted a fast shutter speed. I set my aperture to f/2.8, which got me a speed of 1/640 sec. For the second picture, I wanted blurry water, so I set my aperture to f/16, which gave me a shutter speed of 3 seconds.

What about ISO?

If my current ISO setting won’t give me either the f/stop or shutter speed I want, I simply adjust the ISO. (You could use Auto ISO, but I prefer to change it manually.)

Here I was photographing crows early in the morning when the light was dim. I was using the new Fuji XF200mm f/2, which meant I needed a high shutter speed in order to get a sharp photo of a flying bird. I cranked the ISO up to 1600, which gave me a high enough shutter speed.

It’s a simple as that. Need the speed? Crank up the ISO dial.

What about Manual Exposure Mode?

Manual exposure mode works pretty much the same way, only you have to control everything. You adjust the shutter speed, aperture control and ISO, and watch what happens in the viewfinder. As you adjust those controls, you’ll be able to see the picture get brighter or darker.

When you get your desired shutter speed or f/stop, and you like what you see on the screen, press the button.

Simple as that.

If your picture is too light or dark, adjust SS, f/ or ISO until you get the look you want. Then press the button.

What about The Histogram?

The Histogram is a graph of all the tones in your image. Without going into too much detail, (you can read a great post on histograms here), the basic rule is that you don’t want to have a giant spike on either side, because that means that either your highlights or your shadows will be “blown-out.”

Sometimes it’s ok to blow out your shadows, because shadows are your best friend in photography. Blown highlights don’t usually look as good in photos.

You also don’t want to have a huge gap on the right side of the histogram. Due to the way that digital sensors capture light, there’s more tonal information in the brightest tones than in the darker tones. This means you have more latitude for processing your photos if they’re generally brighter than if they’re darker.

If you try to brighten the really dark tones in your photo processing software, you’ll end up with more noise than if you adjust the brighter tones.

You can display a histogram right in your LCD/EVF. (Depending on the model, you can show a simple histogram or a 3-color RBG histogram. Either is fine.) This can help you with your exposures. Why?

Because you can’t always trust your LCD. Sometimes it can can fool you. Not all cameras have the same quality viewfinder, and not all screens are calibrated the same with 100% accuracy. Also, the LCD can look different in excessively bright or dark light.

I usually trust the LCD on my Fujis, but I’ve seen some cameras where the LCD is not very accurate. You’ll generally find this to be true with cheaper cameras.

It’s very simple to incorporate this tool into your shooting method. When you’re doing the “Exposure Workflow” I outlined above, just keep an eye on your histogram and make sure there aren’t any huge spikes or gaps at either end. If there are, simply adjust the EV+/- Dial or our camera controls until it looks ok.

Ideally, you want a nice, even bell curve that extends all the way across, but doesn’t jump over either side. When in doubt, you should aim for a brighter image than a darker image. However the exact shape will very depending on what you’re shooting.

If you’re photographing predominantly light or dark subject matter, or subject with very high or very low levels of contrast, your histogram won’t look like a nice bell and it may even have some gaps the edges. You may even have some spikes.

Sometimes spikes and gaps are unavoidable, especially if you’re shooting high contrast subjects. Again, you just don’t want too much stuff blowing over the edges.

Imagine how different the histograms would look like for these three photos below.

Being a great photographer still requires a high level of proficiency and experience with your camera. It takes knowing which settings to change, being able to adjust them quickly in real-time, anticipating your scenes and knowing how to translate your creative vision into a final photograph.

Years of practice.

However, the basics of getting a good exposure are relatively simple when using mirrorless cameras. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. Look at the screen/viewfinder and if it doesn’t look right, make an EV adjustments as needed. When you like what you see on the screen, press the button. It’s that easy.

Don’t Be Afraid To Push Your Histograms To The Edge

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Neat and clean. Perfect. Balanced. Evenly distributed. Whatever. That’s boring. If your mission with photography is to create dynamic photos that shout, sing and yell, then you’ve got to break out of your box and go for bang, not whisper. … Continue reading →