Learn Digital Photography - Understanding Exposure Compensation

As you learn digital photography you'll find terms that leave you wondering what on earth they mean. One of them is exposure compensation and sometimes known as aperture compensation or Ev. A technical term, but if you understand it will help make some of those good images great.

I always had a problem when taking images that had a lot of white in them or where they were quite dark. They came out grey or with the dark images, too light. What I hadn't realised was that my camera was doing its own thing. That is, the light meter was being fooled by the conditions and making its own decisions. Most times they are great but there are times when they just don't get it right.

The camera's light meter is not super intelligent so it's always trying to average all the colours in a scene to an 18% grey. It doesn't work with you but has its own agenda. This works fine most of the time as long as there isn't too much white, then it gets fooled and does its own thing.

On your camera you will find a setting or a button denoted by Ev or a little icon with a +/- sign. This is where you will change the exposure settings. So what do you need to need to change and how does it work to improve your photos?

1. When the light meter of your camera sees all the white in an image it thinks that there is too much white and the image will be overexposed so it compensates for this and underexposes the photo. Just what you don't want to happen.

2. The setting it chooses for the aperture size is therefore incorrect as it allows less light to hit the camera's sensor.

3. This results in a muddy or grey image because not enough light is allowed in through the lens.

4. In order for you to improve your image you have to compensate for the camera's light meter reading using the Ev setting.

5. Depending on your camera, the compensation measurements or stops as they are known are measured in thirds or halves.

6. If your scene is very white as in snow, you'll need to add a stop or a fraction of a stop so that enough light reaches the sensor.

7. By doing this you manually open the lens aperture overriding what the camera's light meter thinks it should be.

The same goes for a dark or black image. You just do the opposite by stopping down a third, half or full aperture stop. Here the camera thinks there is too much dark and opens up the aperture.

The proof of this is in the pudding as they say. You may get it right first time or it may be necessary to vary this setting until your photo is acceptable. When I learned how to use my exposure compensation setting my photos improved dramatically. It was my discovery of the year. As you learn digital photography and experiment with these settings you too will improve.

There is another feature on your camera which help you get this right virtually every time. It means taking extra images every time you press the shutter. It's called AEB or automatic exposure bracketing. What it does is this. You preselect the amount of compensation you want, say one third of a stop, and the camera brackets this by choosing one normal image, one a third of a stop over and one a third of a stop under. So when you press your shutter button it takes three shots, one for each of your chosen exposure settings. It's like insurance and you get the shot every time. Again you need to experiment to see if a third, half or full aperture stop will work.

By taking just a little extra time as you learn digital photography your images under these circumstances will improve considerably. Take a look at your camera's manual to see exactly how exposure compensation and exposure bracketing works on your particular camera. Happy shooting!

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Wayne Turner has been teaching photography for 25 years and has written three books on photography.

Digital Photography Secrets - The Direction of Light

One of the main digital photography secrets that elude most photographers is the direction of light. Where is the light coming from and how will it affect my subject? This is a question that most photographers never even consider.

The direction of light:

When you look at your subject through the viewfinder or in live view on the camera's LCD, identify where the light is coming from. Is it coming from the side? Above? Below? Or even behind? To truly begin to master seeing light, you must first begin with a basic. Try this exercise:

Look for a room in your home that has a window where direct light is not streaming through the window. This is called ambient light. It is diffused and soft, but it always has a direction. It is almost always the photographer's friend.

Get to know it.

Place something on a chair or table by the window. Maybe a small vase or statue. Stand with the window on your left or right side and with the object (let's say the vase) directly in front of you. The light will be coming from the side.

Notice how it wraps around the vase creating a modeling effect. This is normally beautiful light and places nice shadows on subjects. Especially when the light is diffused and not direct. Again, this is called ambient light or open shade might be an easier term to get our minds around.

Now let's walk around the vase until we are in between the window and the vase. The window is at your back and the vase is in front of you. This is front lighting (don't let your shadow fall onto the vase or you will be a science project, how an eclipse is formed). There shouldn't be many shadows on your vase and if this were a person there wouldn't be any shadows either. This is a flattering lighting setup for people who don't want their wrinkles to be accentuated.

Again, using this type of lighting, open shade or ambient light, combined with front lighting is a very nice combination to photograph people.

Let us move again so that the vase is in between the window and us.

This is classic back lighting and produces silhouettes.

Most beginning and some seasoned veterans are fooled by this type of lighting since when you look at it, your eyes compensate for the lack of light on your subject and don't really see the bright background. Your camera unfortunately doesn't realize that your subject doesn't want to be in the witness protection program and exposes for the background (or the lightest area in the viewfinder) because that is how they are programmed.

How do we fix this?

In a DSLR we switch to manual and overexpose by a stop or two. Or set our camera to overexpose in the automatic mode. In a point-and-shoot camera, it's a little tougher but it can be done.

You just have to be smarter that your camera!

Point your camera at your subject and depress the shutter halfway, now hold it there. On the newer models, the camera will do the work for you realizing that your point of focus is the main subject and it will overexpose like its big brother the DSLR. Sometimes you may have to go into your menu and request an overexposure.

Either way you subject will receive more light and be clearly exposed. One more trick is to turn on your built in flash and hit your subject with a little electronic fill light and voila, correctly exposed subjects!

Continue to practice seeing the directionality of light and identifying it many different settings. Become a master of seeing the light and your photography will soar to the next level. Digital photography secrets can unlock your potential and help you become a better photographer.

Michael Kitada is a professional photographer with more than 20 years experience. His work has appeared in People Magazine, Forbes, TV Guide and the cover of Newsweek magazine. To learn more digital photography secrets visit: http://www.takebetterphotosnow.com/