Let's talk exposure

[boBQuincy]

Exposure compensation will alter the aperture, shutter speed, or both, depending on which mode the camera is in. Exposure compensation is much quicker to use than manual, especially if you just chimped a shot and decided it would look better a little lighter/darker.

 

[fitzperry]

Thanks for the responses. I've been having trouble figuring out when to use it, and this helps.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

It's also great when you are shooting something that will continually fool your meter. The classic example is shooting in the snow.

You meter assumes that everything in the world is medium/light grey. When it sees snow, it assumes that it is just very brightly lit grey and adjusts the exposure so that it will come out that way. If you adjust the exposure compensation, you can overcome the meter's bias and not have to futz around with manual adjustments every shot.

The same thing happens when you are shooting a really dark scene, like someone in dark clothing in a room with dark walls. Once again, the camera doesn't understand that the colors are dark, it just thinks that it is medium/light grey stuff that isn't lit very well and pushes up the exposure until it looks medium/light grey. By setting exposure compensation, you can make it right.

Even if you spot meter, you need to make the same adjustments if the thing you are spot metering is very light or very dark in color. The wonderful thing about shooting digital is that you can check your histogram when you are done to see if you got it right.

One word of caution about exposure compensation - DON'T FORGET TO TURN IT OFF! I've done that a few times and ruined some shots because of it.

 

[fitzperry]

One word of caution about exposure compensation - DON'T FORGET TO TURN IT OFF! I've done that a few times and ruined some shots because of it.

BTDT. In fact, a few weeks ago I thought something was wrong with my new flash. I was about to upload a few pictures so that I could ask someone here what I was doing wrong. Fortunately before I posted I decided to glance at the EXIF data, at which point I realized that the EC was set to -2. An ID10t error, as dh would say.

 

[Groucho]

I found exposure compensation to be helpful when shooting SpectoMagic, as the meter sees all the bright lights and meters off those. I brighted it up a little to bring out a little more detail of the performers themselves.

 

[fitzperry]

I found exposure compensation to be helpful when shooting SpectoMagic, as the meter sees all the bright lights and meters off those. I brighted it up a little to bring out a little more detail of the performers themselves.

Funny you should mention that . . . . this afternoon I was brightening up some of the pictures I took at MVMCP. EC would likely have helped there as well.

 

[webshark3]

Groucho,

What settings do you use when shooting Spectromagic (ISO,EC, etc..)? I would normally test myself, but With Disney, My "practice" and "go live" rre all in the same 20 minutes. I've videoed it, but never photographed it.

 

[dpuck1998]

I was just looking at some great photos on another board. The settings were shutter speed of 1/50 and ISO 1600 with a canon E20 in Tv mode.

 

[Reminiscing_Cody]

It's also great when you are shooting something that will continually fool your meter. The classic example is shooting in the snow.

You meter assumes that everything in the world is medium/light grey. When it sees snow, it assumes that it is just very brightly lit grey and adjusts the exposure so that it will come out that way. If you adjust the exposure compensation, you can overcome the meter's bias and not have to futz around with manual adjustments every shot.

The same thing happens when you are shooting a really dark scene, like someone in dark clothing in a room with dark walls. Once again, the camera doesn't understand that the colors are dark, it just thinks that it is medium/light grey stuff that isn't lit very well and pushes up the exposure until it looks medium/light grey. By setting exposure compensation, you can make it right.

Even if you spot meter, you need to make the same adjustments if the thing you are spot metering is very light or very dark in color. The wonderful thing about shooting digital is that you can check your histogram when you are done to see if you got it right.

One word of caution about exposure compensation - DON'T FORGET TO TURN IT OFF! I've done that a few times and ruined some shots because of it.

This explanation is very helpful to me, thanks Mark

 

[Groucho]

Groucho,

What settings do you use when shooting Spectromagic (ISO,EC, etc..)? I would normally test myself, but With Disney, My "practice" and "go live" rre all in the same 20 minutes. I've videoed it, but never photographed it.

The best thing is to take a look at this thread, which I think goes into detail on various settings for SpectroMagic that a few of us have used.

To answer the question quickly though, I tried a couple and the settings I plan on using for the Electrical Parade when I hit Disneyland in September are... shutter priority (1/90th or 1/60th), ISO 1600, my 50mm F1.4 lens, and probably +1.33 or +1.66 exposure compensation. Here's a shot that I got from Spectro in January. This was in shutter priority at 1/90th of a second and was relatively bright, it only needed F2.4 to get the shot even with +1.50 of exposure compensation. ISO 1600 of course.

I think that without the +1.5 exposure compensation, many of the details would be lost. Yes, you can brighten them up a little in post-processing, but at ISO 1600, you're facing real noise issues if you brighten things much past where they already are.

OK, that photo isn't a particularly interesting one, but it gets the point across and is one that I haven't used on here before.

 

[webshark3]

Thanks Groucho, that's eactly what I wanted to see. I assumed about 1/100 at ISO 1600. My lens will be 24mm f2.8. I didn't think about EC at all so thanks for the tips.

 

[Groucho]

Good luck, share your pics when you return. I fear that F2.8 may be a little bit slow for parts of SpectroMagic, but you can probably still get a good number of very nice shots... I'd be interested to see how well it works for you. I'd certainly like to have the flexibility of my new F2.8 zoom lens, but I fear the 50mm F1.4 is still going to be my best choice for their nighttime parades.

 

[webshark3]

I could live off my 50mm f1.8 if it wasn't so tight. I'm debating picking up the 28mm prime f1.8. I just don't know if I wasnt to drop $350 on a lens for a specifc purpose... too many other things I need to buy too.

 

[Josh125]

I happened on this over at dpreview. The member put this .pdf out for others to download load. It's a very easy to understand overview on the main concepts of photography and how they work together. It's worth the download and read.

SEE BELOW** Linked on third post

Rapidshare is hit or miss for me, if you want me to email it to you just PM me your email addy.

 

[Dan Murphy]

How is this regarding exposure, looks like a storage promotion?

 

[Josh125]

How is this regarding exposure, looks like a storage promotion?

Rapidshare is a hosting program to transfer files, no promotion. Actually, I have found the dpreview link and posted it below. I was hoping to save him some bandwith, however since he orginally posted it.....I won't feel bad about posting it.

http://www.daveindech.com/exposure.pdf

 

[My2Girls66]

How do you properly take this type of picture to have the snow covered mt and sky properly exposed along with the lake?
Thanks.

 

[ukcatfan]

Expose for the highlights b/c if they are blown out there is no recovery possible. In post processing, increase the exposure on the shadows to bring it up to what you want. Shooting RAW (if possible) will help. A HDR shot is another thing to try, but getting that right can be difficult and you need the proper software to combine the different shots.

Kevin

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Another option is to use graduated neutral density filters.

 

[boBQuincy]

For a photo like this it should be no trouble to take at least two images, one exposed for the foreground and one exposed for the sky, and open them as layers in one image file. By masking part of the top layer it is fairly easy to get greatly extended range without going to a full HDR.

A tripod helps but if the camera is braced against some support the two images should align closely enough to work well.