There are a ton of resources out there regarding exposure, composition, depth of field, etc. I’m not going to try to tackle an in-depth explanation of any of these concepts. The purpose of this little series is just to pass along some quick tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way.
So let’s start with exposure. Digital cameras all have the capability to expose your images correctly, automatically. When you press the button half-way to focus, the camera reads the amount of light available in the scene, and then calculates the appropriate shutter speed so that your image is neither too light nor too dark. But say you have a subject sitting in a chair in front of a window? Let the camera take the lead and you’ll have an image of a properly exposed window and your subject in the shadows. Most likely, you don’t care what’s out the window, you care what’s in the seat. In this case, you need to override your camera’s automatic exposure setting. There are a few ways of doing this, but a really quick and easy method is to use your camera’s Exposure Compensation dial. DSLRs all have this, as well as a lot of point-and-shoot cameras. You can modify this setting by 1/2 or 1/3 stops anywhere from -2 to +2. Dial it to +1 and you’ll probably have a much better image. Although you’ll lose a lot of detail in the window as the highlights will be blown out, you’ll have a much more pleasant picture of a bright subject with bright light pouring in from the window.
Shot in Aperture Priority mode at f2.8:
Shot in Aperture Priority mode at f2.8, Exposure Compensation +1:
Not a huge difference, but enough to give a completely different feel to the image.
An important note: this only applies to shooting with natural light, without flash. If your camera is in Auto shooting mode and your flash is going off, change the mode to ‘P’ (Program) or ‘A’ (Aperture Priority) to try this.
Up next: Using your camera’s White Balance setting creatively!
