Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers

118 Using Light

Creative Exposure

Creative Exposure

In Chapter 1, I explained that an overexposure lets too

much light into your camera, and results in a capture

that is too bright. On the other hand, an underexposure

doesn’t let enough light into your camera, and results

in an exposure that is too dark. Whether a subject is

exposed using “too much” or “too little” light is usually

established by comparison with a reading from your

camera’s light meter. The amount of light let into the

sensor is controlled by varying one or more of the

settings that are on the camera’s side of the exposure

equation: aperture (Chapter 2), shutter speed (Chapter

3), and sensitivity (Chapter 4) as shown below.

Good photographers often use their own judgement to

modify the light reading obtained by their equipment

and intentionally over (or under) expose a photo (see

pages 46–51). Perhaps the exposure meter is simply

wrong. For example, light meters tend to average every-

t

hing to middle gray, which can lead to overexposure

of bright subjects (like snowfields).

Other times the point of the exposure modification is to

capture one part of the photo just right (letting other parts

of the photo go too dark or light). Other times, the pur-

p

ose of the exposure modification is to create an overall

effect, and increase the visual impact of the photo.

In both cases, the modified exposure ...