The Digital Photography Companion

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EXPOSURE LOCK

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e exposure compensation scale

When you’re shooting an object that’s very bright, such as a white statue, you may want

to add more exposure to render it white. So, move the pointer on the exposure scale

to +1.

On the other hand, if you’re shooting a very dark object with your camera in autoex-

posure mode, the camera will overexpose the shot and render the object lighter than it

really is. If you want to avoid this situation, you should subtract exposure by moving the

pointer on the exposure scale to –1.

As you become more comfortable with the exposure compensation function, you can

make subtler adjustments to your pictures. You can also fine-tune your images later in

Photoshop or another image editor, but the more energy you put into capturing your

pictures the way you want them in the first place, the less time you’ll have to spend

processing them later.

Exposure Lock

Typically, when you press the shutter button halfway down and hold it there, the cam-

era locks both the focus and the exposure. While still holding the button halfway down,

you can then recompose the shot and take the picture. But what if you want to lock the

focus on one item and the exposure on another element?

Some cameras allow you to lock the exposure independently of the focus. If your cam-

era has this function, it usually works like this: first, you press the shutter ...