Page 21 - Learning How to Photograph with your DSLR Camera 2nd Edition Jan 2021

Things are a bit different in manual. A stop change requires a reciprocal change to
balance the exposure. For example, you changed the Shutter Speed from 1/500 to
1/1000, which halves the amount of light entering the camera making the next
photography darker. To compensate for the light loss, you need to make a reciprocal
change in the Aperture (or ISO) to let in more light by 1 stop. You can do this by
changing to a wider aperture by 1 stop from f/11 to f/8, doubling the light.

Do not worry at this point if this is not completely clear to you, as it will be discussed in
greater detail as we go through the course. The big takeaway is understanding what a
Stop is.

The Histogram

A histogram is a recording of all the tones in your image as well as the
distribution of the intensity of colors. It is found when you review your
photograph on your LCD screen. Usually, you must toggle up using arrow keys to
see the histogram like the one below. Understanding the histogram is essential
and can help you see your exposure.
This visual representation is a way to check your exposure, and perhaps adjust. Things
we do not want on our histogram are for all the data peaks clumped to the left or to the
right. If it is pushed to the left, the image is underexposed. If pushed all the way to the
right, the image is overexposed, too bright. Using your knowledge of the exposure
triangle, you can adjust the aperture, shutter speed and/or ISO to brighten or darken
your image.

This histogram is what you will see on
a typical LCD screen when the
histogram is active to view with the
image. Your camera manual should
help you find this option. In this image,
you see the photo of the squirrel, data
below and in the top right the
histogram. This histogram displays the
tone of the image with the darkest
parts of the image represented to the
extreme left and the brightest parts to
the extreme right. Most histograms
should ideally spread out across to
each extreme but not touching the left
or right vertical lines.

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