Page 32 - Learning How to Photograph with your DSLR Camera 2nd Edition Jan 2021

Dark Scenes

The inverse is true for dark scenes with deep shadows, for example, a black cat in
shadows. Black reflects at 9% so the image can be perceived by your camera meter to
be brighter than it is since it measured at 18% gray, overexposing it. In this case, since it
is too bright, you would use exposure compensation to reduce the exposure. Again,
always review your new exposure and check the histogram

Important!

Using exposure compensation is a great feature and can up your game in photography.
The one thing I would emphasize is to ALWAYS reset the exposure compensation back to
0 when you are finished using it. Not resetting your exposure compensation is going to be
a cause for suffering trying to figure out why your next subject is too bright or dark. Just
get in the habit of checking it whenever you pick up your camera and head off for a shoot
just in case you forgot to reset it. It happens.

What is Exposure Bracketing?

This is a method of photography where you can take several shots of the same scene at
different exposures, typically from a tripod. This can be done hand-held, but you need to
ensure the shutter speed is fast enough to freeze any movement in all your bracketed
shots.

The reason you may want to do this is for rapidly changing light in a scene or you intend
to blend the exposures in software. This method of merging or blending a set of
different exposures of the same subject can create more dynamic range.

Dynamic Range

Our eye’s dynamic range is approximately 14 stops of light. Point an shoot cameras
have a dynamic range of about 5-7 stops, while more advanced DSLR’s can have as
much as 8-11 stops of light.

What this means is the camera cannot expose some scenes to appear like the range of
tones we see with our eyes. This is especially true if there is a wider dynamic range of
tones, such as a bright sky and dark foreground in a landscape shot.

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