Page 33 - Learning How to Photograph with your DSLR Camera 2nd Edition Jan 2021

A Special Note About High Contrast Scenes

A high-contrast scene is defined as having a variation of tones of 7 stops or
more. To determine this place the camera in manual and use spot metering.
Meter the bright area, then meter the darker part of the image. If the difference
is at least 7 stops it is a high-contrast scene.

For example: The camera is set to Manual, Spot Metering, and a shutter speed
of 1/100. In this example you meter for the highlights and determine and
aperture of f/22. Next you meter on the darks and come up with f/2 for the
exposure. The difference is 7 stops: f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6. f/8, f/11, f/16, and
f/22.

Intuitively it would seem in the middle would be the correct exposure for both
the highlights and shadow details. Selecting a f stop around f/7.2 seems
logical but in real practice the image will be too dark with little to no shadow
details. Why is this?

Modern DSLR cameras have a wider range of tones in the darks and shadows
(the opposite of film camera). So, from f/2 to f 22 the range of shadows may
be 5 stops while the highlights range only 2 stops. The solution then is to
expose for the highlights and open-up 1-2 stops. In this example an aperture of
f/11 or f/16 may work.

Finding the Bracketing Function on Your Camera

How to select Bracketing from your
camera will vary depending on the
model. Most often it is a button with BKT
such as the one on this Nikon. Pressing
the button opens the menu to select how
many exposures and how man EV’s
apart to space them.

Figure 12 Nikon Bracketing Button (BKT)

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