Effects of Exposure on the Quality of Photographs.

It only takes two seconds to show somebody how you feel about them. The police call it indecent exposure, but whatever…

Exposure is an extremely crucial factor in digital photography because it is one of the main determinants of what will be recorded in real-time on the image sensor of a camera, and ultimately the shot which will be captured and produced.
 

Exposure consist of 3 basic elements which are manually adjustable on any decent digital camera.  These 3 basic elements to the exposure triangle which are:-

• ISO Rating:  ISO setting (usually referred to as ISO rating) is used to regulate how sensitive the image sensor  of the camera is to the available light.
  
• Shutter Speed:  is the duration, or the length of time, that the shutter of a camera is open.
• Aperture:  Is the opening size of the lens when a scene is captured.

 
The exposure of a scene to be captured is represented by a combination of the values of the above three elements and the resulting value from this combination is known as the Exposure Value.

If the setting of one element is adjusted, then it will impact on the working of the other two settings.  This is because the shutter speed, aperture and ISO  work dependently.  Therefore, if you adjust one setting it is necessary to adjust one or both of the other elements so as to get the correct exposure value.

I tell you, this all sounds quite complex to the beginner.

It’s like all things in life, most of us aren’t born knowing how to do it. It takes a lot of effort, time and patience to excel at anything.

I beg to differ. I was born knowing how to do it!

To become a professional in photography it is essential that you know how to control these three elements by adjusting the settings in a manner which enables the exposure to be optimum for capturing the best quality image.

In the meantime, whilst you are learning how to make the adjustments to the three elements of exposure,  you can always use the automatic mode feature of your digital camera.  This means that the camera does all the work for you, although you are a little limited if you want to create any special effects.

This post has been written with the purpose of helping you learn how to manually adjust the settings to achieve  a quality shot.

I’m a good photographer, I’ve taken some great shots on automatic mode of my camera.

In the same way that automatic doors make me feel like a jedi.

Working with different Settings on the Elements.

 
One of the great advantages of having a digital camera is that you can experiment with the settings until you’re heart is content.  As I have mentioned before, experimenting with different settings for yourself is one of the  best ways to learn how to achieve an outstanding shot.

Whilst experimenting, keep a notepad handy (digital or old style) to write down which exposure settings that you used with each shot and then experiment with different adjustments.

Photography is the art of observation. It has little to do with the things
you see and everything to do with the way you see them.
Elliott Erwitt

Dr Halls Notes on Exposure

I have been interested in photography, as you probably know by now, for a very long time. It is one of my passions.

Although it is essential to know the technicalities of exposure (and shutter speed and ISO), photography is so much more than a technical hobby. There are many formulas to help you get the perfect shot.

But a perfect shot in the technical sense is not necessarily going to resonate, or communicate, what you see and are trying to capture to the viewer.

One of the essentials of a truly great shot is that some emotion, feeling or essence of the scene is communicated . Words should never be necessary to try and explain an image or scene that you have captured, the photo should say it all.

Some photographers may want to focus on the amazing colors of a landscape, or capture the exact glint in an animal’s eye. It’s a very personal choice how much light you want in your photo, what you choose to highlight and frame and what color quality you desire.

Therefore, exposure is a very personal thing and although there are some basic rules, a truly great photographer understands that each shot is different and tries to capture the scene or image in a way that they experience it.

Life is like photography, always look on the bright side of things

I think the secret of good photography, is buying a really good camera, and good big lenses. I have a canon eos 7d mark2, and a 70-200mm lens, which I love. People ask me, are you a professional, and I’m not, and I don’t care. It’s just a great camera, that I leave on automatic nearly all the time. Another secret, it is to take a lot of photographs. Be snapping them all the time, and throw away most of them, but you just never know where the best and most interesting things are going to be.