Back to Basics/Exposure

I am always interested in finding out what brings our students to the workshops. In the case of our beginners courses it is often a desire to get more from the cameras they own. After all it makes perfect sense that if you own a sophisticated bridge camera or a DSLR; you will want to do more than just shoot in the auto modes.

Some of our students already have a good understanding of the basics; however still feel that they are missing a trick, that there is still something that they need to know which will take their photography to the next level. There are of course several aspects which can affect our picture. In this blog and some to follow I will go over some of the basics. These are all covered in our camera part 1 and 2 courses and I think it is good to be reminded of them so that we do not get out of the habit of using them.

Good exposure is often fundamental is taking an image which resembles what we wish to record. We know that as clever as today’s digital cameras are, they are unable to record the same range of tones that we can identify. Many photographers go away with images that have blown out highlights or fail to record detail in the shadows. Often these photographers feel that these lacklustre images are due to their own lack of ability or understanding of how to take the photograph. This is not usually the case; the reason is simply that our cameras are not capable of recording detail across a high dynamic range, that is to say a scene which has extremes in tonal range from bright to dark areas.

There is no perfect solution to this, certainly not without resorting to editing software and particularly HDR software in this instance. I fully believe in getting the best result strait from camera. That is not to say that I am against using Photo shop or any other editing software out there, however in the first instance when wishing to correct as aspect of exposure I would apply a degree of exposure compensation. This is easily applied, and time and practise will familiarise the user with how much to use. Most cameras will allow applications of up to 2 stops of under or over exposure. Many newer models will allow more. The principle is simple. If wishing to bring back lost detail in the highlights, for instance to washed out skies, then select the underexpose option, go towards the minus. If the desire is to lift details in shadows, lighten darker regions, then go towards the plus, overexpose. What we are doing is overriding the cameras own exposure and doing so without compromising our aperture setting. This easy and effective way of adjusting exposure is a great tool in altering out image towards showing detail that is important to the image.

Balancing highlights and shadows using neutral density grad filter

There are of course other ways of balancing extremes in exposure and apart from tricks in editing software there are certain filters that are available for this purpose. We cover the use of these in our Landscape courses and I will post more blogs in the future with regard to this.



HDR image

More floral delights at Kingston Lacy in Dorset.

Kingston Lacy  near Wimborne in Dorset was host to another of our DSLR part 1photography courses last Saturday 9th July. Once again our eager photography students wandered through the woodland paths, discovered the Japanese gardens and photographed some excellent details from the estates formal gardens. The standard of photographs taken was in many cases exceptional for a part 1 course. It gives me great pleasure in showing some of the images taken.
The following pictures taken by Frances show fantastic control over depth of field from close up, these were taken with a 2.8 lens and show how small depth of field can be when working so close to your subject. This is    used to great effect with these images.

The following few images were taken by Becky, the youngest of our delegates last Saturday. Becky at just 15 years of age shows a good eye for photographic composition and should become an accomplished photographer if she keeps it up.

Chris took the following 3 images and demonstrates good composition and control of depth of field.

Next  a couple of great shots taken by Jayne followed by a few more quirky images from Kingston Lacy taken by Sayma.

Finally Richard shows how to use depth of field in composing images, keeping close up detail sharp and making the background slightly blurred.