Friday, April 05, 2013

A to Z Challenge - E


In photography, exposure is the amount of light that is able to pass through the camera when taking a picture (or within one shuttle cycle). Exposure is affected by four factors:
1. how much light is in front of you (can be changed by adding lights/ flash),
2. how sensitive the film is to light (ISO, more about this soon)
3. the amount of light going through a lens (aperture)
4. how long the film is exposed (shutter speed, more about this later).

Overexposed...
Getting a photograph in the correct exposure can be a tricky balancing game, which is why most cameras come with an auto setting...so that amateurs don't have to make decisions about aperture, shutter speed, ISO and flash. This is often called the "auto" setting. But a good camera will also give the photographer the option of changing any or all of these factors.

Reality!
Unless the photographer is doing some weird artistic thing...he/she likely wants his/her photographic work to be exposed in such a manner that the subject is lit and easily seen. Too much exposure and your photo appears pale and washed out. A photo that is underexposed will appear dark and hard to see. The perfect exposure setting is somewhere in between.



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I need to get my husband to read all this, he has been trying his hand at photography but much of the language is greek so far. :)
Great post!

Jemima Pett said...

Thanks for the tips, Shannon!
Happy A to Z-ing
Jemima at Jemima's blog

Hart Johnson said...

I wish all this was more natural to me. I'm a mess with photography. It's nice that computer stuff can manipulate it all after the fact a little, but I'm not great with composition either... probably better off just appreciating OTHER people's photography...

Stephanie Allen said...

I enjoy taking pictures and I enjoy looking at photography, but I definitely don't have the patience to learn about things like this :)

Interesting post!

Nancy Thompson said...

I love photography and have several awesome SLRs, but my skillz are so poor, even after taking a class. I'm following you now. Maybe I'll actually learn a thing or two. :)

Shannon said...

Hart, I'm by no means a pro. I'm just beginning. But a few tricks and your pictures get much better quickly. You mention composition...I'll talk more about this down the line. Maybe it will help!
S