Exposure and Camera Modes
The exposure is the combined factors of how long time the sensor is exposed to light, how much light comes through and how sensitive the sensor is to light. It’s based on three things, Aperture size, Shutter speed and ISO.
Exposure
There are 3 parts of exposure that you should understand. The following examples ought to illustrate how these 3 components of exposure interact with one another.
Example 1
You take a photograph with the following settings: ƒ/8, 1/250s and ISO 100
But let’s say you want to freeze the object more, which requires a faster shutter speed, you can either change the ISO or the Aperture. First of all let’s change the shutter speed 1 stop faster, 1/500s — now only half the amount of light will reach the sensor. To compensate for this and keep the exposure the same you can change the aperture size 1 f-stop larger, ƒ/5.6.
So ƒ/5.6, 1/500s and ISO 100 will give you the same exposure as ƒ/8, 1/250s and ISO 100 (but now the shutter speed is faster which allows you to freeze your object in a different way).
Example 2
You’re indoors with bad light conditions which makes your current setting too slow and are unable to hold the camera steady enough. The settings are: ƒ/5.6, 1/60s and ISO 100. Your lens’ largest aperture is ƒ/4 which is 1 f-stop larger, changing your shutter speed 1 stop faster will result in: ƒ/4, 1/125s and ISO 100. The shutter speed is still too slow and the result is blurry due to camera shake. Since you can’t change the aperture anymore you will have to change the ISO setting, 1 stop will result in ISO 200, you now have: ƒ/4, 1/250s and ISO 200 which should be enough to get a sharp photograph.
As you hopefully can see from these examples all three parts of the exposure are related to each other. If you just change one of them the result will be either an underexposed or an overexposed photograph, but if you change both you can keep the balance.
55mm, f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100
300mm, f/5.6, 1/800, ISO 400
50mm, f/5, 1/320, ISO 400
Overexposure
Overexposure happens when the sensor is exposed to more than enough light, resulting in white images or at least white areas in the images around the light source(s). Sometimes it’s impossible to expose the photograph correctly without getting some overexposed areas. Overexposure can be used as an effect, but most of the time it’s unwanted and avoidable.
Underexposure
Underexposure is the opposite of overexposure, and is the result of the sensor not getting enough light, the photo is dark. Underexposure can be used artistically but just like overexposure it can be unwanted and hard to avoid.
To Underexpose, or Overexpose? That – is the question
With digital cameras it’s much easier to bring back the light and colors from underexposed areas than it is to bring back shades into overexposed areas. If you’re photographing in RAW you might want to consider to underexpose your images on purpose to avoid loosing details in overexposed areas and then use a digital lightroom to bring back the light from the underexposed areas if needed. This depends on the light conditions, and indoors it can be a good idea to overexpose instead.
I personally always underexpose my outdoor photographs 2/3 of an f-stop for this reason, and have found the results much more pleasing than a “correct” exposure.
Exposure Lock
Exposure Lock is a great feature that’s available on most cameras. It’s rather easy to understand what it does, it locks the exposure so that it doesn’t re-calculate the exposure if you move your camera around. Try to find a neutrally exposed part of your object, not the light source nor the shadows but something in between, and press the exposure lock button — recompose your photograph and take the picture.
Camera modes
MANUAL MODES:
- M — Manual mode; this gives you full control over both aperture and shutter speed.
- Av or A — Aperture priority; you control the aperture and the camera calculates the shutter speed for best exposure
- Tv or S — Shutter priority; you control the shutter speed and the camera calculates the aperture
- P — Program mode; a more advanced form of an auto mode. The camera calculates both the aperture and shutter speed, but doesn’t affect settings like ISO or flash.
AUTOMATIC MODES:
- Auto — everything is on auto, including ISO, flash and image quality
- Portrait — uses a large aperture to shorten the depth of field
- Landscape — uses a small aperture to gain more depth of field
- Sport — uses higher ISO to use faster shutter speeds
- Night portrait — uses long exposures to capture the entire scene, often combined with built in flash
- Macro — uses a large aperture to great a softer background
Just Say NO! to Automatic Modes
There is no reason what so ever to use the automatic modes. After you’ve read through this series of articles about photography you should have enough knowledge to control the camera on manual modes — which will result in better photographs.
The Program mode (P) is fine to use, this way you will have the aperture and shutter automatic but still be in control over everything else. Most photographers find a mode that they like and maybe switches between two different modes, this is personal preferences and let me just tell you that far from every professional photographers uses only the fully Manual setting.
I personally use M and Av most of the time, depending on the situation. Av for the situations where I don’t have enough time to set the correct exposure between every shot and then M for the rest.
45 Comments
What can I say, great reading.
Flag as inappropriateFredick post is very usefull, but can you do a post on camera manual settings, say same scene with different settings in apperature, ISO and shutter speed..etc.,, to understand the photography better.
Flag as inappropriateregards,
saggiee
Photoshop tutorials, from beginner to advanced. photo manipulation, icon design, text effects, interface, layout, painting, photo effects, psd tuts, maxon cinema 4d, designing.
Flag as inappropriatehttp://photoshopcs8.co.cc
hav’nt get any thing.i am a layman in photography.but i have a lots of interest in photography.so pls help me out
Flag as inappropriateThank you for this… I don’t have a clue on exposure, light metering, shutter speed, f stops, down 1 stop, up two stop, reflective light, or any studio lighting. I am so lost.
Thanks again.
Flag as inappropriateVery clear. Thank you.
Flag as inappropriateone of the best photography article i have ever read
Flag as inappropriatethis is a great, i learned so much !!!thankyou!!
Flag as inappropriateVery knowledgeable article on photography. It will help me a lot.
Flag as inappropriate..that should be ‘Interactions’….!
Flag as inappropriateGreat articles! I’ve always wanted to know how to take half decent pictures, and to understand the workings of an SLR, i.e the iteractions of Aperture, ISO, Focal Length, etc, and these tutorials certainly help. I’ve just been out a bought a Lumix G1, so now I just have to learn how to use it!!
Flag as inappropriateps, It’s an excellent camera!
“So if you underexpose you basically so “bye bye” to lots of details.”
*************
Wrong. You *can* bring out details better if they’re underexposed; if the highlights are blown, you’re stuck with white areas that *nothing* can help.
Also, the article says nothing about exposure compensation controls. My D200 can be set to under/overexpose by either 1/2 or 1/3 stop, while keeping my aperture/shutter speed settings.
Flag as inappropriateGreat for Everyone
Flag as inappropriateThanks for sharing! Excellent article! I personally like shooting in A or M on my Nikon D60 because I have better control over all my settings. As well, when you are starting out and you learn the nitty gritty aspects of photography, you learn a lot quicker when you have to manually change and adjust yourself during any shoot. Happy shooting everyone :)
Flag as inappropriatewow thanks so much.166
Flag as inappropriatewow thanks so much.153
Flag as inappropriatewow thanks so much.148
Flag as inappropriatewow thanks so much.
Flag as inappropriateI have been trying to wrap my head around ISO, Aperture and exposure for months. I’ve read articles, text books and even had a photographer explain it. And none of it stuck. You just solved that for me. It totally clicked. Thank you. You quite possibly could be the force behind a great photographer in the making!
Flag as inappropriateI have been trying to wrap my head around ISO, Aperture and exposure for months. I’ve read articles, text books and even had a photographer explain it. And none of it stuck. You just solved that for me. It totally clicked. Thank you. You quite possibly could be the force behind a great photographer in the making!
Flag as inappropriatewow..gud information on exposure..liked it a lot..thanks..i also found a blog Shari academy interesting.thr are many post in it related to photography with many tips..also as i too was in a thought which camera to be used, this blog and also shari academy blog really helped me find the best one that i needed..thanx ton
Flag as inappropriateHello Sir,
Excellent information given. Just purchase my first SLR today (nikon d5000) and had a quick question.
I was looking through your portfolio (which is beautiful) and was curious if most of the images are retouched using photoshop or a similar program or if you are able to get that color straight from your camera?
Thanks for your time!
Jon
Flag as inappropriateThank you!
I shoot in RAW, so all my published photographs have gone through some post production to export them as jpgs. It honestly depends on what I photograph, but for the most time I do as little editing as I can. Some of the shots on my site are just exported exactly as they came out of the camera, but for the most time I do a little change in the Levels, so that the range is right with the darkest parts being black and the lightest being white — or in and around those areas.
I never use a stamp-tool, or otherwise alter my photographs, unless it is to remove sensor dust (or it’s a shoot for a client). Since I’m almost 100% a nature photographer I simply want my photographs to look exactly the way the scene did when I took the shot. So yeah, most of my photographs have very little, but some, post production done. (And I use Apple’s Aperture)
Hope that answered your question.
Flag as inappropriateFredrik
“Just Say NO! to Automatic Modes” – You have to wonder about people who buy DSLR’s, use kit lens and auto mode haha nice waste of money :)
Flag as inappropriateThanks a lot, I’m beginner at photography and it’s all pretty difficult to understand from the first sight. But your pieces of tips are really helpful. Thank you!
Flag as inappropriateread this and i got the hang of it right away:)
Flag as inappropriatethanks for your help!
Your advice on underexposing is not such a good idea. Last 5th of the digital photos histogram has half of the information of the photo so it is more recommended to overexpose and then in post production make the photo “normal”.
So if you underexpose you basically so “bye bye” to lots of details.
Flag as inappropriateThis is a really late reply — and for that I’m sorry — for some reason I must have missed this question (I primarily uses RSS-feeds to view all comments).
So this is mostly an answer so that other people that read this article in the future might see it…
First of all, thanks for your comment.
And to answer it, yes you are of course right. Many photographers will give the opposite advice to “shoot to the right” (i.e. overexpose a slight bit). They are of course also right — although blown pixels can’t bring back any information/color either, just to make that clear now so that I won’t get blamed for that. The reason why I gave this advice was because I found it to be the best solution for me, the exposure that gave me the most to work with in post whit the RAW file.
I have since started to wonder if it is my 3rd party focusing screen (from Katz Eye Optics, a split prism for better manual focus) that might have caused my expose meter to give incorrect readings.
I hope my above statement hasn’t caused any problems for anyone. And as always, I encourage everybody, especially beginners, to try as much as possible and see what they find to be the best solution for them (this includes for example which is the highest ISO setting one tolerates etc.)
Thank you so much for the correction, and once again I’m sorry for the very late reply.
Flag as inappropriateFredrik
WOW! this page really makes me understand more on photography. it helped with my project alot! thanks! :D
Flag as inappropriateGreat read! A lot of help! Thanks for the time you took to do this. I can’t wait to read the rest of the tutorials that are here and I hope to read more in the future!
-cheers
Flag as inappropriatethank you so much for this clear and relevant tutorial..feel like i am finally starting to understand photography!
beggining to see the light :D
Flag as inappropriateIt make me more and more professional;我喜欢ing
Flag as inappropriateA q: If I got a normal digicam, is automatic mode a good idea?
Flag as inappropriateI try not to use it, but osmetimes I can’t get the ISO right or something else which results in my pics being of bad quality, but then still sometimes I can relaly get some great pics..
thanks for this article. I’m really plannin to pick up photography soon.
Flag as inappropriateiv been through reading some forums and reviews,trying to understand and look for someones manual settings but evrything im looking for is right here in this site..thank you.
Flag as inappropriateI just answered myself by reading this:
http://www.tutorial9.net/photography/photography-basics/
Thanks!
Flag as inappropriateJust a question, one stop is normally around the double of the current number right?
Great articles!
Flag as inappropriateThank you both for your replies. I didn’t really know where to start looking, but now I’ve got all these to look at. Very helpful article and even more helpful comments, so thanks to you both.
Flag as inappropriate@ liam — if you’re looking for a D-SLR camera (which is in my opinion the only solution if you really want to learn photography) I can only agree with David’s advice.
I have the Canon EOS Rebel XT (350D here in EU) and it’s a great camera for an even better price. That camera is no longer in production and has been replaced with the Rebel XTi and XSi (400D and 450D in EU), the XTi is not a big improvement over the XT, but the XSi has quite a few new features that might be worth the price.
If you want to go with Nikon instead you could look at the D40, D50, D60, D70 or D80 — depending on your price range. I personally only have experience with the D70s and the D50 in the Nikon series, the D70s is a great camera but I found the D50 to be lacking and a disappointment. The reason I went with Canon instead of Nikon is primarily due to Canon’s lenses which I find to have a better price/performance ratio and I’ve never regretted my choice.
Flag as inappropriateGreat read Fredrik! These tutorials are one of a kind ;)
@ liam – I’m sure Fredrik could say a lot more than me about camera recommendations, but I could at least off my 2 cents. I purchased my REAL first camera about 2 years ago, and it’s really been a great purchase in my book. I started out with a Canon Rebel XTi ($650ish), and it’s an excellent camera for enthusiasts! There is a very similar camera called the Rebel XT that’s nearly identical which runs at about $500 on Amazon.
They both come with the same starters lens, which is a pretty good all around lens.
Flag as inappropriateThanks Fredrik, I’ve been thinking of purchasing a camera recently. Is there any you could recommended that would allow me to adjust the settings you mentioned, and is relatively cheap?
At the moment I have just a standard Digital Sony camera, and no matter what I do pictures just look crap. Any advice would be great, then maybe I could follow some of your tips above.
Flag as inappropriateI learned some interesting things from this article and hope to see more to come like it! Things like these save me from reading the user manual :).
Flag as inappropriate