Weekend Photo Tips: Exposure Compensation

Most people think that there are only three light settings in photography: shutter speed, aperture

 and ISO.  (To learn about these take a look at past posts.) But really there is one more! 
It is called exposure compensation. The one thing that is different about this setting
is that you are telling the camera to lengthen or shorten the shutter speed, close or open
the aperture, or rise or lower the ISO number.

 

Exposure compensation is measured in something called stops. 
The camera thinks that the photo would look best at 0 stops, but sometimes the
camera can get it wrong!  That is why you might want to use +1 stops.

This would double the brightness in the shot. Then +2 stops would double it again.
Some cameras go all the way up to +7 stops.  But if you want the photo to be darker,
 just set -1 stops or -2 stops, etc. Stops can also be used in thirds.
For example, if I wanted to make the photo brighter,

but not quite double the light, then I would set at +2/3 stop.


Below is an example of what you would see on the LCD of your camera.

 

 

Here are some photos taken at different stops.

-2 stops



0 stops



+2 stops

 

As you can see, 0 stops is a little too bright because the snow is blown out.
But -2 stops is a bit dark. I would most likely use -1 1/3 stop for this shot.

 

 

Thank you for reading Weekend Photo Tips!
Please come back next week for more tips and tricks about photography.