Understanding exposure is a fundamental of photography because without it you can’t take control of your image making. An exposure is the amount of light required by your camera to record an image. It’s controlled by changing the length of time the shutter is open for, how large or small the aperture is on your lens, and how sensitive your cameras is to light which is tour ISO setting. We’ll go into these in depth in other videos.
You are said to make an exposure when you press the shutter button, but your camera can often get it wrong when in fully auto mode and this is why it’s so important to understand it so you can step in when it does.
There are times you have to choose which areas of an image to expose for. Maybe you want detail in the shade – or maybe in the sunshine. I know we can see into both but our cameras can’t.
You can also set an exposure for creative reasons. Happy pictures tend to work best if the exposure is brighter. Where as a more moody photo might work better if it’s a bit darker. So there is no ‘correct’ exposure, you can choose the exposure which works best for the type of image you’re shooting. This is when knowing how to make a manual exposure http://www.photographycourses.biz/manual_exposure.html comes into it’s own.
Mike Browne
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