Travel Tips

Ok, so let’s get into some actual working with the camera. In this lesson, we’ll discuss exposure. Keep in mind that if there’s a word you don’t know, you can most likely find it in the glossary or ask me if it’s not in there!

Exposure
A properly exposed image accurately displays the scene you’re photographing, the colors, textures, lights and shadows. However, there isn’t necessarily a “correct” exposure- just the exposure you want. We’ll get into creative exposure later. For now, how you make the image is up to you and the many variables that exist in a given scene. There are some rules to go by to get the exposures you want, but I cannot tell you to use this f-stop and this shutter speed in this specific situation and that f-stop and that shutter speed in that specific situation. What’s most important about exposure is that you get what you want. My D1 often makes me work for the proper exposure. I can’t set it to center weighted metering and have it work perfectly every time like I could on the Canon 10D. So it makes me learn more about metering. So what is metering?

The Meter
Most cameras have internal light meters. A light meter determines the amount of light in a scene and most cameras have built-in light meters to let you know, when you’re shooting on Manual, what settings you need to use to get the proper exposure. The camera uses the ISO to determine the film’s/sensor’s sensitivity to light, assesses the amount of light coming through the lens (TTL) and tells the photographer that the scene is too dark, so he knows to open up the aperture or slow down the shutter speed. Or maybe the light meter tells the photographer that the scene is too bright, so she needs to close down the aperture or speed up the shutter speed. Whatever the case, when you use the Manual mode on your camera, it’s essential to know how your meter works and what it means.

Many D-SLR and compact cameras have multiple options for assessing the amount of light in a scene. The three standard metering modes are:

Spot metering (assesses light from the center 2% of the viewfinder)
Center-weighted (assesses light from about the center 10%-15% of the viewfinder)
Average (assesses light from all areas of the viewfinder and averages them out)

On older film cameras, such as the Minolta SRT 101, there is an “eye” and a “pin”. When the two are aligned, you have proper exposure. Some cameras have a line of dots that looks something like this: (....|....) with a taller dot in the middle. If your image is going to be too bright, the needle or dot will be highlighted to the right of the center mark, (....|..:.) telling you that you need to close down the aperture or speed up the shutter. If the needle or dot is highlighted to the left of the center mark, (.:..|....) you know you need to open up the aperture or slow down the shutter.

On the image, note that the snow on the mountains isn't blown out, but there aren't any deep shadows either. This is a pretty well-exposed image.

It depends. Ask photographers questions about metering and that should be the most common answer you get. It depends on the light, it depends on the subject. It depends on the time of day. It depends on the sky.

Center-Weighted and Average metering modes should cover you pretty well in most evenly-lit scenes.

Generally, you will use spot metering in a situation like this: You are photographing a friend against a deep blue sky on a bright day high on a summit in the mountains of Colorado. The sky is bright and the best scene is behind your friend… right where the sun is. If you shot this with “average” metering, your friend would be dark and the sky a nice blue. So you use spot metering, which concentrates the in-camera light meter on your friend and not on the bright sky. This should serve to make the camera expose for your friend, making your friend come out properly lit. But this will also blast the background light. So maybe you could use center-weighted metering. If you want a silhouette, meter for the sky. It really depends on the scene. A scene that is fairly evenly lit could use center or average metering. I highly suggest that if you have multiple metering modes available to you, you try them out and play with them to see what they do. Shoot an evenly lit scene with each one, then shoot a scene with lights and darks with each one. Then shoot a subject against a bright background with each one. Here are two tips to help in that situation.

Tip: When I’m shooting a backlit subject, I’ll often meter for somewhere dark, maybe in the shade in front of or next to the subject, then set the exposure lock, and finally, take the picture. When shooting on any automatic mode, this tricks the light meter into thinking it’s metering for a darker scene, and will usually give me good exposure of my subject. Work with this a bit to become familiar with it. If you don’t have exposure lock on your camera (which does just what it says- locks the exposure for the image) then you can meter for the ground in front of your subject, remember the settings and set the camera manually. Sometimes on compacts, if you’re quick, you can meter for the ground and bring the camera up for the shot before it has a chance to meter for the sky or bright background, especially if you keep the shutter release button pressed halfway down. That also often works with D-SLRs.

Another tip: When shooting backlight subjects or dark subjects with backgrounds lighter than they are, I will often use a flash. A flash in broad daylight can be useful to fill in your subject. In fact, it’s called a fill flash. It basically just adds a bit more light to the dark subject or area so that it isn’t underexposed while the rest of the scene is properly exposed. You don’t need to blast the subject, and you need to make sure the camera is set to properly expose the rest of the scene, not the subject. So, standing on that mountain in Colorado, if I want to get the mountains behind my subject, I’ll meter for the mountains, set my shutter speed and aperture for the mountain, and then use a fill flash to light my subject. If you can, set the flash to a lower setting. Maybe you can set it to “Fill” mode as well. Using a fill flash won’t work with subjects far away.

On the image, I used the spot meter to meter for the subject, so the darker background would remain dark and the subject would be lit correctly. This is the same concept as for spot metering a dark subject against a light background. (Of course, it was edited a bit in Photoshop to darken the darks and make it black and white, but anyway...)

The histogram is a much-underrated tool that can be very helpful to a photographer. Understanding what a histogram is and does can help you determine a good exposure.
A histogram is like a graph that gives you exposure information. (Very few cameras have histogram information for each color (RGB- Red, Green, Blue), but most have a general histogram for the whole image, or the “luminance”.) Dark parts of the image are shown on the left of the histogram display. Light parts are on the right. If a scene is very bright, the right side of the histogram will be filled in more, while the left side, the darks or shadows side, will be emptier. Conversely, if the scene is very dark, the darks or shadows side will be more filled in, while the light side, the right side, will be emptier.

A histogram is divided into five parts, for the approximate 5-stop range of most digital cameras. What I mean by a 5-stop range, is that there is typically a range of light that a camera can expose for, and that range is five stops. Those five stops can be anywhere within your camera’s shutter speed/aperture range. So it could be five stops between f/2.8 and f/16 or between f/4-f/22, for example. If you have a very bright sky with white clouds and a dark subject on the ground, your camera may not be able to expose for everything properly. (This is where a fill flash will come in handy, to bring the subject to within the 5-stop range.) In essence, the scene may have 8 stops between the darkest value and the lightest value (so, below and above your histogram’s 5-stop range, which is either black or white. The white parts have no image data- everything is just white- while the black parts, the shadows, also have no image data- everything is just black. Confusing?

Let me try this another way. Film and digital sensors only have a set range of light they can expose for. If the difference between the lightest parts of the image and the darkest parts of the image is too big (greater than five stops), then there’s nothing you can do to make the whole image turn out right.

Use your histogram if you have one to get used to looking at the image from a light-range point of view. You don’t want any of the histogram to be on the extremes. Between those extremes is ideal. Most of the values should be concentrated in the center of the histogram.

This image would probably fit better under Equivalent Exposures, see below, but that space was taken. Anyway, I could have shot this image using a fast shutter speed (and with a larger aperture) to really stop the action of the dolphin and the water spraying in the air. I decided to shoot it slower with a smaller aperture so that I could show action and movement through motion blur. (Motion blur is blur that results from the subject's movements, as opposed to blur caused by camera shake.)

Exposure rules
You may hear of photography rules such as the “Sunny 16” rule. Those apply very often and can help you make quick exposure decisions. Here they are, explained.

Sunny 16 Rule- If you don’t have a light meter or don’t know how to use it, or it’s broken or you don’t trust it… whatever reason you have, here’s a way to determine proper exposure without a light meter.

Set your shutter speed to the opposite or reciprocal value of your chosen ISO. So if your ISO is 200, set your shutter speed to 1/200 or the closest value. (In this some cases the closest value may be 1/180.) 1/200 is the reciprocal of 200/1. So if your ISO is 200, set your shutter speed to 1/200 or the closest value. Set your aperture to f/16. This should give you good exposure on a bright, sunny day. A day is bright, photographically, if the shadows are well-defined and dark with clear, sharp edges.

If it isn’t a sunny day, all is not lost! But you have to be familiar with all the facets of this rule to put it to use.

If the day is slightly overcast, if there are thin clouds marring the sun, that’s ok. You can tell that it’s slightly overcast if the shadows are still dark but have fuzzier edges. Just set your f-stop to f/11. (Add one stop to f/16. This means that you open up the aperture one f-stop.)

If the day is more overcast, so that shadows are barely visible, use an f-stop of f/8. (Add two stops to f/16).

If the day is mostly overcast so that there aren’t really any shadows, open up three stops, to f/5.6. (Add three stops to f/16).

If you are in an area of open shade where there are no shadows, open four stops to f/4. (Add four stops to f/16).

Knowing these will help you get an idea of what your exposure should be, but still pay attention, if you shoot digital, to make sure it does give you the exposure you want.

Equivalent Exposure is a term you may hear when photographers talk about exposure. This simply means that using your shutter speed and aperture, you can let the same amount of light in at different settings. Here’s a list as an example:

F-Stop f/1.4 f/2 f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11
Shutter 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15

F-Stop f/16 f/22
Shutter 1/8 1/4

What this means is that there is the same amount of light entering your camera when you use a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second and an f-stop of f/1.4 as there is when you use a shutter speed of 1/4 second and an f-stop of f/22. 1/1000th of a second is very fast so it doesn’t let light in for very long, but the aperture is open wider, which lets in a higher volume of light. At a shutter speed of 1/4 second, the light is allowed to enter the camera for a longer period of time, but the aperture (f/22) only lets in a small volume of light because it is very small.

Think of pipes with water flowing through them. A big, 6-inch pipe will allow a higher volume of water to flow through, so you don’t need to let the water flow through for quite as long to fill a 5-gallon bucket. In fact, you just need to let the water run for a very short time. However, a 1/2” pipe only lets a small amount of water through, so it will take a much longer time to fill the 5-gallon bucket. (We’re ignoring water pressures because the amount of light pressure, if you will, remains the same… so ignore the pressure for this concept.

So, let’s say it takes 2 seconds for a 6-inch diameter pipe to fill the bucket. Therefore we know it will take 4 seconds for a 4-inch diameter pipe, 6 seconds for a two-inch diameter pipe, and so on. I hope this is clear, because the concept is the same for f-stops and shutter speeds. You can use any of the above combinations to allow the same amount of light in.

Why does this matter? We’ll talk about one reason when we get to Depth of Field, but for now, it matters because you can alter the way an image looks depending on the speed of the shutter. For example, if you are photographing a waterfall, you can shoot it in two different ways. Using equivalent exposures, you can freeze the water as it falls, using maybe f/1.4 at 1/1000th of a second. If you want the waterfall to have a smooth, moving feel, you can keep the exposure (the amount of light) the same but slow the shutter speed down to f/11 at 1/15th of a second or f/8 at 1/30th of a second. So, if you want to stop the action in the image, you can use a faster shutter speed with a larger aperture. If you want to blur the action, you can use a slower shutter speed with a smaller aperture.

The pipes from our bathroom in the first apartment we had in China. I don't know why... just because I was talking about pipes, I guess...

I’m covering this under “Exposure” so we can look at some tips to help avoid the blurry images caused by camera shake.

Camera shake can cause your images/photos to be blurry. It can be caused by wind, the humming of a motor or engine, by an unsteady hand or by the wrong settings. Some SLR lenses and now some compacts offer optical image stabilization (IS). This useful feature is a drain on battery life, but will save many a shot. But if you don’t have IS, what do you do to stop camera shake? The first thing you do to stop camera shake is to speed up your shutter speed (or open up your aperture if it isn’t already). Hand-holding the camera at slow shutter speeds makes it very difficult to get clear images. If speeding up the shutter isn’t an option, the next best thing is to find something to rest the camera on. If you can set the camera down, do so. If you can set the camera down and set the self-timer, even better. A wall, a pillar… anything stationary will help you steady the shot.

You can also use the camera strap, if you have one, to brace against yourself or a wall and extend the camera to it's full distance away from the strap. This can help steady it as long as you have a steady hand to begin with.

Breathe in, breathe out and hold. Click. Breathe out the rest of the way, or hold your breath before or after you inhale. Just try to minimize any movement.

Of course, a tripod or a monopod would be best, in many ways, and if you can, use one. It's hard to get a shot set up quickly with a tripod, so you'll often have to forgo the convenience and just shoot with as fast a shutter speed and as high an ISO as you can, but you can't always get fast or high enough of either one to make the shot work. So you'll probably end up using a slower shutter speed than you'd like and having to steady the camera somehow. Few people can get good, hand-held shots at shutter speeds slower than 1/4 or 1/8th of a second. Maybe you can! But you'd be better off stabilizing the camera.

As a last resort, use a flash. We’ll get into flash photography in another lesson.

This image is from New Zealand again... I only have a few images with me here in China... I don't have access to all my photo stuff... Anyway, I had to steady the camera before I could really take this shot and make it come out clear. I had to take numerous shots before and after. I would have liked the moon to be better-exposed. Oh well. The point of this shot is to show that you can control camera shake without a tripod.

Getting creative with exposure VT STAFF, SEE NOTE BELOW!
So there is the exposure that your camera tells you it wants. But there may be a difference in that and in the exposure you want. Not all photographs have to be exposed with an even histogram and good lighting in all parts. Sometimes you may want to “blow out” your background. In this situation, you would want to meter for a shadow, for example, or set your camera so that too much light gets in. When there is too much light in an image, it’s called “blown out” or over-exposed. On the other hand you might not want much light to get into an image. This is called under-exposed. There are applications for each of these as you get creative with exposure.

In the accompanying image, I blew out the background and the girl’s face. She was a student with me in Mexico, modeling for a class photo shoot. (I needed another course and I couldn’t get into the advanced photo classes, so I took what I could get to get me access to Photoshop and get some higher-level critiques from the professor.) I could have left her exposed nicely, but it was a fashion-type shoot, so I didn’t just go with the norm. Essentially what I did was to meter for her in the model spots and take the shot when someone else set off the monolights. I was using the Canon A310 without the manual abilities to shoot how I wanted, so I had to rely on the other students to set the flashes off while I was shooting. It took timing and patience, but I got the shot I wanted.

VT STAFF: The image for this section has a copyright notice on it. It is from another of my websites, and I own the rights to the image.

Actually, nevermind... If I can get to the website, I'll get the image... for now I can't access it.

The image in its place is overexposed on the right side of the image. It just adds a bit of interest or dimension to the scene, so it can be useful.

Here's the assignment
1. Take a shot that is underexposed.
2. Take a shot that is overexposed.
3. Take a shot that is properly exposed.
(By the way this is known as "bracketing.")
4. Take a hand-held photo of something at night. You can use anything you want to steady the camera besides a flash, a tripod or a monopod. Get creative!
5. Take a spot metered shot if you can! Just get a subject against a bright background and expose for the subject!

Remember how you took each one and tell me how you did it!
Send the images to me in the following ways:

Email them to my VT account.
Write me a post in the forums or a comment on my homepage telling me where you posted the photos on your site.

Be creative! But again, don't worry if it's good or not!

Enjoy!

I'd suggest, if you're not familiar with your camera to pick something you want to learn how to do, look it up in the manual and follow along with your camera. Practice with it so you can remember it for next time. The next day, learn something else, then review what you learned the day before, and so on, until you have all the functions you want to know memorized.

If you have trouble, let me know what kind of camera you have and I’ll see what I can do to help you.

Your camera is designed to record an image or a picture by concentrating and focusing light reflected off the subject or scene. When you take a picture, you can have absolute control of the image or the picture, if you want. You can also tell your camera to take care of all the settings. This is a great way to take pictures, but it is much better if you take the time to learn the controls, features and functions of the camera you have. Photography is essentially painting with light. Controlling light forms the basis of the entire art.

So, for right now, let’s work with the Manual Mode (M) on our cameras, if you have them. When traveling, you can, of course, use the other modes (which are easier for taking quick shots).

So, there are two ways in which you can control the amount of light that gets to the film/sensor. The first way is by adjusting the SHUTTER SPEED. The shutter speed is a measure, in fractions of a second, of the amount of time the shutter remains open. On most digital SLR (SLR= Single Lens Reflex) cameras there is a scroll wheel that you rotate to determine the shutter speed. You might have to push another button while you rotate the wheel. Some cameras have buttons you can push to raise or lower the shutter speed. Find out how to set the shutter speed.

The second is the APERTURE, the variable opening in the lens through which light passes. Light enters the lens through the front, passes through glass (or plastic) elements (lenses) but before it reaches the sensor, the amount or volume of that light is limited by the aperture. The aperture is also controlled by a scroll wheel, a scroll wheel-button combination or by buttons. Find out how to set the aperture on your camera.

Ok, so one way you can practice with the shutter speed and aperture, to see what they do is the following:

During the day:

(Set your ISO to 100 or 200.)

Set the shutter speed to 1/250 (or between 1/60 -1/250). Set the aperture to 2.8 or whatever the largest aperture is (smallest number). Take a picture. Change the aperture to the next number (4 in this case). Take a picture. Repeat for the other aperture values. Look at the images.

Set the aperture to the smallest opening (largest number). Let’s say 22. Set your shutter speed to 1/4 second. Take a picture. Set the shutter speed to 1/8 second. Take a picture. Repeat for the other shutter speeds.

This will help to give you an idea of what’s happening when you change settings, and some practice changing them. It is helpful to know where the settings are so you don’t miss photographs while trying to figure out what to do!

I also wanted to talk about “bracketing”. Bracketing is when you shoot three images, each with a different exposure. The first is shot underexposed. The second you shoot as the meter tells you, and the third you shoot overexposed. So, to bracket with shutter speed, if I’m using an f-stop of f/16, my meter tells me the scene requires a shutter speed of 200. I will shoot one image with an f-stop of f/16 and a shutter speed of 100, a second image with the f-stop of f/16 and the shutter speed of 200, and a third image with the f-stop of f/16 and a shutter speed of 400.

Image 1: f/16 @ 1/100
Image 2: f/16 @ 1/200
Image 3: f/16 @ 1/400

You could also do this by bracketing the aperture, such that you shot as follows:

Image 1: f/11 @ 1/200
Image 2: f/16 @ 1/200
Image 3: f/22 @ 1/200
Bracketing will help you determine the best exposure.