How to accurately expose?

Correct exposure has a certain range and tolerance. Within this standard, the exposure is correct, but the correct exposure is not necessarily the most perfect. It is necessary to mediate according to your own needs, such as the desired shooting effect. Accurate exposure is the most perfect and best exposure in correct exposure.

It is often said that photography is the art of light, so how to use light reasonably is as important as how a painter uses a brush. How do we use light correctly? First of all, you need to know how to expose it.

Exposure is accomplished by different combinations of aperture and shutter, but what combination is appropriate?

1. Choose exposure value correctly.

The exposure decision has nothing to do with the length of personal photography history. Not only amateur photographers, but also professional photographers sometimes hesitate to decide on exposure. Photographic exposure is actually a very profound problem. In the era when in-camera photometry technology has not been popularized, people often use a specific exposure to calculate the aperture value and shutter value, but this method is reluctant to shoot a negative film with a large tolerance, and it is not convenient and accurate to shoot a reversal film with changeable light.

2. Photometric principles and tools

Exposure meter: In order to accurately control the exposure, people invented the exposure meter, but as the textbook of New York Institute of Photography said, the exposure meter is a "stupid" guy. It is relative to say that he is stupid, because he only makes such "stupid" mistakes under special circumstances.

Grey board: Because the exposure meter is accurate in measuring 18% gray scale, the "grey board" appears in the photographic attachment. It is also troublesome to use, so few people use it now. Another reason why the exposure meter and the gray board are gradually ignored is that the internal metering technology of modern cameras is developing faster and faster.

You can't trust all the advanced photometry techniques.

Exposure meters are now mostly used by professional photographers (of course, many enthusiasts often play with this thing). It is very necessary to use flash in the studio, but even professionals are too lazy to use it when shooting outdoors. People mainly use the metering system in the camera. absorb

There are generally three kinds of metering systems for modern cameras: matrix metering, central focusing metering and point metering. According to the different uses of the camera, people also evaluate the grade of the camera by "whether the camera measures light a little".

4. Exposure compensation

Almost all amateur photographers will be exposed according to the photometric value in the camera when shooting with a fully automatic camera. However, in view of the "stupidity" of metering technology, proper compensation during metering will make you get a more perfect picture. So there is a scorpion light compensation device on the automatic camera. A slightly skilled person will operate according to the formula of "reducing the exposure compensation of white subjects". In photography, accurate exposure is a very important factor for the correct color reproduction of the subject.

Accurate exposure is to avoid the image being too dark or too bright, so that the brightness of the picture is appropriate. If only documentary or commemorative photos are taken, automatic exposure can completely achieve the goal. special

To make the shot image achieve the expected effect. In other words, if the picture can reflect your own photographic intention, you must first master the skills of increasing or decreasing exposure compensation. Brightness is a very important factor in photos. Seeing the brightness of an object with the naked eye is unconscious, but there is a certain intention to create photography, hoping for the final picture or bright spots or dark spots.

Step 5 outline

Exposure that can restore the color of the subject to normal is called appropriate exposure. If there is a wide illumination difference in the picture, it is best not to choose a dark background when shooting the silhouette effect picture, otherwise the characters will be submerged in the dark background. The exposure should be controlled to be about 3-4EV lower than the proper exposure. In addition, it is best not to use multi-zone metering. When shooting, measure the light according to the bright part of the picture, and manually set a higher shutter speed. If the shutter speed exceeds the allowable range, it can be solved by narrowing the aperture.

Surround exposure

There is another way to get a perfect exposure, which is the peripheral exposure mentioned above.

When shooting a landscape, photometry will be more troublesome, because there are often large light and dark parts in the landscape, which makes you feel at a loss when metering. However, if there is no sharp contrast between the photographed scenery, it is generally unnecessary to use enclosed exposure. When shooting the same subject, increasing exposure compensation and decreasing exposure compensation will make the picture appear completely different effects.

When shooting people or flowers, we usually don't use bracketing exposure, because we usually have the time and conditions to determine the accurate exposure value.

7. It is better not to owe than to owe.

When taking snapshots, we don't have time to surround fleeting facial expressions, so we have to rely on the photometric value of the camera, but there is a principle: taking negatives would rather be overexposed, and modern negatives are very tolerant; However, when shooting reverse films or digital images, underexposure is better than overexposure, because some details on underexposed images can be preserved through post-adjustment. Of course, it is best to rely on experience and try to achieve accurate exposure.

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