Exposure Exercise 27/02/2012

(image 1) 1/200 Sec @ F4

(image 2) 1/320 Sec @ F4

(image 3) 1/25 Sec @ F4

The aim of this exercise was to demonstrate the two ways in which exposure can be controlled.

The first 3 photos in this set demonstrate the use of the shutter speed to change the exposure. As the aperture is not changing, the depth of field in each photo is staying constant.

I had my cameras exposure value step settings to 1/3 and didn't quite follow the instructions. I understand that dropping the shutter by one step halves the amount of light being captured and increasing the shutter by one step doubles the amount of light.

(image 4) 1/100 Sec @ 4

(image 5) 1/100 Sec @ F3.5

(image 6) 1/100 Sec @ F4.5

The next set of photos demonstrate the use of aperture to control the exposure. Although its difficult to see in the pictures due to the distance of the subject from the background and also the very slight change in aperture the depth of field is actually changing.

Again I had my cameras exposure value step settings to 1/3 and didn't quite follow the instructions and failed to change the aperture by full stops. I understand that dropping the aperture size (larger number) by one stop halves the amount of light being captured and increasing the aperture by one stop doubles the amount of light. This means you will get the same exposure by opening the aperture by one stop and reducing the shutter speed by one step.

(image 7) 1/320 Sec @ F3.5

The next set of photos demonstrate the effects the angle of light in regards to subject and camera have on exposure and your subjects appearance.

Image 7 shows the effect harsh background lighting can have on your exposure. I shot this image with matrix metering which forced the camera to evaluate not just the exposure of the subject but also the background (bright sky). This caused the subject to be very underexposed in dark shadows with little detail and the sky to be over exposed.

Images 8-10 show the effects the angle of light can have on your subject. Image 8 shows a very flat light reducing the shadows across the entire face of the subject. While the lighting in images 9 & 10 give shadows to the subject giving the subject more depth.