As most beginners and amateurs will discover, there are some curious frustrations that come along. Of these, the most common are taking a photo on a bright day of something such as snow only to have it turn out too dark or taking a picture at night and having it turn out to bright. So, why does this occur?
Most often, many camera owners falsely believe that they can simply turn on their camera, point and shoot and they will reproduce the scene they were viewing. However, this means your camera is in automatic mode which means it must make its decisions on proper settings for the photo.
Unless you are using a fully manual camera, your camera must make the decision as to how much light to allow the sensor to be exposed to. If there is too little light, the subjects of the photograph may appear almost invisible, also known as 'underexposed." In reverse, if there is too much light allowed, areas of the photo may be completely white, also known as "overexposed."
Basically, your camera makes this decision based on the fact that most scenes, most of the time, are a mixture of light and dark tones that average out about the same. This average is called 18% grey. It uses this rule of thumb to work out what combination of shutter speed and aperture to use. However, this breaks down in some situations.
A prime example to better explain this phenomenon is the classic photo of a polar bear in the snow on a bright sunny day. You will use your camera to reproduce this beautiful scene you viewed with your own eyes in a bright, perfect photo. However, because your camera is using its rule of thumb to determine the shutter speed and aperture, it is more likely your photo will depict the snow and polar bear as dirty grey.
The other situation is when you take a photo in dark conditions, perhaps a street at night lit by some streetlamps. Here you want most of the photo to be dark, with perhaps some lighter areas that were illuminated by the streetlights. Instead what you may get is dark areas that are dull brown rather than black, and lighter areas that are overexposed. Again, your camera has assumed this scene, like others, is 18% grey, and has exposed it accordingly.
In order to expose very light and very dark scenes correctly (i.e. close to how you saw them), you will need to take control of your camera, rather than letting it do everything for itself. One way to do this is to dial in exposure compensation " add one stop for bright conditions and the reverse for dark conditions. Or you could simply put the camera in manual mode and try different settings until you get what you want, using the rear LCD to review your results. - 30452
Most often, many camera owners falsely believe that they can simply turn on their camera, point and shoot and they will reproduce the scene they were viewing. However, this means your camera is in automatic mode which means it must make its decisions on proper settings for the photo.
Unless you are using a fully manual camera, your camera must make the decision as to how much light to allow the sensor to be exposed to. If there is too little light, the subjects of the photograph may appear almost invisible, also known as 'underexposed." In reverse, if there is too much light allowed, areas of the photo may be completely white, also known as "overexposed."
Basically, your camera makes this decision based on the fact that most scenes, most of the time, are a mixture of light and dark tones that average out about the same. This average is called 18% grey. It uses this rule of thumb to work out what combination of shutter speed and aperture to use. However, this breaks down in some situations.
A prime example to better explain this phenomenon is the classic photo of a polar bear in the snow on a bright sunny day. You will use your camera to reproduce this beautiful scene you viewed with your own eyes in a bright, perfect photo. However, because your camera is using its rule of thumb to determine the shutter speed and aperture, it is more likely your photo will depict the snow and polar bear as dirty grey.
The other situation is when you take a photo in dark conditions, perhaps a street at night lit by some streetlamps. Here you want most of the photo to be dark, with perhaps some lighter areas that were illuminated by the streetlights. Instead what you may get is dark areas that are dull brown rather than black, and lighter areas that are overexposed. Again, your camera has assumed this scene, like others, is 18% grey, and has exposed it accordingly.
In order to expose very light and very dark scenes correctly (i.e. close to how you saw them), you will need to take control of your camera, rather than letting it do everything for itself. One way to do this is to dial in exposure compensation " add one stop for bright conditions and the reverse for dark conditions. Or you could simply put the camera in manual mode and try different settings until you get what you want, using the rear LCD to review your results. - 30452
About the Author:
Tobias Sterling is a keen photography enthusiast who loves to write and share his photography knowledge online. He does so by contributing his articles including Motor Sports Photography Blur and Photogrpahy Aperture Guide to Clivir.com.
