Lesson Notes

None!

Transcript

Hey–this is Kim Bultsma again, and welcome back to our Introduction to DSLR Photography premium course. Last time we covered your camera’s Scene Modes, which are the other Auto modes that have different settings for specific shooting situations. Today, we’re going to discuss the first of a three-part lesson on all things light: exposure and metering. Make sure your flashed is not engaged or ready to fire! Our lighting discussion today will focus on available or ambient light–not the light we create with a flash. Before starting with exposure, let’s first change our AF system points, which has an impact on how the camera will handle light.

AF points are the little dots, boxes, or parentheses you see when you look in your camera’s viewfinder. They tell you what is being focused on. When you work in the auto modes, your camera’s AF system (or autofocus system) is set to automatically detect a random focal point and often times you won’t be able to change this. So let’s put our camera in Program (or “P”) mode. We’ll discuss this more later, but the camera now thinks it’s a little smarter than you–it will set up the aperture and shutter speed for you based on what you focus on, how you meter, and how you’ve set the ISO. After you’ve gone to Program mode, look for “AF” on your camera. You will find it in many different places, even on different models within the same brand. Once you find AF on your camera, you’ll see that it probably has been set to Automatic, which means the camera will choose one or many focusing points for you. If you use your camera’s arrowing system or scroll wheel, you will be able to change the focusing point. For this lesson, let’s simply use the top center AF point. Therefore, from this moment on will need to put your subject in the top center of your picture. Before you take a picture, push your flash down so it’s not activated. Then, take a moment to practice focusing using this new AF point, and don’t forget to always partially depress the shutter button until you see the dot in your viewfinder light up or your camera beeps to focus. You can turn your beep on and off in your camera’s main menu.

Now that you’ve fired a couple of test shots, let’s start with exposure.

Exposure is one of the most important photography concepts you can master as you start moving toward using your camera’s manual modes, like Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual. Exposure can be defined many ways, but what it boils down to is how light is controlled in an image. It doesn’t matter how beautiful a scene might be–if you don’t have the correct exposure, the resulting picture will be ruined. For the most part, your camera’s automatic exposure control is fairly accurate, but not every scene you’ll shoot in is perfect. For example, I shoot concert photography for a local radio station. While the band performs, house lights are turned off and multi-colored stage lights come on. Since I can’t use flash, I have to rely on my camera’s ability to expose the scene correctly, in addition to me setting up my camera in Manual and using the right lens–all of which will be covered a few lessons down the road.

During the sound check, the house lights are still on…so I have to meter. Metering is how your camera measures the light in a shooting situation. Of note: the camera tries to expose every picture for a neutral gray, or what’s called 18% gray. If you’re shooting something that is primarily black, the camera will overexpose because it’s trying to to make that black an 18% gray. When you’re shooting in fresh snow, on the other hand, the camera will see that pure white as gray and try to underexpose the picture. We’ll discuss how to adjust for this in Part 3 of our lessons on All Things Light.

Let’s get back to our photo shoot. Like I said before, I like to take full advantage of house lights while I can, so I decide to meter. By default, your camera’s metering system is set to Evaluative Metering. Evaluative Metering tells the camera to look at the whole scene in view and make a metering decision based on its available light. Evaluative metering works best when nearly all of your picture area is lit the same with the same kind of lighting. Since the Listener Lounge I shoot in has about the same lighting throughout with house lights, I change to Evaluative Metering. I focus on his right eye, which is the eye closest to me, and fire. Since there was a good mix of lights and darks in the picture area, Danny Bemrose of the band Scars on 45 was correctly exposed.

Now let’s discuss Center-weighted Average.

Center-weighted Average takes about 70% of the center of the picture area and exposes for it. This is regardless of what AF point you have chosen. So since we have the top center AF point chosen, the camera will overlook that point and choose to meter around the dead center AF point…even though that is not what we chose to have in focus for the shot. This mode works great for groups of people who are centered, like in this group picture of me with the band Panic! at the Disco.

In this picture of my dog Ike, I used center-weighted metering to expose. I had to take in to account the large amount of contrast in his facial features and the fact that the sky was quite bright. We wanted to average the exposure around his face and let the background blow out if it needed to get the right exposure on Ike.

The next type of metering we’ll discuss is Partial.

When we use Partial Metering, the camera is now taking about a 13% meter reading of the center of the picture area to decide on exposure. Like center-weighted average, this meter reading is in the center only, regardless of the AF point we are choosing for our focus. For example, if we want a well-exposed subject who is already in front of a brightly lit background, Partial Metering can work wonders. My friend asked me and my husband to take one-year-old pictures of her daughter, Evie. We went to their house and snapped more as-it-happens types of pictures, as opposed to stereotypical posed ones. Evie loves to play by the front windows, so we got this picture of her turning to look at her dad. The partial metering here exposed her correctly and then blew out the background, providing high contrast and more emphasis on Evie’s features.

The last type of metering we’ll discuss is Spot Metering.

Spot Metering is used to meter a specific spot of a subject or scene. This metering is also in the center of the picture area and NOT on the AF point. It takes a meter reading of 3% of the center of the viewfinder. For example, if you want to expose a person correctly in a highly contrasted lighting situation, spot metering would work best. If we think back to my concert photography, we’d can find a specific instance of a good occasion to use Spot Metering. During the performance, the house lights are off, which leaves the entire room dark, save the overly bright stage lights. Since I want to make sure the band is correctly exposed, I move to spot metering and be careful to focus on the closest eye. In this photograph I shot Aimee Driver, the lead singer of Scars on 45, as she sang “Heart on Fire.” I wanted to expose for her and not for the background, so I spot metered her to make the background appear even darker than it already was. These types of shots and exposures create contrast and emphasis. But remember: since the meter reading is over such a small area, exposure can quickly turn out badly if you’re not careful. For example, if you take a picture of someone with dark eyes and use their eyes as your spot metering point, the camera will probably overexpose the entire subject. With that being said, partial and spot metering are more advanced and can cause problems with overall exposure if not used correctly. This is why using AE Lock can be beneficial with practice.

If we refer back to my pup Ike, we can see a great reason why spot metering would not be a good metering method. Since Ike’s eyes are so dark, spot metering would meter the exposure for Ike’s black eyes and not for his blond fur and bright background.

AE Lock, or Auto Exposure Lock, locks the camera’s exposure on the scene so you can recompose the picture and not lose the exposure you’ve already metered. This is especially helpful in the Partial and Spot Metering modes. Since these two modes use such a small area to meter AND that area being in the center of the picture area, being able to meter and then recompose the shot for better composition is beneficial to the final outcome. When my husband Chris and I went to Cancun, Mexico for a friend’s wedding this past January, Chris took this picture from our hotel’s balcony the first morning we were there. Since the sun was so bright to the east, Chris put his Canon 50D in Spot Metering and exposed for the sidewalk (because it’s gray). He used AE Lock to recompose the picture so the horizon wasn’t dead center (we’ll discuss composition in a later lesson). The outcome was this.

How to use AE Lock can vary across camera brands. With Canon, you partially depress the shutter to activate the metering. While still partially depressing the shutter, use your thumb to press and release AE Lock–usually indicated by an asterisk. Canon literature says its AE Lock will hold the exposure until you take the picture or 15 seconds–which ever is less. Nikon, on the other hand, requires you to hold the AE Lock button until you take the picture. For more information on your particular camera’s AE Lock button features, refer to your user’s manual for the camera.

Next Steps

Ok, it’s time to put this knowledge to practice. Let’s talk about our assignment.

We’ve talked about lots of things today–the AF point system, exposure, metering, and AE Lock–so you won’t be surprised when I give you a multi-faceted assignment. Right? Right. Ok, so I’ll lay it on you. And just as a warning: this will require you to conduct some research! Easy research–don’t get too crazy on me just yet!

First, hit the internet and research some good architecture in your area. Great ideas include older churches, government buildings, and so on. But don’t forget the modern architecture, too! Remember that you don’t have to limit these to buildings. For example, we have an awesome pedestrian bridge here in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Missouri River waterfront has some great parks and fountains. Make a list of 3-4 places that you want to photograph and organize it by address to keep you on track as you go out on this photographic adventure.

Second, take pictures of each of these pieces of architecture using all of the metering methods we discussed today–evaluative, center-weighted, partial, and spot. I would suggest using a tripod and taking the exact same pictures using all four methods of metering so that you can see what the camera did in each of the situations. Set your camera as follows:

• Program mode, or P
• Auto White Balance, or AWB
• Auto ISO
• One Shot (not AI Servo or AI Focus). This works in tandem with how your camera focuses.
• Choose your own manual AF point (don’t let the camera be in Automatic AF selection)

Third, get your camera off the tripod and use the AE Lock button to lock in on an exposure reading so you are free recompose your picture.

Next time, we’re going to continue with part two of our three-part lessons on All Things Light by discussing ISO and white balance. Until then, this is Kim Bultsma, and don’t be a green square!