On part I we talked briefly about the drawbacks of the automatic mode of digital cameras. Now it’s time to talk a little about the exposure meter, and that knowledge can improve pictures a lot.
When you focus on a scene, the camera checks how much light is available on that environment, and ajusts itself to produce sort of an “average” scene, as we already know. The main problem is: what if that scene was supposed to be a bit dark?
Probably the camera will take the picture with a very slow shutter speed, so you get the so-called average image, taking a balanced distribution of dark and bright spots on the scene. But chances are some points get too bright, or moving elements get blurry.
To solve those special cases, most cameras come with a menu to change exposure. Roughly speaking, it’s like you’re saying to your camera: “this scene is supposed to be a bit darker than your average picture”.
Anyway, with that method the camera will help itself by setting automatically the shutter speed and the apperture. That approach is very convenient.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a standard button among different camera models. Most cameras follow the traditional “P” mode, on which you can control the exposure up and down. As a rule of thumb, when I’m on a darker room, I set it down a few steps, take a picture and check on the viewfinder if that setting is ok.
Of course, don’t forget to set the exposure to the default value, in order to prepare the camera for ideal light conditions.
Legong Dancer, Bali - flashes were forbidden on that presentation, and even with exposure set a few steps below, her hands are shown a little blurry. But the main subject of the scene - her face, looks preety sharp
