Microsoft 702 manual Nail the Exposure, Capture a Moment in the Story, Planning for the imperfect

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Chapter 2: Making the Most of Your Camera

Planning for the imperfect

Learning to nail the exposure takes a lot of experience, and no one gets it right with every shot. If you suspect the lighting might make it difficult to nail the exposure, you can increase your chances of success by bracket- ing, as explained in tip #7.

2. Nail the Exposure

In a finished photo, exposure is something that you usually only notice when it is out of adjustment. A perfect exposure is not something that jumps out at you from a photo, but a problem exposure definitely stands out. In an overexposed photo (caused by too much light), the shadow areas are light, and the highlight areas are almost entirely white. In an underexposed photo, too little light has been let into the camera, creating a photo that lacks detail, with filled-in shadow areas and dull highlighted areas.

Special lighting situations can fool the built-in light meter in your camera. If you want to start with the camera’s automatic exposure, use exposure compen- sation to fine-tune the exposure. The following list describes some common lighting problems and the recommended exposure compensation for each:

■For a side-lit subject: Increase exposure by one-half of a stop.

■For a backlit subject: Increase the exposure by one stop. Or step in close and meter directly on the subject, step back and recompose, and then shoot at the reading you took on the subject. You can also switch to spot metering.

■For a small dark subject against a bright background, or any subject in a very bright scene: Use exposure compensation of +1 to +3, or increase exposure by one to two stops, for example, from f/8 to f/5.6 or f/4.5.

■For a small, light subject against a dark background: Use exposure compensation of -1, or decrease exposure by one stop, for example, from f/8 to f/11.

3.Capture a Moment in the Story

Consider driver’s license and passport photos. We think of these photos as uninteresting and unrepresentative of how people usually look. Why are these photos dull?

Microsoft Picture It! Companion Guide