Exposure 101 - Your Easy Guide to Properly Exposed Images

1. Intro: Hi, My name is Leah, and I have compassion about photography ever since I got my first point into camera at the age of 10 when I finally got my first years, a lot camera. I still remember all the difficulty that I had to understand the concept of exposure and to understand aperture and shutter speed and what they do for my images. So I created this class to make it easy for you to understand exposure and to transition from shooting and auto to shooting in manual. No time in my index, easy to follow classes. I have incorporated a lot of ex employer images to illustrate my points and to make it easy for you to follow along, I will explain to you what exposure is and we will learn all about shutter speed, aperture and eyes. Oh, and I will share a lot of practical methods with you half exposed properly even in the most difficult lining situation. So what? You just want to learn more about photography or you just got your first DSLR a Marylise camera and you want to learn how to make the most out of it or you simply want to learn how to take more creative photographs using aperture and shutter speed. This classes for you. So by the end of this class, you will understand the process behind exposure so that not only you can take properly exposed images every time, but with the tips and tricks that I share with you throughout this class, you will also be able to gain full creative control of the images and put your creative vision into your photography to take images that really stand out. So let's get started. I'm learning how to take perfectly post images every time today. I can't wait to see you in class. 2. Class Overview: hang guys and will come to exposure 101 Before we dive right into the fun stuff, I want to take a quick second to break down what we will be talking about today. Exactly. So to begin with, I want to introduce you to the class project and tell you different ways in which you can incorporate what we're talking about today into your photography practice. That way you will take properly exposed images in no time after that, I quickly want to explain to you what exposure is in terms of photography and what it consists off so that you have a better understanding about everything that we talk about from there on out. We will then learn it all about shutter speed, and we will look into ways how we can use different shutter speeds to add creative effects to our photos. After that, we will explore editor and see in what ways it affects our photographs. We will then uncover the myths on ice. Oh, and I think that's a really important part of this lesson, because a lot of people tend to make it sound like ice Elisabetta thing. But if you use it consciously and in the proper way, it will help you to get the exposure right. After all this theory, I want to show you how we can put into practice what we're learning. So I will share my tips and tricks with you to set you up for success and switching from shooting an auto to shooting in manual mode and achieving perfectly exposed images every time. I then want to introduce the topic off exposure compensation to you because exposure compensation is a really great tool. When you find yourself in situations that are particularly bright or particularly dark, I will explain to you what exactly exposure compensation is, how we use it and when we use it. After that, I quickly want to look into the half automatic modes with you because I think they're great help when you're just making the transitions from auto to manual and you might need a little help at first. So that will be all you need to know for getting properly exposed images. And once we've talked about that, you can step up your photography game in no time, so let's get right into it. 3. Class Project: So for the class project, I would like you to just go out and explore. Put into practice what we learn today and just have fun. Find itself the subject. It can't be anything that you like. It could be a friend or your neighbor. Or maybe even you can. If you feel like taking pictures of your cat, try out different shutter speeds and apertures and see how it affected image. Does it highlight the subject that you shooting or maybe doesn't distract from the subject that you want to be shooting? I encourage you to play around with the eyes oas well, and see how far you can push a camera. Because if you want to be a good photographer, it's so important. And that really construct said enough that you get to know your camera that you know how far I can push it. Like what is the highest eyes so you could go to without getting a fuzzy image? What ISS A good aperture for you to work with when you're shooting Portrait. It's all that kind of stuff is really important to know when you want to become a better photographer, so play around with that as well. And his police? Police. Don't be discouraged if your images don't come out perfectly the first couple times around . But I still inferred you to upload the images. Show us what you come up with and I can't wait to see your photographs. 4. What is exposure : First of all, before we get started, let's have a quick look at the definition of exposure. Simply put, explosion determines how light or doctored image will appear. The process behind that was fairly simple. So in your lens there's an opening at all times, and it's called Aperture. We'll be talking about aperture in a moment, but what you will have to know for now is that the future is a diaphragm that dialects and contracts to control the amount of light that hits your camera sensor. So what do you get the shutter button on your camera? What happens is that light process through the diaphragm onto the sensor, which will then capture a light, the time that determines how long lights gonna hit the sense of four. It's called the shutter speed, so make you can already guess the aperture and shutter speed at your really important aspects off exposure. The third aspect, we will have to be talking about this Aiso thes three elements, determined, as I said, how light or dark images going up here? And it's vital for a perfectly exposed image to match these elements in a way that they work perfectly together. don't worry, it's not as complicated as it might seem right now. We'll look into that in a second and you will be set up for success. Let's just quickly recap what we've been talking about in this class. Exposure determines how light or dark your image will appear. The exposure consists off three factors. Aperture, shutter speed and china. So remember the process behind the exposures, the following the aperture highlights or contract to control the amount of light that hits the sensor and the shadow speed determines how long might hits the sensor. For now that we've got a basic understanding off how exposure works exactly, let's look into shutter speed. 5. Shutter speed: So now let's learn all about shutter speed and how we can use it creatively. As I mentioned before, the shiner speeds has the time during which the camera sensor is exposed. To let in your camera, you will find a display as a number like, for example, 1/5 or one over 1000. That translates to the fraction of a second the light has to hit the sensor. You can also open your shutter forest long as 30 seconds. For example, if you're shudder is gonna be open for a full second or let's say for five full seconds it will be displayed as a one for one second, for example, or five for five seconds. So the longer you open your shutter for the more light is going to be able to hit the sensor. That means if you set your shutter speed for his short as one over 1000 for example, less light will be able to hit the sensor as the shutter will only be open for 1 8000 of a second. On the other hand, if you said a shutter speed, that is quite a bit longer than that, for example, 1/25 more light will be able to pass through the DIA friend onto the sensor. Your image will simply be a lot brighter, but the shutter speed can do more than that. It does not only determine how long, like could hit the sense of for, but it also allows you to capture or to freeze motion. So let's say you see someone crossing the street and you want to freeze his or her movement , then set a really short chapter. Let's say, for someone who's walking as slow as a pedestrian, you could choose a shutter speed like one over 1000 for example, that will completely freeze the motion. And it will look like the stuff that the shutter speed also allows you to capture motion. So let's say you stand in front of a waterfall, and you really want to make the water blurring over the edge. Then you should go for a slower shyness. Speed, Let's say one over 125 or you could even go up to 10 seconds. That's a good rule of thumb, and it will give you a good starting point. But it's really important that you experiment a little bit set, you shutter speed, take a picture, look at it and, if you're not happy, adjusted accordingly. Setting a longer shutter speed also allows you to take pictures at night. So, for example, take a picture of the night sky or take a picture off your city at night. Because there's less life available, you will have to give the camera a little bit more time to capture the ledge. So let's say you want to take a picture off the city tonight. Then I would suggest that you started with the shutter speed off, maybe 15 seconds. If that's still too dark, then you can always up it a little bit. If that's going to be too bright because you live in a really, really bright city, then you should slow the shutter speed down a little bit, maybe down to 10 seconds or something like that. Generally, I would suggest that if you have a shutter speed deaths one over 125 or slower, you should use a tripod simply because we naturally have a little bit of a handshake. So the longer the shutters be, the more obvious this handshake will become again. It depends very much on you, so you should test it out personally. Sometimes I take pictures even up to a 25th of a second, and I don't use a tripod for that. It works because I have a fairly steady hand, but other people might not, and they may need a tripod at that China's speed. So try it out. See how far you can push yourself, too. And don't worry about a tripod being really expensive because the family wants out there that you should make sure that your track what is relatively story. It doesn't shake in the wind because they don't even need to try. Put it all. Let's just quickly go over again what we've been talking about in this class. The shadow speed refers to the time the camera shutter is open. To expose the sensor to light on your camera, you will find it displayed as number, such as 1/5 or one over 1000. If you said it to a full second, it will be displayed as a one. If you want to use the shutter speed creatively, you can either use it to freeze motion or you could use it to capture motion. And a long shutter speed also allows you to take pictures at night whenever you shut. A speed is slower than one over 125. You should consider using a tripod if you want to do long exposures during the day, for example, you want to take a picture of a waterfall and you want to really capture the motion off the water and the shutter speed that you would have to choose in order to achieve this vision would let too much light had the sensor so that image would be overexposed. And D filters or polarizing filters are a great option for you, and you're interested in that sort of photography. You should definitely look into that. Now let's look into aperture. 6. Aperture: next up is temperature. Let's talk about the term effort. Your first, the picture or F stop determines the size of the opening through which the light houses onto the sensor. That's the little die a friend, a man mentioned earlier. Remember, on your camera they will be displayed as funny numbers such as F 2.8 or F 11. The maximum temperature available to you always depends on your camera's lens, but generally the white of the temperature. The more light hits the center in the same amount of time, and the brighter the image is gonna be the same goes the other way. If you have a really small actor, less light will hit the sense in the same amount of time, and your image will be doc running played a big number. The smaller the aperture. So F 2.8, for example, would be a fairly big opening at 11 will be medium size opening and F 29 for example, would be a really small opening again. To sum it up. The big of the Apertura, the more life it's the sensor in the same amount of time. The big picture is grateful low light situations or to compensate for a fast shutter speed but less shutter speed. The epic trip also has a creative purpose because the aperture determines the depths of field. And don't worry, that's not going to be a really, really complicated topic. The depth of field simply refers to the amount off blur in an image beyond the subject. That doesn't focus. So maybe you can see in this. I am fairly focus, I hope, and the windows behind me they're failing out of focus. That is because I chose a rather big aperture off 6.3. Let's look at some ex employer images to really understand the different depths off field that come with different temperatures. So in this picture you see that I chose the Apertura off 16. That means the depth of field is really deep. You can really see the background, and you can make out the single leaves and the branches. And you can just tell you will especially be able to tell when we look at the other images that it doesn't call the attention to the flower as the main subject of the images. Much for this image, I chose an aperture off 5.6. It's sort of a medium depth of field. You can kind of still see the branches and the leaves in the background, but not as in much detail and not as sharp as an image that I took with UNEP Attar of 16. You can still kind of guess what it is that you see in the background. In this image, it's easier to recognize the subject. You can tell that I wanted to focus on the flower, but there's still a lot of destruction going on in the background. If we're now looking at this image that it took with an aperture of 1.8, you can really tell how shallow the depth of field is. The flower is in focus and everything else is completely blurry. You can't even tell that a few of the leaves in the foreground, already a little bit blurred because they're not on the same level with the flower. You can't really tell what's in the background because is really blurry, and you only see a little bit of greens and a little bit off Brown's in there, but you can tell what exactly it is so that makes it really easy for the viewer to recognize the subject off the photo. So you might wonder right now how do I know when to use? Which that's the field? Generally, I would suggest that you use a big aperture and therefore shallow depth of field for Portrait's for itself if you want to subject to be the main focus of the image. On the other hand, a small aperture and therefore really deep depth of field is great. If you're shooting the landscapes, for example, or if you want your entire scene to being focused again, this is just a general rule. So I really, really suggest that you get creative with this. Find out what works for you and your style. After all, photography's an R and an art only not. You sometimes have to break the rules to get the best results. On a little side note, I want to call your attention to this picture. As you can see in this picture, the bulb is very much in focus, whereas the can as the bottom of the lamp is out of focus. That is because the depth of field that I chose to take this picture was so shallow that when I focused on the light bulb, the can that was slightly in the foreground of the bulb was out of focus. So I want to call your attention to the fact that to shower over an aperture can have the effect that a subject with a lot of death will appear in focus at one point and out of focus. At another point. You can use this creatively, but sometimes it can be a little bit distracting. So when you're choosing an aperture, always keep in the back of your mind that if you said a really big eh picture that your subject might not be entirely and focused now to wrap it all up. Let's go over what we've been talking about in this plus, so the Apertura refers to the size of the opening through which light process onto the sensor. The bigger the opening, the smaller you number will be. So if you have an opening of 1.8, that will be way bigger than an opening off 11 for example, and remember the white of the opening. The more light hits the sensor in the same amount of time and the broader your image is going to be the smaller your opening. The less light hits the sensor in the same amount of time and the dark. How your image will be. The aperture also determines the depth of field, which is what we've just been talking about on the example image. Remember, the temperature is the go to tool. If you want to compensate for low light conditions off for Ross Cheddars Next up, let's look into I s O. 7. ISO: Now let's talk about the infamous eyes. Oh, and why you shouldn't be afraid to use it. So the ice oh, indicates the ability of the camera sensor to catch allege. That means the high and the eyes. So the more sensitive your sensor is gonna be, so should she just crane the eyes all the way up to get perfectly exposed images all the time? The simple answer to that is no, because while you might be able to kept catchable, like in the same amount of time when you up your eyes oh, it also increased The digital noise you will see in the image and digital noise is something that we don't want because it makes the image really fuzzy and grainy, and it affects. The overall quality of the image just doesn't look very nice. The image will simply be a little bit less sharp. Therefore, I would generally recommend to keep the asshole as lowest possible, but personally love to use the eyes. Oh, if I can't get the exposure right with the settings that I choose for my creative idea, let's think oven example. Let's say you are at a wedding and you want to capture the bride and groom dancing, so you want to really freeze their motion. But at the same time, you want the entire seem to be in focus, so that means you will have to choose a small aperture to get the entire scene in focus. So maybe, let's say, an aperture of F 20 but at the same time, you have to choose a fast shutter speed to really freeze the motion. Let's just say who choose the shutter speed off one over 1000. No, many leading conditions aren't great. And with the settings that you had to choose to achieve your creative vision, you can't get enough light to hit the sensor. So that, for what I would do in this situation personally is to simply up the ice a little bit. Because, as you remember in increasing the eyes old, you also increased the sensor's ability to capture. Like I would only up it as high as I needed to be in order to get the perfect exposure that my I mean, I have to wiggle the aperture and shutter speed around a little bit to keep the eyes always lowest possible. But I still don't shy away from up in it. So some people might tell you leave it at 100 or 250 at all times and don't go above that. But I don't agree personally. Sometimes I like to sit the Aiso as high as the 6400. That works perfectly fine for my camera, but your camera might be different. So, as I said earlier, go out and try different Aysel settings. Between 104 100 or maybe 600 will work fine for most cameras, but the more modern cameras you can usually push beyond that. So going explore tryout difference headings and zoom in to see when you start to see digital noise before we move on. Let's quickly wrap it all up and look at what we've been talking about in this class. The ISO indicates the ability of the camera sensor to capture light. That means the high of the iess. Oh, the more sensitive to like to censor will be a nice All of 100 refers to a sense of that is fairly insensitive to light, whereas a nice off 6400 for example, will make your camera sensor a lot more sensitive. Keep in mind that the higher the eyes Oh, the more father your image will look and that the isil will affect the overall quality of your image. Nevertheless, setting a higher Aiso value can help you get the exposure right when there's not enough light available. Now let's look at how we can put it all together and get the exposure right member out in the field. 8. How to expose properly: Now that we've talked about all this theory last Heidi ends together and see how we can put into practice what we've been learning today. With a little bit of practice, it will be really easy for you to achieve appropriate exposure, and my tips and tricks will help you get started. So I've touched on it before. But to get the exposure arrives, you will have to match all three elements off exposure aperture, shutter speed and Aiso. What you see here is called the exposure triangle, and this is commonly used to explain the concept of proper exposure to people. In the beginning, it didn't make a lot of sense to me because the triangle isn't necessarily a balanced shape with all sides of equal length. But I now think of it as an I saw Seles Triangle. So a triangle where all three sides off the triangle have to be of the same length. So what that translates to in terms of photography is that if you lengthen your shutter speed, for example because you choose a longer exposure, then you will have to adjust the aperture and the eyes accordingly to keep your triangle and balance and to get the exposure right as a really basic rule, I would suggest that if you choose a big aperture, said a fast shutter speed, because otherwise too much light will hit the center and the image will be overexposed. If you said a small aperture chooses low shutter speed. Otherwise the image will be under exposed. And as a little tip, I would always suggest to under exposure image rather than to overexpose it. Because if you're gonna work with the images and Softwares like leg room or even its instagram, you can always bring up the shadows a little bit. But it will be really, really hard to retrieve blown out highlights. So when in doubt, I would say under exposure image rather than to over expose them. So I know that all of this can sound really difficult right now, and you might wonder, like only God, how much everybody put that into practice. But a chip that really changed the game for me is to set the parameters that it's more important for my create division first and then just the other parameters accordingly. So if you're shooting a portrait and you want your subject to be the entire focus off the frame. For example, I would suggest that you choose the aperture first said as big of an aperture as you want to see how right your image is going to be with this setting and adjust the shutter speed and Aiso accordingly. You might be wondering how How would I know if the image is gonna be over or next post, or if there's kind of enough, like even I have good news for you and that is called a light meter. The light meter helps you see if your image is exposed properly when you're shooting setting parameters. As I said before, push the shutter button halfway and technologic meter. If it says your exposure is perfect, then hit the shot about it all the way. If it says you need to adjust it a little bit because your image is gonna be over exploded . This headings that you've chosen simply adjusted a little bit. Push the shutter button halfway again, and maybe you gonna right this time. So just for the front of it, let's I want to take a picture of this lamp right here. I have set my aperture to 1.4 because I really only want the lamb to be in perfectly sharp focus. And I want to have a blurry background. I have said an AYSO off 250 a shutter speed off 60. Now the light meter tells me that this is going to be way over exposed. So what I do? I'll simply dial down the shutter speed until the light meter is balanced out and the cameras has The exporter is going to be perfect. Well, let me just take a picture and it is a little bit overexposed. So I will go back in and die on the shutter speed down to 250 it is looking good. So that is how you use the light meter. Simple as that before we move onto the next lesson. Let's quickly review what we've been talking about in this class, so if you said a big aperture, you should set a fast shutter speed. If you go for a small aperture, choose a slower shutter speed to enable the camera to capture enough light. The trick here is to set the parameter that is more vital for your composition. first and then adjust the others accordingly. Using the light meter. Always keep the exposure triangle in the back of your mind. And remember that if you alter one of the parameters, you will have to also the other parameters accordingly. To get a properly exposed image in the next class, we will be talking about the exposure compensation. 9. Exposure Compensation: now. I mentioned this earlier, but I really want to dive a little bit deeper into this topic now because sometimes you might find yourself in a dark room for itself. But we don't have a little like available, or you are in a snowy landscape where there's a lot of bright and white tones and you take a picture. And in the case of the snowy landscape, for example, the snow comes out really great, which looks horrible, and it's not at all what you wanted. You wanna picture the scene as you see it, so exposure compensation will be a really helpful tool as it lets you increase or decrease the decent ours default meter reading to get closer to the true brightness off the same. To understand how exactly that works, I just briefly want Explain to you how the camera meters for exposure. So when you push the shutter about halfway, meanest with senior in to make a guess as to what the exposure should be like to get a perfectly exposed image. Now in a normal scene, the camera will base. The exposure on a standard middle language reflects about 12 to 18% off the light that results in the black tones to appear bleidt and the white tones to appear watch. Sometimes you will find yourself in a very shaky situation, and there will be lots of blessed. And if the camera is going based exposure on all of these blacks, then it will see less light reflecting back from the Blackstone would see reflecting back from the standard middle Great. So what the camera does is to add exposure to brighten up the subject, to make it become a standard middle great, Which is why sometimes in the scene with a lot of shadows, the shadows will appear really great and washed out. What happens then is kind of a domino effect. The dark tones and the image will appears. A standard Millbrae, the standard middle gray will appear is a light great, and the white will be completely overexposed. On the other hand, you might find yourself in the situation where the camera basis T exposure on the whites that it season. So, for example, the snow the camera will base the exposure on this white, and we'll take that as the standard middle great. But since White reflects a lot of life. The exposure will be brought down and the white will appears. Middle break that will make your snow of really greatest and not really appealing, and the domino effect will happen in a different direction. The middle brace will become docked race problem Shadow school. Stay dark, but the end result is that your image will be under exposed so ever said. Usually your camera will do a perfect all metering for exposure. But if you capturing the snowy landscape with mostly bright tones, then use positive exposure compensation to let the camera know that you wanted to expose for something brighter than the standard middle. If you're capturing a dark seen on the other hand like a night scene, for example, or an indoors, you seen a lot of shadows and your image comes out too bright. Then you simply use negative exposure compensation to let the camera. No, they should meet her for something Dr Standard, Middle Britain And that's really all you need to know in exporter compensation. To get perfectly, it's post images, even in a difficult situation. Let's quickly summarize what we've been learning in this class. The exposure compensation is a great tool for difficult lighting situations as it lets you all to the DSLR is default meter reading. Usually the camera basis the exposure on a standard middle gray. But in extreme situations, you might not have the standard middle gray available to you, for example, in a snowy landscape where there will be mostly whites. So in this case, you will have to give your camera a little bit of a help by choosing positive or negative exposure compensation. Depending on the situation, you're in to point out to it that it should not base the exposure on the standard middle grade. That way you will always get perfectly exposed images and true tones, even when you find yourself in a situation or other people might not take a perfectly posed image in the next lesson will be talking about the half automatic modes. See you there 10. Half Automatic Modes: Let's look into the half automatic modes and see how they can assist you in making the transition from shooting an auto to a shooting in manual. If after watching this class, you maybe feel a little bit overwhelmed or feel like you will never be able to control all these settings that we've just been talking about when you're out shooting, then Dari your camera can help you, and it could help Big time. The half automatic modes let you set one of the parameters so even the appetite with shutter speed, and will then set the other parameters accordingly to insure that image will come out properly exposed. Let's look at the options. So on one hand you have shut a priority on your camera that will show up as TV if you have a canon camera and s if you have a Nikon camera, this mode allows you to choose a specific shutter speed and then said the aperture and the ice accordingly to miss the parameters and get you perfectly exposed. Image. So if you want to catch removing subject like an animal or a waterfall or a car, then you can simply set your camera to TV or S and choose the shadows. Feed that your situation requires, and your camera will take care of the rest. On the other hand, we have embittered priority for a V on a candid camera and a on a Nikon camera. This program led to choose an appetizer value while your camera will set the shutter speed and Aysel accordingly. This is a great option if you're out shooting portrait's, for example, and you know every tree wanted shoes, but you don't constantly won't have to worry about adjusting the shutter speed to the lighting conditions. Just set your camera to extra priority, and then we'll take care of it. The only thing that I do recommend when you decide shoot in the half automatic modes is to go to your camera setting and set a max Aiso value to make sure that your camera doesn't say Aiso to 100,000 without you knowing and you will come home and you think you've got some really great shots and then you look at the images and they're really fuzzy because camera did something you didn't realize at the time and that he didn't want it to do so to avoid that, just go to this heading seven max Aiso value and you will be good to go. Let's quickly wrap it all up and look at what we've been learning today. In the half automatic modes, the camera lets you set one off the parameters of exposure, shutter speed or aperture, and then insurers. That image will be exposed properly by adjusting the other two parameters accordingly. When you go into the shadow priority mode, the camera will let you choose the shutter speed, and it will adjust the aperture and eyes. Oh, according to your settings, an aperture priority mode. You choose Thea pitcher and the camera takes care of the rest. Don't forget to set your max Aiso value to ensure that you camera won't set a I s o. That is way too high in order to maintain the perfect exposure. See you in the next class 11. Final Words: that is it you guys, This is all you need to know to get perfectly exposed images. And I hope I was able to show you that taking properly ex post images is not a science. It does take a little bit of practice. But if you put in that work and if you get to know your camera, you will take amazing photographs in no time. So go out there and just have fun. Sometimes I feel like it's easily overlooked that photography is an art form as well. And I really want to encourage you to treat us touch, you know, go out and shoot different subjects. Have fun trying out different things. Maybe it doesn't look the way you planned it. Or it doesn't look the way you hoped it to be. Maybe eating greater than what you envisioned. You never know. So just go out and have fun. I really want to thank you for sticking around and watching this class. I hope you gotta look out of it and feel encouraged and motivated to go out and just shoot . If you like this class or even if you didn't, I would love for you to leave a review because we're all forever teachers and forever students. And I can learn from you guys as well. So please, please, please leave a review to let me know what I can do. Better to let me know what I did Well, so that my next class can be even better. I am very much looking forward to seeing your class project and to see what you come up with. And if you have any questions, please feel free to come in in the discussion section below or send me a message on instagram and again before you click away. Please leave a review. If you want to stay up to date on my latest classes Hit the follow button down below and you will be the 1st 1 to know When I published my next class Already a lot of things in my mind So stay to now go out there, have fun and I'm looking forward to seeing in my next class