Help with Exposure

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Archive 2008 · Help with Exposure

gowhow
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p.1 #1 · Help with Exposure

Hi

Looking for advice on getting better exposure with my 40D.

I normally shoot in Aperture priority mode, with Auto WB on, and rely on the camera to set the exposure time, sometimes changing ISO if I think I need a faster/slower speed with the DOF i want.

However, when I do PP, I find that when experimenting, the shots are often incorrectly exposed.

I do not have a lightmetre, so I am looking for some good principles to apply in the field to try and take my images up a notch. What should be looking for in the histogram? (not averse to a bit of chimping...)

Here are a few previous images.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/692255/0#6219232

They were all PP in lightroom, so probably not much help, but might give a pointer?

I am off on an 8 day road trip round the lower South Island tomorrow, so thanks in advance for any replies.

Nov 20, 2008 at 09:39 AM

paulhodson
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p.1 #2 · Help with Exposure

As a general rule "expose to the right" is the rule. This means that you should aim to get the histogram as far to the right as you can without getting warning about blown highlights (seen as flashing areas on the preview screen) unless they are specular reflections like the sun off metal.

Read this for more detail

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

Nov 20, 2008 at 02:23 PM

gowhow
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p.1 #3 · Help with Exposure

Thanks Paul
Just had a look at the link and also an embedded link on LL about histograms and that has helped a lot. I regularly get histograms squashed up to the right, with the "recovery" column full!

Now I will try and correct this at the source and see what happens.

Cheers

Adam

Nov 20, 2008 at 06:47 PM

mdude85
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p.1 #4 · Help with Exposure

A circular polarizer might help since you seem to be fond of shooting a lot of landscapes.

Nov 25, 2008 at 03:13 PM

tomhh
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p.1 #5 · Help with Exposure

The dynamic range you are working with is killing your exposures.
+EC or a graduated filter would help. Perhaps even multuiple exposures with blend or HDR in PS.

Nov 25, 2008 at 05:15 PM

Jim Schemel
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p.1 #6 · Help with Exposure

I found with my 20D when outside and in good light and low iso, i would underexpose by 1/3 of a stop and found my pictures looked much better and exposure was nearly dead on.Now inside when noise could be more of an issue i would overexpose by 1/3 of a stop and this would help control the noise.My 2 cents worth.

-Jim

Nov 25, 2008 at 10:22 PM


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