Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. Correct Exposure 19 slides

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure N ormal Exposure: 1.Normal exposure is a combination of science (histogram) and art (eyeball). 2.There is also special high-key (light) to low-key (dark) acceptable exposures. 3.Ultimately, normal exposure is tied directly to your story needs. 4.Although, normal exposure does have a few technical requirements such as maintaining important highlight and shadow detail and to contain jet black and crisp white in the image.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure E xposure Nomenclature: Photoshop lingo… 1.Deep jet black‘0’ 2.Shadow with detail‘0 to 9’ range 3.Gray scale‘10 to 245’ range 4.White with detail‘246to 253’ range 5.Crisp white‘254 to 255’ range 6.Blown out white‘255’ paper white

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure M onitor Calibration Reference: Grayscale : All the tones from 1 to 10 should separate. If 1 & 2 don’t separate, your monitor is too dark. If 9 & 10 don’t separate, your monitor is too light. Not separating can also be an issue with Contrast. Coin: It should look as though it can be picked off the screen. If it doesn’t, your Contrast may be set too low. Hand/Grayscale: The hand color should look believable. If it looks too warm or cool, you will probably have to adjust your monitor RGB color settings if possible.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure D ynamic Range: See it… Tonal values are easier to see when the color is stripped from the image. Compare example images 1 and 2. Notice that the red blouse is vivid in color but it’s actually a dark tone. In example 3, the tones are skewed towards high-contrast. It has more visual punch but the highlights are blown-out and much of the shadow details are lost. Now the red blouse is black. Don’t set your camera to shoot in B&W. It’ll only gives you 1/3 the tonal information. Shoot in full color instead and ‘Desaturate in Photoshop’. This will give you a highly detailed B&W image. 123

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure M y Personal Style: My personal tonal taste runs in the high contrast side as shown in the example to the right. This low-key ‘punchy’ style works especially well for this ‘Friendly Persuasion’ story. Although this style takes a lot of custom darkroom dodging and burning to make it work.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure C hanging Brightness: For the compact digital user, controlling brightness is about either adjusting aperture or the shutter speed. ISO must not be changed. DSLR users can adjust the ISO because of their larger sensor chip which actually has larger pixels too. Increase the aperture size to brighten the image. Decrease aperture size to darken the image. Slow down the shutter speed to brighten the image. And increase the shutter speed to darken the image.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure A perture: Lens opening There are fixed points to lens opening called f/stops. In a compact digital, it usually goes from f/2.8 to f/8. f/2.8 is wide open which let’s the maximum amount of light into the camera. f/8 is fully stopped down which lets in the minimum amount of light.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure A perture: Whole stop The change between f/2.8 and f4 is a whole stop. Whole f/stop change either doubles or halves the amount of light entering the lens and reaching the sensor chip. The compact digital is limited to a three stop f/stop range. DSLR usually has a five stop f/stop range.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure H ard Facts: Aperture The hard facts are that you can’t let in more light than f/2.8. And you can’t let in less light than f/8. Please remember this when you are shooting. It’s especially important when the light level is low.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure Soft Facts: There are other things that can be done to alter the amount of light reaching the sensor. 1.Place a neutral density filter over the lens to reduce the amount of light. 2.Add light to the subject by using fill- cards. 3.Decrease shutter speed to add brightness and increase shutter speed to darken the image.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure S hutter Speeds: Whole stop To ‘effectively’ let in more or less light is to change the shutter speed. The shutter speed has a much broader range going from 30 full seconds to 1/2000 sec. Better digitals have even wider range going from 60 seconds to 1/8000 sec. The recommended ‘safe’ shutter speed range is colorized in orange. 4 sec2 sec1 sec½¼1/81/151/301/601/1251/2501/5001/1000 1/2000

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure S hutter Speed: 1/3 stop Increments The 1/3 stop speeds are bold and colorized to orange. 1/30 1/401/50 1/60 1/801/100 1/125 1/1601/200 1/250 Start paying attention to the shutter speed settings when shooting. If you don’t see the information on the LCD, toggle through the camera Display Options.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I A perture Increments: 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2 stop 1/3 stop is the default compact digital increment. DSLR cameras often have 3 different (1/4, 1/3, and 1/2) f/stop increments. Example: EC -1.5 If the aperture is f/4, the correct EC adjusted f/stop is between f/5.6 and f/8, which is f/ Correct Exposure

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I A perture Increments: EC adjustment can affect both the aperture and shutter speed. In the previous example, only the aperture was changed. Combined: EC -1.5 example The camera might choose to take half-stop from the aperture and the rest (1 more stop) from the shutter speed (1/30 sec might be changed to 1/60 sec). Correct Exposure

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I EC Adjustment: Two stop range by aperture or shutter speed N Aperture Changes Only f/ f/ f/5.6 Shutter Speed Changes Only 1/30 1/401/50 1/60 1/801/100 1/125 Correct Exposure

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure B eyond The Basics: Learn to see light… 1.Quality – use soft and forgiving light. Don’t use hard direct sunlight which is hard to work with. 2.Quantity – use bright light level. Don’t work with dim light which will cause noise (grain), lack of contrast, and poor color. 3.Direction – use side light for form. Don’t use front light which is flat. Back and top light is also on the not recommended list.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure S ee The Light: Keep it simple If you can see the light, it’ll be easy enough to let your expensive toy take care of the basic exposure. Avoid challenging your tool with things like: 1.Direct sunlight or harsh indoor lighting. 2.Black, white, shiny, or transparent subject or background. 3.Light source like the sky, candle, hot reflection, or any other bright thing in the composition.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Correct Exposure M ore Rewarding Challenges: While the camera can set the exposure ‘by the numbers’, only you can make the aesthetic and story decisions about the exact f/stop or the shutter speed. Getting beyond the basics can also mean to learn from your camera ‘Scene Modes’. Use the scene modes to shooti Portraits, Day or Night Scene, Fireworks, to Sunset. And learn by studying the EXIF information about the ‘so called’ best settings.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I x End