1. EXPOSURE
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

2. Acquiring Proper Exposure
Acquiring the proper exposure is one of the most important steps in making a good photograph.
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

3. EXPOSURE
Over Exposed
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

4. EXPOSURE
Exposure Corrected
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

5. EXPOSURE Under Exposed Exposure Corrected
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

6. EXPOSURE Under Exposed!!!! + 3 stops of light
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

7. EXPOSURE Camera metering calibrated to set exposure to middle grey.
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

8. EXPOSURE
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

9. EXPOSURE
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

10. EXPOSURE
Reed's Cameras- Digital Photo 101

11. Acquiring Proper Exposure
Histograms are the key to understanding digital images.
Maybe you have used a histogram
when making adjustments to
your image in a program like
Photoshop or Paintshop Pro.

12. Acquiring Proper Exposure
Histograms are the key to understanding digital images.
A digital image is just a collection of pixels of uniform color.
The Histogram sorts them into 256 levels of brightness from black (value 0) to white (value 255).

13. Acquiring Proper Exposure
Histograms are the key to understanding digital images.
The resulting graph (or histogram) is just a visual
representation of how the image was exposed.
Digital cameras allow you to review
the histogram in the playback mode.

14. Acquiring Proper Exposure
This is an example of
a correctly exposed
image with a "good“
histogram.
The smooth curve
downwards ending in
255 shows that the
subtle highlight detail in the clouds
and waves is preserved.
Likewise, the shadow area starts at 0 and builds up gradually.

15. Acquiring Proper Exposure
The histogram of this
under exposed image
indicates there are a
lot of pixels with value
0 or close to 0.
Some shadow detail is
lost forever.
Unless there is a lot of pure black in the image, there should not be that many pure black pixels.
There are also very few pixels
in the highlight area.

16. Acquiring Proper Exposure
The histogram of this
over exposed image
indicates there are a
lot of pixels with
value 255 or close to
255.
Subtle highlight detail
in the clouds and waves is lost.
There are also very few pixels in the shadow area.

17. Acquiring Proper Exposure
The histogram of this image of too much contrast has both clipped shadows and highlights.
The dynamic range of the scene is larger than the dynamic range of the camera.

18. Acquiring Proper Exposure
This image of too
little contrast contains
only midtones and
lacks contrast,
resulting in a hazy
image.

20. Acquiring Proper Exposure
Exposure Compensation/
Aperture Button or
Quick Dial
Hold this button and turn the
Main Dial or turn Quick Dial to
change exposure compensation
in the range -2.0 EV to +2.0 EV,
in steps of either 1/3 or 1/2 stop
(Custom Function ).
In Manual Exposure Mode
hold this button while turning
the Main Dial to change the
aperture.

21. Acquiring Proper Exposure
The histogram of this
under exposed image
indicates there are a
lot of pixels with value
0 or close to 0.
What to do?
Increasing exposure will “shove”
the histogram to the right.

22. Acquiring Proper Exposure
The histogram of this
over exposed image
indicates there are a
lot of pixels with
value 255 or close to
255.
What to do?
Decreasing exposure will “shove”
the histogram to the left.

23. Acquiring Proper Exposure
The histogram of this image of too much contrast has both clipped shadows and highlights.
What to do?
Increase exposure to “shove”
the histogram to the right, but not too much.
It is better to be slightly over exposed rather
than under exposed.

24. Acquiring Proper Exposure
This image of too
little contrast contains
only midtones and
lacks contrast,
resulting in a hazy
image.
Note: An image like this can be easily fixed in a program like Photoshop.
What to do?
With an image like this try either increasing or
decreasing exposure to see with yields the best
result.

25. Acquiring Proper Exposure
Allowing you to view the
histogram on the camera's
LCD can be a POWERFUL
TOOL!
You can adjust the exposure
and take the shot again if
necessary.
Some cameras come with an overexposure warning,
whereby the overexposed areas blink.

26. Live View Mode