An Exposure Guide For Beginning Students of Photography

An Exposure Guide For Beginning Students of Photography

by William Lulow

Here is a guide to exposures for people who are learning the controls of their cameras and lenses, no matter what kind you are using. It is based on all my years of looking at and analyzing light and its various intensities as well as applications of it in its artificial state (light bulbs and flash). This is intended as a starting point to train students to recognize how certain environmental attributes such as clouds and dark objects alter various exposure calculations. The basic idea is to arrive at GOOD EXPOSURES by an organized, educated trial and error technique with the camera in MANUAL  mode. If your camera is in AUTO mode, you have surrendered control of your images to a computer chip!!

The other thing all photographers should be mindful of is to decide what details are important and how they should be reproduced in the photograph. In the case of in-camera reflected light metering (which all DSLRs do these days), it may entail actually walking up to the object you wish to photograph and taking readings from it up close. Sometimes, you can simulate what that reading could be by finding similar lighting conditions (such as shade or darker objects) closer to the camera position. The most accurate light meter readings have always been with incident meters which measure the actual amount of light that falls on a subject. But we know that such readings are not always  possible.

Here is the chart:

TYPES OF LIGHTING CONDITIONS & TRIAL EXPOSURES

To begin with, all settings are based on an ISO speed value of 100. It should also be stated that the sensors in most digital cameras are far more light-sensitive than just about any film ever was, but for really dim light, as in ordinary room light, a tripod is really necessary. 

Note: Remember, these are just suggested starting points.

All exposures will always need to be fine-tuned to get the kinds of images you want.

 

LIGHT CONDITIONS                                                                   EXPOSURE VALUES

 

Bright Sunlight, blue sky, beach or snow                                   f/16 @ 1/250^th of a second

Bright Sunlight, normal scene                                                      f/11-f/22 @  1/125^th of a second

Hazy Sunlight, normal scene                                                       f/8 @  1/125^th of a second

Cloudy Bright, no direct sunlight                                                f/5.6-f/8  @ 1/125^th of a second

Cloudy, mostly overcast sky                                                         f/5.6 – f/4  @ 1/125^th of a second

Cloudy, evening sky                                                                       f/4  @ 1/60^th of a second

Evening light after sunset                                                            f/2.8 @ 1/60^th of a second

Room light in a well-lit living room                                           f/2.8 @ 1/30^th of a second

Room light with one light bulb                                                   f/2.8  @ 1/10^th of a second

Dark object on sunny day                                                           f/5.6    @ 1/100^th of a second

Open shade on mostly sunny day                                              f/8  @   1/100^th of a second

Here are some sample images under the various lighting conditions described above:

Bright sun, beach scene

Bright sunlight on snow.

Normal scene, bright blue sky.

Hazy sun, clouds, aerial shot.

Lots of clouds, some filtered sunlight.

Evening sky, sunset

Dim, room light, no flash. Camera on tripod.

Mostly overcast day, some light rain.

Open shade, overcast, evening.

 With in-camera light meters, it’s a good idea to be able to memorize these kinds of conditions so that you have a good starting point, as I mentioned. Then you can use the meter graph in your camera’s viewfinder to expose the image the way you want. Remember that image editing software like Photoshop can certainly help fine tune just about any exposure, but my old adage was and continues to be “get it right in the camera first,” then you can do all the adjustment you want in post production. But it’s always good to have a well thought out starting point.