How To Get The Best Exposures With Your DSLR

How To Get The Best Exposures With Your DSLR

by William Lulow

Many photographers today simply rely on their automatic cameras to give them good exposures. They set their cameras to measure overall exposure or to pick out parts of the subject from which they take their readings. Often they set their cameras on AUTO and let them find a good exposure. But, if you really want to control your exposures so that they are the best they can be, then this article might just help.

In a previous article, I spoke about using light meters (which is rarely done these days) to get more accurate readings. However, even accurate meters can’t decide for you how the subject should look. Only you can do that. So, I use an INCIDENT meter to get a good approximation of the light that’s falling on the subject. Then I tweak it a bit by deciding whether I want the subject lighter, darker, certain colors to be rendered deeper in hue, the sky to be darkened or any other part of the subject to be emphasized. Here’s one example:

This is a panorama I made recently in Florida. What I wanted to emphasize here was the color of the sky during a sunrise. I couldn’t really use my incident meter because there was no light actually falling on the spot where I set up my camera. So, I used my camera’s built-in meter, which I have set to “SPOT” and took a reading from the deepest part of the pinkish sky. With my thumb holding down my back-button focusing, I then re-composed the shot to make two separate exposures which overlapped slightly. This enabled Photoshop to seamlessly stitch together the two images.

So, in this case, using the camera’s built-in metering system, I was able to come up with the exposure I wanted. I always decide how I want the subject to look first. So, if I’m using the camera’s meter, I use it as a starting point. Then, based on what I want the subject to look like, I adjust exposure, possible filtration and exposure accordingly. Every once in a while, my camera’s automatic settings get the job done. Usually, I have to adjust the exposure settings a bit. I only use the bracket system when I’m really in doubt as to what I want the image to look like. Many camera manuals tell you that bracketing exposures is the way to ensure you’ll get a proper exposure. I don’t like to waste a lot of disc space on bracketed exposures. They have to be edited later in post-production. I prefer to have images that are all correctly exposed. There is a lot that Photoshop can help you with on the production end, but it’s always better to get it right with the camera in the first place.

So, here is my regimen: I look at a scene (subject) and decide BEFORE I SHOOT, how I want it to be rendered. I will take an incident reading of the scene (if I can) and set my camera to one of the choices of aperture and shutter speed (depending on what I’m shooting) with the camera on MANUAL. I will then look at the LCD image. If I think the exposure shows everything I want to show, I’ll leave it. If I’m using the camera’s meter, I will put the camera to AUTOMATIC  to get a reading of the scene. Then, I will switch to MANUAL using the same or similar settings and tweak the exposure making sure I get the saturation I’m looking for, or depth of field or stopped action.

All the settings I use are based on what my creative thought processes are telling me about the scene. I always try to think first before I shoot. I’m interested in getting the exposure correct in the camera and not having to adjust it later in Photoshop.

Here’s another example:

This image was made by taking a reading with my built-in meter of the sunset and then adjusting my off-camera fill-flash to give me a similar reading. I think this one may have been about 1/2 to 1 stop less than my camera’s meter was indicating, so that the faces weren’t washed out. This often happens when people use a fill-flash that is too strong. This is done by moving the flash back from the subject until the correct reading is obtained. This is much harder to do with the flash mounted on the camera. One of the basic principles of using any type of artificial lighting is that the exposure is determined by the “lamp-to-subject” distance. Once you determine that, then you can alter the exposure to balance it with any ambient light.