|
Most people will have got shots back from the processors where the subject is underexposed or even a silhouette. This usually happens when they have a bright background behind them such as a window, a white wall or even just a lot of sky with the subject taking up only a small area of the frame. This happens because of the way the light meter in your camera works. These meters read light reflcted from the viewfinder area and are calibrated to what is called an 18% grey - i.e. it tries to average out the light levels to give this average or fairly even lighting when calculating the aperture and shutter settings for "correct" exposure. When an area in the viewfinder frame is very dark or very bright the meter is" fooled"into under or overexposure of the subject. In other words, when the background is very bright, the camera exposes for the higher light level leaving the subject area too dark. When the majority of the frame is very dark, the opposite occurs - the subject will be overexposed.
How do we overcome this problem? There are a number of ways to get around it: (a) If your camera has partial or spot metering (It can read a small area of the frame when that mode is selected) - use it to read from the subject only and keep that exposure setting when taking the shot.
(b) If you are using a zoom lens, zoom in to fill the frame with the subject, lock the exposure setting and zoom out again to take the shot.
(c) If you don't have a zoom lens, zoom with your feet by walking closer to the subject to get your reading, lock the setting into your camera or set it manually and walk back again to take the shot. (You must switch to manual focus and exposure when using this method).
(d) If your camera has a "fill-in flash" facility, use it to throw some extra light onto the subject from the front. The subject must be within the range of the flash for this to work of course. Below are some examples to illustrate exposure control by the photographer. 
In this image the photographer has allowed the camera to be fooled by the bright background to create the silhouette effect. This is often desirable and looks well with sunset shots. 
In this image the photographer has taken the exposure reading from the face to ensure it is correctly exposed when the background is bright. This causes the background to be over-exposed, but that does not matter in this case.
In this image we have a dark background and a bright foreground - a tricky lighting situation. Again, probably using spot metering, the photographer has exposed for the face which is now the only correctly exposed part of the image, but the most important. The foreground has been over-exposed and the background has been under-exposed. The overall result is acceptable.
Try this out to find the method that suits you and your camera and you should see better results from the processors in future. Author: Peter Barriscale Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts) |
