Learn to "plus" and "minus" your exposures!
Sunday, May 30th 2010 @ 11:56 AM (not yet rated)
If you've got a large and very bright light source within the image (compared to your subject), you must "plus" the exposure, and if you've got a small light subject amidst a lot of dark, you must "minus" the exposure!
Much of the time the "auto" exposure metering of the camera will do ok ... not perfect, but good enough. In some VERY predictable conditions it will be way off and you will get better pics if you use a "plus" (brighter) or "minus" (darker) correction to your camera's metering choice.
The logic is this: if a large part of the scene the camera "sees" is much brighter than what YOU want as your subject of importance, tell the camera to "plus" the exposure. If a large part of the scene is darker and larger than your subject, you'll need to tell it to "minus" the exposure. Note ... you "plus" a scene with too much light, and "minus" a scene with too much dark, just opposite of what seems natural!
Every camera has its own way to set this, so read that manual! In this pic, note how the bright sky forces the camera to think the whole scene is bright, so it's very dark in the foreground, and the downed tree *I* thought was the main subject is so dark you can't see it!
After telling the camera to give a "plus-1" exposure setting, that is, one stop brighter than the meter thought appropriate, this is the pic I got:
Again, if you've got a large and bright light source compared to your subject, you must "plus", and if you've got a small light subject amidst a lot of dark you must "minus"!
