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Advice required on setting the exposure compensation. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter senatore
- Start date
bpw
Well-known member
Understanding exposure and compensation is tricky. When I first got my camera, I read a number of books on SLR photography to get an understanding of the theory, which is one thing, but in practice it can still be very difficult in certain situations. Like many things connected with digital photography and post-processing, it seems impossible at first, but becomes easier with practice.
As an introduction, take a look at this short article:
Exposure Compensation
Then perhaps come back with some more questions?
As an introduction, take a look at this short article:
Exposure Compensation
Then perhaps come back with some more questions?
senatore said:
Max,
As BPW points out, this is a subject not easily explained in a post. Using Av mode, positive EV Comp will slow the shutter speed and negative EV Comp will speed it up.
So when would you use one or the other? Since + EV Comp slows the speed down (exposes longer), you would use this to bring out detail in dark subjects. Like a dark bird flying against a bright sky. Your meter is fooled by the large expanse of bright sky and will set the exposure to properly capture the sky. So the already dark bird comes out even darker. To counteract this, set + EV Comp.
Conversely, if you have a bird with white highlights that are likely to be blown out if you properly expose the rest of the bird (or the background), you want even faster speeds to prevent these possible blow outs. So you would dial in - EV Comp. Picture a ringneck pheasant. Dark body plumage and that white ring around the neck. Unless you have nice soft light, you will probably not be able to properly expose the body without blowing out the neck ring. So you add maybe -2/3 EV Comp and the ring will show detail.
The amount of EV Comp depends on the lighting. Bright or harsh light will require larger amounts. Soft light less.
The downside to using EV Comp is that because you are trying to compensate for the limited dynamic range of digital, you are trading highlights for shadows or vice-versa. IOW, by dialing in - EV Comp to prevent that blown neck ring, you may under expose other parts of the subject or background. So you may wind up with really light or really dark skies and other issues
Steve
citrinella
Well-known member
The one thing l'd add is about judging how much compensation to apply. Experience is just about everything - practice makes perfect. However, where I have time I take out some insurance by using AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketting) as well as compensation. If I think I need a full stop of compensation, I will dial in AEB +/- half a stop or two thirds (depending on whether I have set half or third stop increments). That is applied to your EV compensation setting - really useful.
If you are not convinced you need compensation. set the combination so that one of your AEB settings works back to no compensation.
I am a bit colour blind, and using AEB in general is useful to compensate for my "different" appreciation of the brightness of colours.
Mike.
P.S. (Having read the article above). Another way to get guidance on what compensation to apply is to carry a grey card. You can print a reasonably good one from your PC by using your word processor and shading a plain piece of paper at 18% grey. In the field, take a reading off the card. Either use manual to set your camera to that setting (I don't think my camera allows AEB in manual mode, otherwise I would do that too) ; or set your compensation so that the adjusted setting matches your setting from the grey card (near enough). In that case I would want to take advantage of AEB.
If you are not convinced you need compensation. set the combination so that one of your AEB settings works back to no compensation.
I am a bit colour blind, and using AEB in general is useful to compensate for my "different" appreciation of the brightness of colours.
Mike.
P.S. (Having read the article above). Another way to get guidance on what compensation to apply is to carry a grey card. You can print a reasonably good one from your PC by using your word processor and shading a plain piece of paper at 18% grey. In the field, take a reading off the card. Either use manual to set your camera to that setting (I don't think my camera allows AEB in manual mode, otherwise I would do that too) ; or set your compensation so that the adjusted setting matches your setting from the grey card (near enough). In that case I would want to take advantage of AEB.
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I quite often take a reading off the grass and set this as my Manual Exposure. If I think the bird or the background is going to throw the meter (white bird against blue sky) I switch the camera to Manual. I also use it for flight shots. I also have -0.7 dialled in as well for insurance. The Sigma likes f8 as well. Neil .
