Exposure

Learning Guide 3

Published in

Introduction to Photography and Lightroom

7 min readNov 3, 2016

Cabbage Leaf — http://edward-weston.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Cabbage-Leaf-1931-39V.jpg

“The photographer’s most important and likewise most difficult task is not learning to manage his camera, or to develop, or to print. It is learning to see photographically — that is, learning to see his subject matter in terms of the capacities of his tools and processes, so that he can instantaneously translate the elements and values in a scene before him into the photograph he wants to make.”
– Edward Weston

Exposure is a concern of every single photographer. Edward Weston, as a master photographer, certainly understands how to effectively create an exposure for his subjects, but there are other reasons why he is the exemplar for this Learning Guide.

First, Weston was concerned with shooting for maximum sharpness by creating an extremely large depth of field. He even went so far as to alter one of his lenses for a smaller aperture to achieve this end. He, along with Ansel Adams, founded Group f/64– a reference to an extremely small aperture.

Perhaps more importantly, Weston saw his subjects in a way that other people simply wouldn’t or couldn’t. He took photographs of mundane objects like shells, peppers, and toilets (perhaps his most famous photos) and drew the viewers attentions to the beauty he found there.

Skills and Concepts

Manual control of your camera’s exposure.
Adjusting exposure point
Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program Mode
Exposure Compensation
Understanding the relationship between Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO in terms of exposure
Understanding the “side-effects” of Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO

Lecture Topics

The Exposure Triangle: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Adjusting Your Camera’s Manual Settings
Semi-Automatic Camera Settings and Adjustments

Baseline Requirements

Image Analysis (20)

Emulation (35)

Three Best Pictures from This Learning Guide (30)

Key Readings

You need to read one of the following on exposure:

Fundamentals of Photography p78–95 and p118–129,

Chapter 3 from A Short Course…,

Photography p68–77, or Exposure

and this two part piece on metering

Image analysis

Find four images you have made prior to this learning guide.

An image with an appropriate shutter speed e.g., an image of a fast moving subject with a fast shutter speed.
An image with an inappropriate shutter speed e.g., unintentional subject blur due to a slow shutter speed.
An image with an appropriate depth of field e.g., a shallow depth of field with good subject isolation.
An image with an inappropriate depth of field e.g., a large depth of field with no subject isolation.

For each image, explain how the selection of aperture or shutter speed was appropriate or inappropriate.

Shooting Assignments

Time

Plan and execute the following:

A shot that utilizes a long exposure (longer than a second). You’ll want to find something that is moving in an interesting way (a teacher in a classroom, students in the student center, a car, etc.). You also need a place to steady your camera because hand-holding will produce blur.
A series of shots at high shutter speed (over 1/500th sec). Here you are trying to capture the subtleties of something moving quickly.

Aperture Series

Find a location where you have a depth of subjects–book shelves, lockers, pictures on a wall, etc. Set your camera to its largest aperture and focus on an item in the middle. Then, take a series of pictures at full-stop increments as you stop the lens down to its smallest aperture.

Aperture

Plan and execute the following:

Use a shallow depth-of-field (DoF) to isolate a subject and blur the background. Try it for a subject that is up close and for a subject that you have to zoom-in on. Use DoFMaster to help.
Use a large depth of field to get your entire subject in focus. Again, try it for an up-close subject and a large subject.
Lastly, photographers often use a large DoF in landscape work. Take a landscape with both a large and shallow DoF and see the differences.

ISO Series

Shoot this series of images indoors.

Make sure you are capturing your images in RAW.

You are going to create two series of images by adjusting ISO. Create one scene that is close to a window so you are using natural light (this will have to be done during the day), and use another scene that uses only artificial light. Of course, you’re going to have to adjust at least one other setting to compensate for the increased light-gathering of higher ISOs.

Start with your camera’s lowest native ISO (100 or 200). This means your camera is as insensitive to light as possible, which means you will need to gather more light either through time or aperture. Find a shutter-speed/aperture pair that gives you the correct exposure for a given scene. Take your picture, and then increase your sensitivity by a stop (that would mean doubling the number: 100 to 200 or 200 to 400, or moving the dial three clicks). Since you’ve effectively increased the amount of light coming in to the camera, you will need to decrease the amount of light through some other means. You can either have a faster shutter speed, or you can close down your aperture. Your decision might be determined by your subject. Repeat this process until you are at your camera’s maximum ISO.

Silhouettes (cameraphone/iPad OK)

You need a couple of things to make an interesting silhouette. As always, you need a compelling subject. That said, the shape of your subject needs to be the most compelling aspect, since the features of your subject will be too dark to see. Next, you need light that is coming from behind the subject. Light coming from in front of the subject will illuminate the features of the subject and you will not be shooting a silhouette. Last, you should strive to have an interesting background for subject. Once you have found a subject and location, you simply need to meter and exposure for the background and strive to have your subject as dark as possible.

Silhouette Technique

Light (cameraphone/iPad OK)

Amateurs worry about equipment, Professionals worry about time, Masters worry about light.
-Anonymous

Seeing how light falls on things is a crucial aspect of photography.

Shooting the sun is a bad idea. For starters, you could hurt yourself. Mostly, though the photograph won’t be interesting. What you are interested in is how light interacts with the things around you. Look for shadows. The space where shadows end and light begins is often very interesting. Find some water and see how the light interacts with it. Look for reflective surfaces (water, again, is a good example). What I’d like in the end is a group of photos where the subject of each is light alone. It is a difficult task, but looking for light is a big step towards actually finding it. (Shadow Images)

Emulation

Read about and look through Weston’s work. Find an image that you really enjoy and that, for you, exemplifies what he was about as a photographer. Emulate that image, remembering that this is a process:

Enrichment

Exposure is the most central aspect of photography. As such, all photographers concern themselves with exposure. Find a notable photographer who works with exposure in an interesting way– perhaps they shoot high-key images, or silhouettes, or they are light painters. Show some examples of their work, and then emulate them. (10 points)
Give a written description of how what you have learned about exposure and using your camera’s manual controls will change your shooting. (5 points)