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5. The sunbathed courtyard This example is set in a courtyard, where the sun is beaming down into a narrow opening. Many of the tree tops and open areas are bathed in a bright light. However, due to the trees and high walls of the courtyard, many parts of the scene are also recessed in the shadows. - We begin by taking a picture in automated mode. This average weighting ends up exposing the photo somewhere between the setting necessary for the brightly lit wall and the shadowy corners of the courtyard. The result is a picture in which the trees are slightly too blown out (over-exposed) and the shadows are too dark and murky (under-exposed)
ISO 400, 125mm, F/10, 1/400 sec
- We decide that it would be most appropriate for the table and chairs to be properly exposed because they are the predominate feature in our scene. To accomplish this, we take a spot meter reading off of the table. Recalling the previous section's Exposure graph, spot metering would reset the arrow to a value consistent with properly exposing the table and chairs, rather than properly exposing the entire scene as it would in auto-mode. So we may then adjust our aperture settings in order to bring our spot EV into perfect exposure. We then take the shot. We notice that the table and chairs are now fairly well exposed, but the highlights have become brighter than before. Because we’ve indicated to the camera that it needs as much light is required to show detail on the dimly lit table and chairs, the highlights (which reflect far more light) become very bright and almost glowing. This may add a nice effect to the shot, giving it a bright and cheery feel.
ISO 100, 125mm, F/6.3, 1/80 sec
- Curious what would happen on the other extreme, we turn our spot meter toward the highlights of the scene, the brightly lit wall. We then adjust our aperture so that the highlights are properly exposed and take the picture. As we may have expected, much greater detail is now seen in the highlights. We can even see the shadows cast against the wall; however, the table and chairs have become very dark and murky (under-exposed). This is because we’ve indicated to the camera that it only needs enough light to record the detail in the highlights. The light required to do so is not nearly enough to expose the table and chairs, as they are much more dimly lit. In some instances, this shadowy depiction of the scene may be desired to convey some darker mood.
ISO 100, 125mm, F/6.3, 1/320 sec
- We wonder then, what is the best way to expose this scene. The answer is, however you see artistically fit. You may like the contrast created by the detailed, shadowy walls falling off into the cool shade beneath them. Or you may prefer the ethereal glow of the walls looming over the warmly lit courtyard. Or still yet, you may prefer some degree of balance. In order to accomplish this, you’d take the spot meter reading from shadows, then another from the highlight, and any other variably lit portion of the scene. You may then determine which aperture/shutter speed values are required to light each portion of the scene and arrive at an average exposure manually by weighting these readings according to your artistic vision. It is appropriate to note again however, that film, and digital sensors, have a predetermined tolerance for variance in light. So average metering may only be successful within the tolerance of you photo-sensitive medium. This tolerance is defined by a range of greys on each side of the mid-tone. We can see this best represented by our camera’s EV meter display (as seen in the previous section). There are techniques, both pre- and post- processing by which you can attempt to account for light variances that exceed your camera’s tolerance to light variance, they will be discussed in future articles: such as split density filters and digitally overlaying separately exposed pictures onto one picture. <<PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NEXT>>
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