Exposure compensation explanation/help

[Derrel]

Exposure compensation is a fast and easy way to compensate for strong backlighting or other instances of lighting that's fooling the light metering system, or where the desired exposure needs to be significantly altered from what the meter reading is giving. In strong backlighting, with a person seen against say the late afternoon sunlight hitting a wide expanse of open ocean or lake, with shorter focal length lenses, some Plus EC is often helpful, say +2.5 EV for example. If the lens has a very tight, telephoto angle of view, the degree of needed EC is often going to be much less than with a wide-angle lens. A 300mm lens from say 15 feet away acts almost like a semi-spot meter when aimed at a person's face, and the metered exposure might very likely deliver a good, solid exposure. However, if you stand in the same place and point the camera at the person with all that backlighting over open water, and the lens is a 28mm lens from 15 feet...there's a huge chance that you'd be wise to ADD some more exposure to the metered reading....like +2.0 or + 2.3, or even plus 2.5 EV, or maybe even plus 3.0 EV.

The degree of exposure compensation needed varies quite a bit with the lens angle of view, and with individual scene types. The wider the lens angle of view, or the more extreme the situation is, the more chance there will be a need for a substantial amount of EC to get the metered reading to produce the desired result in terms of final exposure settings.

A good example is a speaker who is spot-lighted, standing at a podium, and behind is a dark, deep blue or red velvet stage curtain...or behind is a dim, PowerPoint presentation image...in this case, the light meter will tend to grossly OVER-expose the subject, and this is when dialing in maybe Minus 3.0 EV or so is about the right starting point from a center-weighted meter's baseline reading. Again, with a 50mm lens, you might need Minus 5.0 EV; with a 135mm lens, maybe Minus 3.0 EV; with a 400mm, you might only need Minus 0.7 EV. Again...what the meter "sees" and what the subject "is" varies, scene by scene.

With a digital camera, it's easy to shoot a shot using the light meter as your guide, then review the image, and add or subtract Exposure COmpensation as-needed, to get the results you want, with the meter "centered" in Manual, or in Aperture, SHutter, or Programmed automatic modes.

 

[Ysarex]

Since these semi-auto modes sometimes don't give the desired results, EC is there to help, i.e. a crutch.
It's exactly that, not an opinion, purely objective. It's a helping tool, like, again, a crutch.
More to do with understanding English (which is not my native language) then photography.

If you use full manual mode, you don't need (or have) it, since you have full control over the exposure, so why not just
learn to manually expose in every situation and not bother learning to use EC? Only benefit of using EC over manual is
not being able to react fast enough in manual and/or not being skilled enough to guess the settings when you walk into
the room.

Using these semi-auto modes you'll be stuck at that level of understanding available light and proper exposure forever.
Focusing is a completely different subject and you know it is.

So you don't use the metering system in the camera at all, correct? How do you determine exposure?

Joe

 

[astroNikon]

For me the Auto modes rarely give me the desired results.
So I stick to Manual so I can control the Aperture and Shutter speed. I've found that the best solution for the situations I'm in.

 

[Ysarex]

If you use full manual mode, you don't need (or have) it, since you have full control over the exposure, so why not just
learn to manually expose in every situation and not bother learning to use EC?

Speed. Getting to the point of tripping the shutter release sooner. Maybe only a decisive moment sooner, but that much sooner can make all the difference in the world.

Only benefit of using EC over manual is not being able to react fast enough in manual......

See, you already knew the answer.

Using these semi-auto modes you'll be stuck at that level of understanding available light and proper exposure forever.

That's ridiculous nonsense. When I use my camera in Program Auto mode I fully understand what I'm doing and I have just as much ability (within in reason) to control exposure with shutter speed and f/stop as you do shooting in M; I'm just faster than you.

Joe

 

[runnah]

I like to think of EC as my little revolt against the machines.

"Take that metering machine! Man still knows best!"

But yeah, it's very useful if you know when and how to use it.

 

[PropilotBW]

Manual mode is a crutch, for me. I'd rather have the camera figure out as much as possibly and tweak it if I don't like what it's giving me. I will play around with some EC during my next shoot to see how the results fare

 

[Bebulamar]

I never use the EC. When I need to set exposure different from the meter I switch to manual. It's just easier for me that way.

 

[DanOstergren]

Someone may have already said this, but I personally feel that if you want an "under exposed" image, you should still capture the image at the "correct" exposure, and then bring the exposure down in post production. The reason I do this is so that the exposure captures as much detail as possible to begin with, and when you bring the exposure down in post you are less likely to have locked shadows.

 

[AlanKlein]

You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.