Exposure compensation

[gsgary]

i shoot in manual

If you are shooting in manual why are you asking about exposure compensation ? :er: have you ever read the manual ?

 

[SabrinaO]

i shoot in manual

If you are shooting in manual why are you asking about exposure compensation ? :er: have you ever read the manual ?

Oh jesus christ!!! GET A FRIKKEN LIFE you bitter old man!
I just asked about the purpose of exposure compensation. I shoot in manual so i was just trying to find the point of it... I don't think it says in the manual that it doesn't really work if you shoot in manual!

Why don't you just stay out of my threads if all you are EVER going to do is just be a nasty snot. You contribute NOTHING to this forum... or at least my threads.

Thanks to all who explained.

 

[Big Mike]

If you are shooting in manual why are you asking about exposure compensation ?

It's a really good question, coming from a Nikon user. As I said above, Nikon allows you to set the EC, even if the camera is in manual mode...which doesn't really make sense...because you don't really need EC when in manual mode. So it makes sense to ask why or when you would ever use it (if you already shoot in manual).

 

[SabrinaO]

If you are shooting in manual why are you asking about exposure compensation ?

It's a really good question, coming from a Nikon user. As I said above, Nikon allows you to set the EC, even if the camera is in manual mode...which doesn't really make sense...because you don't really need EC when in manual mode. So it makes sense to ask why or when you would ever use it (if you already shoot in manual).

Well I figured that out on page 1, and it was explained on page 1 (including by you) how using EC is unnecessary in manual. He is just asking to be an ass yet again and to try to make someone feel bad.

 

[newatdslr]

i have had my DSLR 2 weeks and i was curious about that ,,,guess it doesn't matter , went to manual a week ago to learn it

 

[jwbryson1]

Well, a few things to clear up. There are only three things that effect your exposure, and that is the amount of light in the scene, your aperture, and your shutter speed. Since we can't always control the light, we can adjust shutter speed(which may lead to motion blur) or we can adjust aperture(which effects our depth of field). Now, we can also use ISO, which amplifies the signal that our sensor recieves which does introduce noise. Those are all choices we have in manual.

Exposure compensation doesn't work in manual. In automated modes, it will bias the meter to make it think a subject needs more or less exposure, which means:
in program mode, it may change aperture, shutter speed, or ISO
In shutter priority, it will change aperture if it can based on lens limitations
In aperture priority, it will change shutter speed possibly leading to motion blur.
If auto-ISO is enabled, it will generally change the shutter speed until it hits a low limit that you set and then start raising ISO.

In general, exposure compensation simply tells the camera meter to behave as if the scene was metered lower or higher than it actually reads it and the mode you are in determines how it reacts.

I don't use it very often since I rarely shoot outside of manual.

Now, flash exposure compensation is completely different and I use it quite often. It will influence the TTL metering from the flash to put out more or less power. Very handy and quick to adjust for changing conditions.

To confirm something here that is new to me, are you saying Kerbouchard that when you adjust using EC and you are in shutter priority or aperture priority that the camera actually makes **real** changes to the aperture/shutter speed of your shot? I was under the impression that, for example, if I was shooting in aperture priority and I was underexposed that by adjusting the EC the sensor would somehow "override" my settings and give me an exposure as if I had actually changed the shutter speed (without actually changing it though). It sounds like you are saying the shutter speed is literally, ACTUALLY changed. Really? So if I do a test at home on this and make the adjustment to the EC but don't otherwise change my settings, the EXIF file could look something like f/3.5 at 1/250, adjust EC, then it would be something like f/3.5 at 1/200?

Really?

 

[gsgary]

If you are shooting in manual why are you asking about exposure compensation ?

It's a really good question, coming from a Nikon user. As I said above, Nikon allows you to set the EC, even if the camera is in manual mode...which doesn't really make sense...because you don't really need EC when in manual mode. So it makes sense to ask why or when you would ever use it (if you already shoot in manual).

Well I figured that out on page 1, and it was explained on page 1 (including by you) how using EC is unnecessary in manual. He is just asking to be an ass yet again and to try to make someone feel bad.

You do that well enough on your own with silly questions

 

[ann]

I don't know what Kerbouchard is saying, but I called Nikon and asked their technical support people what exactly would change.

THis is not the normal question and it took some time but they came back and told me , that the chip makes the correct internally. Neither the fstop or shutter speeds changes.

 

[Netskimmer]

I recently discovered that EC (on Nikons) affects what you see in live view mode. Been working on my Lunar photography and wanted to use live view to "zoom in" on the surface so I could see enough detail with my 55mm-300mm Nikkor to achieve a sharp manual focus. Since live view doesn't show you the subject based on your current settings (at least not in manual) but rather shows your subject with the 'correct' exposure settings as the camera sees them, the moon looked like a bright white light. By using EC I was able to force the camera to show me the moon 'underexposed' so that I could see it in detail.

 

[Overread]

To confirm something here that is new to me, are you saying Kerbouchard that when you adjust using EC and you are in shutter priority or aperture priority that the camera actually makes **real** changes to the aperture/shutter speed of your shot? I was under the impression that, for example, if I was shooting in aperture priority and I was underexposed that by adjusting the EC the sensor would somehow "override" my settings and give me an exposure as if I had actually changed the shutter speed (without actually changing it though). It sounds like you are saying the shutter speed is literally, ACTUALLY changed. Really? So if I do a test at home on this and make the adjustment to the EC but don't otherwise change my settings, the EXIF file could look something like f/3.5 at 1/250, adjust EC, then it would be something like f/3.5 at 1/200?

Really?

In aperture and shutter priority mode you give control over one setting to the camera to fix - it fixes this setting based on both the ISO and other setting the user selects and upon the meter reading - with the camera aiming to have the metered shot expose with the meter needle in the middle of the value range. With exposure compensation (EC) the camera is told that its no longer to 0 the meter reading, but give it a bias, either to over or under expose by a select number of stops from the 0 point - and the only way it can do this is to adjust its setting that it controls.

As such in shutter priority mode, where the camera controls the aperture, you would get the following:

No EC set
1/200sec ISO 100, f4

+1 EC set
1/200sec ISO 100, f2.8

-1 EX set
1/200sec ISO 100, f5.6

In each case the only change so to the aperture, the only controlling value that the camera can adjust. The exposure is still and always only made of Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO and EC is only allowing one value to over or underexpose from what the meter reads from the given light.

In the case of Nikon cameras EC also works in manual mode, however here all it does is bias the meter reading itself to over or under expose the reading and the job of adjusting to match that reading is done by the user (again manipulating the aperture, shutter speed and ISO as needed)



Netskimmer - in my experience most DSLRs with liveview have two viewing modes - one is a simulated real exposure and the other is not - its normally a custom function that can be changed within the camera (check manuals for details). The idea being that the simulated exposure lets you judge the scene roughly; whilst the other allows for a brighter screen to compose and view the shot with.

 

[Kerbouchard]

I don't know what Kerbouchard is saying,

Obviously.

but I called Nikon and asked their technical support people what exactly would change.

THis is not the normal question and it took some time but they came back and told me , that the chip makes the correct internally. Neither the fstop or shutter speeds changes.

Sounds like you misunderstood their answer, or you didn't ask it clearly.

Well, a few things to clear up. There are only three things that effect your exposure, and that is the amount of light in the scene, your aperture, and your shutter speed. Since we can't always control the light, we can adjust shutter speed(which may lead to motion blur) or we can adjust aperture(which effects our depth of field). Now, we can also use ISO, which amplifies the signal that our sensor recieves which does introduce noise. Those are all choices we have in manual.

Exposure compensation doesn't work in manual. In automated modes, it will bias the meter to make it think a subject needs more or less exposure, which means:
in program mode, it may change aperture, shutter speed, or ISO
In shutter priority, it will change aperture if it can based on lens limitations
In aperture priority, it will change shutter speed possibly leading to motion blur.
If auto-ISO is enabled, it will generally change the shutter speed until it hits a low limit that you set and then start raising ISO.

In general, exposure compensation simply tells the camera meter to behave as if the scene was metered lower or higher than it actually reads it and the mode you are in determines how it reacts.

I don't use it very often since I rarely shoot outside of manual.

Now, flash exposure compensation is completely different and I use it quite often. It will influence the TTL metering from the flash to put out more or less power. Very handy and quick to adjust for changing conditions.

To confirm something here that is new to me, are you saying Kerbouchard that when you adjust using EC and you are in shutter priority or aperture priority that the camera actually makes **real** changes to the aperture/shutter speed of your shot? I was under the impression that, for example, if I was shooting in aperture priority and I was underexposed that by adjusting the EC the sensor would somehow "override" my settings and give me an exposure as if I had actually changed the shutter speed (without actually changing it though). It sounds like you are saying the shutter speed is literally, ACTUALLY changed. Really? So if I do a test at home on this and make the adjustment to the EC but don't otherwise change my settings, the EXIF file could look something like f/3.5 at 1/250, adjust EC, then it would be something like f/3.5 at 1/200?

Really?

I think you are getting EC and ISO mixed up. Exposure compensation is a way for a user to tell the camera that what the camera thinks is the right exposure is incorrect. Adjusting Exposure Compensation changes the way the meter interprets the scene, and does in fact, make real changes to shutter speed, aperture, or ISO...whichever you are giving the camera control over based on the mode you are in. If you are in shutter priority, it will change aperture. If you are in aperture priority, it will change the shutter speed. If you are in Program mode, it could change both.

As far as ISO, it is a way of telling the camera to amplify the analog data that it gets from the sensor before it converts it into digital data(i.e. before the A/D converter). This lets your scene 'look' as if you had used different settings, but at a cost of higher noise because of the amplification.

Hope that clears it up.

 

[Kbarredo]

If you are shooting in manual why are you asking about exposure compensation ?

It's a really good question, coming from a Nikon user. As I said above, Nikon allows you to set the EC, even if the camera is in manual mode...which doesn't really make sense...because you don't really need EC when in manual mode. So it makes sense to ask why or when you would ever use it (if you already shoot in manual).

I already said why. Its so nikon people can laugh at you when you forget its on and all your photos come out badly exposed and your whole shoot is ruined.

 

[Netskimmer]

Netskimmer - in my experience most DSLRs with liveview have two viewing modes - one is a simulated real exposure and the other is not - its normally a custom function that can be changed within the camera (check manuals for details). The idea being that the simulated exposure lets you judge the scene roughly; whilst the other allows for a brighter screen to compose and view the shot with.

Thanks, I'll dig through my manual again. I've read that darn thing three times now but the thing is over 300 pages and if you try to pour a pitchers worth of knowledge into a shot glass there's going to be some spillage.

 

[ann]

Well, I beg your pardon, I understood what they said, I was very clear with how I asked the question.

Where is it written that you are an expert in all things photo. I called Nikon as I wanted to get the information from the "direct source".

Your entitled to your views, but your rude when you imply i don't know how to speak or hear.

 

[Kerbouchard]

Well, I beg your pardon, I understood what they said, I was very clear with how I asked the question.

Where is it written that you are an expert in all things photo. I called Nikon as I wanted to get the information from the "direct source".

Your entitled to your views, but your rude when you imply i don't know how to speak or hear.

What, exactly, do you think I am mistaken on? This could be fun.