Exposure Help

charlie_merrifi · Mar 8, 2009

I am a severe noob here so bare with me. I bought a Canon xs and am having a heck of a time getting exposure right. Does anyone have any tips on how to help me get closer. I appreciate the help.

dxqcanada · Mar 8, 2009

First of all ... are you shooting in any of the Program / automatic modes ?

What particular subject are you having problems exposing correctly ?

Mgw189 · Mar 8, 2009

There is a book called Understand Exposure that would be a huge help to you. Its by Bryan F. Peterson I believe. Some example pics would also help us figure out what your issue is.

Josh66 · Mar 8, 2009

If you're using M, Av, or Tv it's as simple as lining up the bottom arrow with the top arrow (meter at the bottom of the viewfinder). In mixed lighting conditions this won't always be perfect, but it will be closer than just guessing.

To make that little needle on the bottom move you have to change the shutter speed (faster will move it towards the negative side) or the aperture (higher f/# will also move it into the negative).

Also - what metering mode do you have it in?

charlie_merrifi · Mar 8, 2009

dosent really seem to matter what im shooting. Im usually in manual mode. sometime apreture priority if im doing waterfalls. I didnt even think about looking at the meeter in the bottom. Duh that would probably help. And I always have it in evaluative metering mode. WHen should I use the other metering modes.

jands · Mar 8, 2009

This helped me tons! Moving Toward Manual Settings
At the very beginning there are links to the first 3 parts, I recommend reading them first.

This article is just a summary but has a different way of looking at it. Exposure Triangle

Hope that helps.

AlexColeman · Mar 8, 2009

Another thing that might help is re-reading your posts so that they are legible.

Josh66 · Mar 8, 2009

charlie_merrifi said:
And I always have it in evaluative metering mode. WHen shouls I use the other metering modes.

Evaluative will try to make the entire scene a "good" exposure. Center weighted does the same, but the center is more important in the camera's decision making process. Spot or Partial only looks at the center of the image (some cameras attach it to the active focus point, that's mostly only on high end bodies) and ignores everything else.

Spot metering will meter for whatever you point it at. If that happens to be brighter than everything else around it, it will be properly exposed but all that other stuff will be underexposed (and the other way around). Sometimes that's good, sometimes it's not.