Understanding Exposure help....

kdabbagh

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hey everyone....
maybe I am just a noob, actually i am...and thats why i probably dont understand something in Bryan Peterson's book. ON page 15, the red box, he says: "Adjust your shutter speed until the camera's light meter indicates a "correct" exposure in your viewfinder and take the photography." Also... "I moved in close to the subject and took a meter reading off his face; I then backed up to reframe and then took the picture."
He also mentioned his camera's light meter chose 1/250 as the correct exposure on pg 17 next to the picture.


The question is...what is this light metering business? I know I have the settings on my D40x and I fiddle around with them sometime based on the description my camera gves me of each one. But how do you do the taking a meter reading off someone's face, and how can u get ur camera to choose the correct shutter speed for u...in MANUAL mode...thats what he's saying in the book....please help. sorry if this is a stupid question
 
What he is saying is this: When in manual mode, you have the exposure meter in your viewfinder. Whether you have it set to centerweighted, matrix, or spot meter will determine how that meter is reading the scene. What im guessing he did, was set it to spot or centerweighted meter and put the camera to the guys face (after selecting his preferred aperture) and adjust the shutter speed until the exposure meter showed a correct exposure. You do this by spinning the dial, i dont have my D50 at school with me but i recall the thing looking like a little crosshair kind of with lines that go out to each side showing over or underexposure. When the line is dead center, it is a correct exposure. This is what he meant when saying it chose that as his shutter because really, The camera decides what the correct exposure is regardless if in manual or auto, your job is to match the number to what the camera is already thinking
 
In manual mode you set the aperture and shutter speed, not the camera. To meter a scene, use the light meter built into your camera. When in manual mode, if you have selected an aperture and shutter speed, your camera will probably indicate if it thinks your photograph will be over or under exposed usually by showing a scale with little bars leaning towards a plus or minus sign.
If you're confused about aperture and shutter speed, take a few exposures of the same scene in the same light, with different settings and see what happens.

To meter light from an object, eg. someone's face, you can put your camera into spot metering mode, take a light reading from the object using your camera and set the aperture and shutter speed accordingly. This will "correctly" expose the object. Also, if you meter off the object you can use your AE-L button to lock in the exposure (as you meter), recompose and then shoot.
 
To meter light from an object, eg. someone's face, you can put your camera into spot metering mode, take a light reading from the object using your camera and set the aperture and shutter speed accordingly. This will "correctly" expose the object. Also, if you meter off the object you can use your AE-L button to lock in the exposure (as you meter), recompose and then shoot.

sorry to be such a noob, i understand the previous post and most of your post, except for the underlined part. can u tell me how to exactly do that, step by step? what i did is i closed up on a subject, pressed button halfway to correct the exposure on the line scale thing, then i pressed the AE-L button, moved away from the subject, and took the pic. turned out like sh*t.
 
and maybe u can tell me how you "recompose". i bet some people r laughing :p
 
Have your camera set to manual mode.
Choose the aperature you want with the dial
Point your camera at the subject
(Without touching the shutter button) Adjust your shutter speed until the meter shows that the exposure will not be over or underexposed.
It should look like this <-----|-----> i think
Without touching anything else on the camera, move your camera to a different position (recompose) if needed, and then fully press the shutter button.

Hope this helps :)
 
Ah cool guys. I think I understand it now because I had similar questions. So let me get this straight..

Moving my aperature ring will cause either under or over exposeure correct? To make sure that doesn't happen I adjust the shutter speed until the light meter is right in the middle?
 
Ah cool guys. I think I understand it now because I had similar questions. So let me get this straight..

Moving my aperature ring will cause either under or over exposeure correct? To make sure that doesn't happen I adjust the shutter speed until the light meter is right in the middle?
You are correct but the reverse is also correct. You can set the shutter speed and then adjust the aperture to the plus or minus for exposure. Keep in mind ISO also has a play in there.
I think the smart way of going about it is decide what type of picture you want. If you want to freeze a subject then set the shutter speed and correct the exposure with the aperture. If DOF is what you're concerned with, set the aperture first and then adjust the exposure with the shutter speed.
 

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