Understanding Exposure

[Diabolus]

that's what I was thinking he was doing... that to me seems to always result in pic's that are not exposed properly...

too dark... to light... etc, etc, etc... I have much to learn...

thanks! thread jacking -> end

I also read the book (revised edition) and had the same questions. It's been ugly weather in So. Cal these past few days, but the first day of good weather I am going to test out these methods in his book.

 

[Happy Hour]

I just bought Bryan Peterson's book that was recommended here on the forum. First of all, the book is amazing, so helpful and easy to understand. But I do have one question... in the beginning of the book he shows some photos and on the bottom he says what the f stop was, as well as the shutterspeed. But there's no mention of which ISO he used.
Any idea why that would be?

Thanks in advance.

julie

I said the same thing the first time I read the book but one of the first things he says is he shoots 100 ISO 99% of the time.

 

[HighLife]

I belive he shoots in ISO 100 for most of it, cept for the shop where the old guy is sitting behind the counter, you can tell he raised the ISO to get that low light shot.

 

[Rocky]

that's what I was thinking he was doing... that to me seems to always result in pic's that are not exposed properly...

too dark... to light... etc, etc, etc... I have much to learn...

thanks! thread jacking -> end

thread-jacking continued...

This is what I THINK he's probably doing. He's metering on a sky that has something in it, like clouds or other bright areas with detail that he doesn't want to lose by exposing for the presumably darker foreground. That saves him from having to 1) take the shot, 2) look at the histogram of the shot only to find out that the highlights in the sky are blown out, and 3) adjust exposure, and 4) take the shot again.

Of course, if I'm right, that also assumes that he's taking care of the "too dark" foreground or subject in post-processing.

If I'm wrong, I have NO idea why he does it that way!

end of thread-jacking (again)

 

[Helen B]

If he is metering off blue sky then it sounds like he is metering off something that he wants to be a midtone in the image. It's a fairly common practice. You can use anything consistent that will be a midtone, such as the pavement/sidewalk or the palm of your hand, perhaps with a small adjustment to the reading. In general it may be better to avoid deep violet-blues or reds because many meters are comparatively insensitive to colours at the extremes of the spectrum.

Best,
Helen

 

[MarcusM]

I said the same thing the first time I read the book but one of the first things he says is he shoots 100 ISO 99% of the time.

I too just purchased the book a few days ago after hearing all the rave reviews on this forum (These forums must be padding Bryan Peterson's pockets nicely!)

I read the book and was wondering the exact same question. I could be wrong (I don't have the book in front of me as I already loaned it to my friend) but I'm pretty sure he didn't explain that he shoots in ISO 99% of the time until the end; in any case I'm assuming most of the shots in the book are ISO 100 except for a couple that he points out the ISO.

 

[JerryPH]

In the end, if you really think about it, it doesn't matter what ISO he shoots at, if you follow the simple rule that you always shoot at the *lowest* ISO that lets you get the exposure that you need to get pics that are not blurred in those cases that you do not want a blurred subject.

I shoot at ISO 100 all the time. When shutter speed gets too slow, I up the ISO and expect a gradual increase in noise (graininess).

As the book mentions several times... every pic has multiple good exposure settings, but only one that best displays a creatively unique result.

 

[HighLife]

Im personally wondering if we should be using Spot metering instead of the eval setting...i mean its kinda hard to mimic what he does so you can see it for yourself.

 

[JerryPH]

Depending on if it is overly bright in the background or not, spot metering coud easily blow-out anything outside a small part of your pic, or just make it so dark as to be useless.

There are times that you want to do this, but for me 90% of the time I don't want this effect.

It all depends on what your goals are.

 

[RKW3]

Kinda late:

I learned spot metering just recently, and I think you should try being in Aperture priority mode, set your metering for "spot" (not matrix, etc.) then find an object that could work as a midtone, lock the exposure with the exposure lock button, then recompose and shoot. Sounds like a lotta hassle, it's quite easy though.