Denis' Workshop
Page Two

Exposure Continued:

An example of a time when you might want to over expose an image would be taking a photo of something light or white. Since your camera's meter is designed to make colors a medium neutral color, like a gray card, you'll want to overexpose by a stop or two to keep that color light or to keep whites white. Likewise, if taking a picture of something dark or black, you need to underexpose by a stop or two to keep the subject dark or blacks black.

So, what is a stop? A stop is a full movement which either doubles or halves the light entering through your lens. This can be changed several ways. Say one is shooting 200 ISO film or digital ISO, and your camera's meter says proper exposure is 1/125 at f/11, as our example.

A one stop movement can be changed by moving any of these settings one stop. Changing to ISO 100 in a digital SLR or changing your film speed to 100 ISO is a one stop change, allowing double the light to enter. To cut the amount of light in half, you'd change the ISO speed to 400.

Or, you can do the same by changing the shutter speed to 1/60 to double the light or cut it in half by changing the shutter speed to 1/250. Or, you can do it with aperture settings. Change the f/11 to f/8 to double the amount of light entering, or to f/16 to cut the amount of light in half.

You don't want to do all three or two, change only one of the three to make your one stop movement. Therefore, in our example, to make a one stop change, from 1/125 at f/11 using 200 ISO, you use 1/125 at f/11 using 100 ISO for a one stop over exposure; or 1/125 at f/11 using 400 ISO for a one stop under exposure. OR, by making the movement by shutter speed, you'd have a one stop under exposure by using 1/250 at f/11 using 200 ISO, or a over exposure by using 1/60 at f/11 using 200 ISO. OR, by making the one stop movement using aperture, you use 1/125 at f/8 using 200 ISO for a one stop over exposure, or 1/125 at f/16 using 200 ISO for a one stop under exposure.

Normal ISO full stops are 25 - 50 - 100 - 200 - 400 - 800 - 1600 - 3200. With shutter speed, the normal full stops are 1/2 - 1/4 - 1/8 - 1/15 - 1/30 - 1/60 - 1/125 - 1/250 - 1/500 - 1/1000 - 1/2000 - 1/4000. And with aperture the normal full stops most are familiar with are f/2.8 - f/4 - f/5.6 - f/8 - f/11 - f/16 - f/22. Moving from any of these to the setting next to it on either side will either double or cut in half the light being used.

Likewise, if your camera has the ability to move in one third or one half stop increments, a one stop change works the same way, you just move from the fraction of the normal stop you are using to the next stop's same fraction. On cameras that have LCD displays, you can see these as you turn your dial. If you are using half stop increments, turning your dial so that you see two numbers change is a one stop move. Likewise, if you are using one third stop increments, seeing three changes of numbers in either direction is a one stop move.

Exposure Assignment:
Easier and cheaper to do this with a digital SLR, plus you get instant feedback, but with either a digital or film SLR, you can do an assignment on photographing black and white subjects. Compose your image so that they fill the viewer or nearly so using your in-camera meter and take the shot. Then take the same shot by changing the exposure by one stop to one side and then the other, and then take another by changing the exposure two stops to one side and then the other, and then view and study the differences. Also, instead of or also doing the black or white subjects, take a photo of a sunset (preferably with clouds in the sky) at the normal meter reading (with the sun out of the frame) and change the stops as above. Go back to having the sun or sun below the horizon framing and take your shot. This will give you another way of learning to use stops. While the over exposure settings will look terrible and washed out, the under exposures will bring out the colors of the sunset and make vibrant and very pleasing sunset photos. The same, of course, with sunrise.

Composition:
Composition is simply the way one frames the shot they are taking as they view it through the camera. What has been said by others, and with which of course I agree, is that composition is making order out of chaos.

In other words, you wan to take the clutter, the business, the chaos out of your composition to make it more dramatic. A field of flowers might be beautiful, but in a photograph of it you mostly see just a variety of color. But, by changing the composition you can bring out the essence of the scene. You can move low, close to the ground and have a few flowers in sharp focus with the remainder of the field in a blurred background, or you can have a small group of flowers or a single flower in sharp focus from a variety of angles. The former will still show a large field of flowers in the background while you've cut out that chaos and concentrated on that single or group of flowers as to how it relates to the whole. While with the second you are concentrating on single flowers to bring out the essence of their beauty and complexity.

This works with any scene. You want to simplify your composition to bring out the essence of what you are photographing. This type of composition is the difference between a snapshot and a photograph.

Yes, the whole scene of that field of flowers, that group of mountains, that desert valley, or a heard of bison, can be pleasing, but it's really only a snapshot, a hint of what's really there.

Bill Fortney, in his book, Bill Fortney's Great Photography Workshop, says:
"In addition to pleasing the senses, composition is what leads the viewer through the myriad elements in your photograph to your idea, your impression, your mood, your feeling, your point of view."

So, composition goes beyond just bringing order out of Chaos. One has to compose in a way which is pleasing to you, but also in a dramatic way. While just going out and centering a shot can bring about a good photo, more often than not framing in different ways can make the photo better and more dramatic. Yes, if you haven't guessed by now, I'm referring basically here to the "rule of thirds." I've stated often that one should not always follow the rules, but not to abandon them. The rule of thirds is basically that you frame your primary subject in one of the thirds of the frame rather than centering it. This means placing it in the upper left hand third, upper right hand third, above center third, left of center third, right of center third, lower left hand third, lower central third, or lower right hand third of your frame where imaginary lines dividing your frame would intersect. They don't have to be centered on these intersections, but should be close. Some cameras have screens where you can see these lines, and some have them where they can be called up electronically, and make it easier to compose in this way. But if you don't have one of those, you can imagine where they would be - and by using them improve your composition in most cases.

Composition Assignment #1:
The assignment here is to go out and take a photo of an interesting area. Then, stop and think of what elements within that area really attract it to you, and then zoom or move in to take photos of those elements. An example would be a photo of a quiet park as your first photo. Then as you look around, looking more closely at what attracted you to this park scene, you might find that it's the children at play, or the squirrels scampering around, a lonely park bench, a pond, or whatever. Move in and take photos of those individual elements. And, while you are doing so, experiment with having your primary subject in different thirds of your composition as well as centered to see how it changes your photograph. - A helpful hint here is make a photo that brings one's eye into the photo. For instance, if you take a photo of a squirrel moving left, don't frame him to the left side of your frame so that it looks like he's moving out of the photo, but rather frame him on the right side so it looks like he's moving into the photo.

For more on composition and the next assignment: Go to Page Three

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