Perfect Camera Exposure: Putting it All Together (7 Days to Mastering Manual)

Perfect Camera Exposure (Putting it All Together)

Welcome to Day 6 of Mastering Manual Mode!

In today's post, I will show you how to put everything you have learned so far, together to help achieve better photos!

To get the perfect exposure, the perfect amount of light has to hit your sensor.  If you let in too little light, your photographs will be dark and generally gray looking.  If you let in too much light, your photos will be very bright and generally look washed-out.

YOU are in control how much light hits the sensor using Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO, also referred to together as the Exposure Triangle.  We talked about these three in our last 3 posts, so hopefully these are not new words for you (if they are, go back and read the previous tutorials).

You should use your in-camera light meter to help get the perfect exposure.  Your light meter will look something like the photo shown below and will tell you if your aperture, shutter speed, or ISO are out of balance.

Achieving Perfect Exposure

To get a good exposure, the goal will be to get your light meter balanced in the center.

If the light meter is moving toward the plus sign, your photo will be overexposed.  To move it back towards the middle, you need to decrease the amount of light coming in the camera by either closing down the aperture, increasing the shutter speed, lowering the ISO or some combination of these three.  You can choose any of those methods to let in less light depending on the vision you have for your photo.

If the light meter is moving toward the minus sign, your photo will be underexposed.  To move it back towards the middle, you need to increase the amount of light coming in the camera by either opening up the aperture, decreasing the shutter speed, increasing the ISO or some combination of the three.  A ny of these will work, you will just need to choose the one that will work best for your photo.

Real World Exposure Example

Let’s say that you are outside taking photos of your children.  You want the background to have a nice creamy background (shallow depth of field), so you open your aperture to f/3.5.  

The last time you taking pictures you had your shutter speed set to 1/60th of a second.  As you look at the light meter in the viewfinder there are several lines moving toward the plus sign.  That should tell you that you have too much light coming into the camera. 

To keep this in balance, you will need to decrease the amount of time your shutter stays open, so turn and increase the shutter speed until the light meter comes more into balance - the shutter speed is now 1/500th of a second and everything is balanced for your shot.

You could have also taken your photo wtih an aperture at f/10 and shutter speed of 1/60 since it would have been an equivalent exposure.  You would have had the same nicely exposed photo.  However, the photo you would end up with would be be much different - primarily, the background would not have been as blurred as you may have wanted.

Exposure Tips to Remember:

• Your light meter is NOT perfect.  The great thing about digital is that you can see what your photo looks like immediately.  As you are learning, use that feedback to make adjustments.

• Get to know your camera and how it exposes.  You may notice that your DSLR consistently underexposes slightly.  If this is the case, you can make adjustments by just always knowing that your camera is in balance when the light meter in your camera shows 1 or 2 lines toward the plus sign.

Congratulations! You've just completed Day 6 of Mastering Manual!

But Don't Stop Now!

Make sure to read the rest of our series to help you Master Manual Mode.  If you’ve missed any of the posts, you can read/review them at any time by clicking these links!