In the photo above you can see the sun was shining directly into the camera. It would have been better to have the sun shining on the sign, but this blog is about getting the best possible photo in the camera. Often on vacation, you will find yourself at a location wanting to take a photo, but can’t wait until the lighting is at it’s best. What choices are there to get a good picture of the sign? Let’s zoom in and take a photo of the sign, using the same settings as above:
Overall Metering, f/6.3, Aperture Priority, ISO 200.
Evaluative/Matrix/ESP/Pattern (Overall)– Determines exposure based on the entire image. Some cameras have a bias to the exposure at the point of focus.
As my students know, I always view a photo’s histogram as displayed on the camera’s LCD to make judgments as to how to improve the photo. Here the photo could be brighter. Note the histogram has room on the right side and the sign is darker than I’d like. What choices are there to improve the exposure? Use either center-weighted metering or exposure compensation.
Center-Weighted – Determines exposure based on the subject and background lighting with a bias to the subject. Here it makes sense to use center-weighted metering as it will bias the exposure of the sign (subject) rather than brighten the entire photo if exposure compensation is used.
Exposure Compensation – In some situations you could get better results if you manually compensate the exposure automatically set by the camera. If it’s chosen, this photo will be brighter and but it could likely make the sky too bright. So let’s see what centered-weighted metering will do..
The above photo and histogram are slightly brighter, but the sign is still dark. Let’s look at what spot metering will do.
Spot – Determines exposure based on the small area in the center. Best if used on strongly back-lighted subjects.
Definitely too bright as the sky is not as blue and the histogram is shifted to the right. Remember, when you have a histogram that is shifted to the right i.e. the bright side, there is a loss of information in the highlights. So without making any additional camera adjustments, accept the center-weighted photo as the best that can be achieved in the camera. What is needed is a change in contrast which is not easily available on the camera. The only choice that remains, if we still want to brighten the sign, is to do some post-processing. I’ll save that for a future “How to Make a Photo Better” blog.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me
photos available for purchase at FineArt America
© Tom Wiggins Photography 2015-2023
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