Exposure 

Haha!  I talk a lot about exposure here, but this is the first in a series of photography tips regarding the term exposure.

Cameras today are no different than the pinhole camera I made in high school. They are light proof boxes designed to keep unwanted light away from your film, paper or sensor, while directing the “latent image” right where you want it.  Remember the foil with the little hole in it?  That would be the “aperture” but I’m getting ahead of myself.

When you bought your camera, did you ask a lot of questions on how to use it?  Did you take a class?  Maybe you saw “P”–no, it doesn’t mean “professional”– set your camera to that part of the dial and have been shooting (un)happily ever since.

A lot of my non-photographer friends are frustrated by their camera. The questions I get most often are about blurry photographs of kids playing indoor sports, people standing in front of a window—why do they look so dark—couldn’t my camera tell–why is everything so BRIGHT?  Why do I have this weird black bar across the top and/or bottom of my image?  Why would “P” not do the trick?

What you need to know about exposure is it’s made up of more than “P”—you can actually decide what you want to expose for. Wha….?  Yes, YOU can tell your camera what to do while shooting indoor sports or people in front of a window or any other situation. The point of photography is to convey a mood, right?

The three elements of controlling exposure are ISO, APERTURE and SHUTTER SPEED.  Think of them as a triangle.  Each week, I will be giving you a lot more information on how and why you should control exposure in your photography, when to make changes and what those changes mean for your images.

Ready?  Questions anyone?