These two photos were taken minutes apart, but look vastly different. Which one is correctly exposed? Got your answer? OK, keep reading for the rest of the story.
Now, what if I tell you both pictures were taken in the dark at 10:30 PM under a full moon. The image on top is a long exposure that seems to turn moonlight into sunlight and night into day. The bottom image shows what the scene really looked like when I was standing there. So, is one more “right” then the other?
Digital photography allow us to control four basic elements; exposure, focus, perspective and color. Modern cameras can automatically handle exposure pretty well by themselves – most of the time. But the camera doesn’t know what we want. That’s why most of the controls on our cameras are related to exposure control. The controls won’t make sense to us if we don’t understand what they do, or when we might want to use them
I’m in the process of preparing class materials for a class on the basics of digital photography. It’s my job to explain the four basic elements of photography in a way that makes sense, so you can enjoy the process, avoid frustration and get better results.
