If you have just jumped on the exciting bandwagon of the amateur photographer who owns a brand new SLR camera, congratulations, surely you have already started tinkering with all the little buttons, nuts and wheels on your camera with fervor. Surely you have also focused on the main wheel, you have tried the modes (although you have not seen too much difference between them a priori, well yes, you have seen that in automatic the images are great and in manual nothing comes out at all ? ). You have also tried some very cool effects that your camera has: Black and white, miniature effect and I don't know how many more fancy things.
All this with the instruction manual wide open in front of you. The truth is that you haven't gotten past page 1, but it doesn't matter, because you've decided to read it from cover to cover as we always recommend in this blog ? . In a few minutes the manual is still open on the same page and you're already yawning. You leave it for later, yes, yes, sure. Now you prefer to learn by experimenting. When you're done with the main wheel you realize there are a few buttons here or there. Some don't seem to do anything on their own. You fiddle with them a bit but you don't get anything clear. You will already consult it in your manual, which is still there looking at you open on the same page where you left it at the beginning of this story... But that moment of magical encounter between the instruction manual-user never occurs. And since you already have enough with the rest of the functions (in fact, you have enough and leftovers) the years go by and you still don't know the reason for some of those buttons... Does this symbol +/- ring a bell? Don't you feel the slightest curiosity? I promise to try to guide you to the answer a little more cheerfully than your instruction manual… Follow me! ?
FROM THE BEGINNING…
I know that curiosity is killing you, so in order not to make you suffer any more, I am going to tell you what the mysterious button is: Exposure compensation button. How are you staying? With this title I have not improved the instruction manual much, I know. I promise to improve it from now on ? . But for this, we will start at the beginning.
HOW DOES THE EXPOSURE SYSTEM WORK?
LIGHT METER OR EXPOSURE METER
All digital cameras have something built in that we know as a photometer or exposure meter . This is nothing more than a sensor that receives the light from the scene and gives us “correct” exposure values so that our image is neither under (dark) nor over exposed (burnt). So far easy, there is not much we should do. Only these light meters often find themselves in situations where the tonal conditions of the environment can deceive them. Perhaps that of compensating in snowy landscapes sounds familiar to you, right? This is because the light meter is programmed to measure mid-gray scenes . If another tone dominates in the environment, the light meter is based on it equally as if it were a medium gray. This leads us toIn scenes where white dominates , the photometer gives us values for a scene with a medium gray tone, leaving us with a grayish scene (underexposed) since it interprets that there is too much light in the scene (although it is actually white), or in scenes where dominates black , tend to overexposethinking that it is too dark, when what happens is that simply the dominant color is black. It is then when, if what we want is a correct exhibition, we must take control of the exhibition so that it shows us the world as we perceive it; with its pure whites and blacks, with texture, etc. Likewise, if what you want is to convey different sensations by playing with light (intentionally darkening or lightening the scene), you have to control the exposure.
WHAT IS THE EXPOSURE CONTROL BUTTON?
The exposure control button allows you to modify the exposure parameters that your camera gives you after having made the appropriate measurement. And you'll say, "Okay, but that's what we always do in manual mode, what difference does it make?" Well, here is the grace of this system: It allows you to work in any priority mode of your camera but controlling the exposure whenever you need it.
That is to say, you do not necessarily need to work in manual to have full control of the exposure, but you can set your camera in one of the priority modes to the aperture or to the speed (semi-automatic) and control the exposure with as much effectiveness and control as you you would do in manual mode.
We always praise the advantages of manual mode when we want to control every aspect of the scene, but the truth is that different situations and day-to-day life mean that this is not always the ideal mode to work with. Many photographers choose to work in semi-automatic modes for speed, only then they lose control of the scene. The exposure control button allows us to combine the agility of automatic modes with the exposure control that a manual mode would give us.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
As we have already announced before, the exposure control button is effective when working in semi-automatic modes. In manual it doesn't make sense because we already control all aspects of the scene, and in automatic we don't control anything at all, so it doesn't work for us either ? But let's see how it works exactly for each of the semi-automatic modes
SPEED PRIORITY MODE
As you well know, in this mode we give priority to speed and, therefore, it is the value that we decide and set manually, leaving the camera to choose the other value; the opening. In this case, the exposure control button allows us to change this automatic value (aperture) without having to change the shooting mode. So if in a scene you consider that the aperture value that the camera is giving you is not adequate, you can modify it in an agile way through the exposure control button.
APERTURE PRIORITY MODE
In this mode, instead, our priority value is the aperture, either to control the amount of light that enters through our objective or the depth of field. Once we set the aperture, it is the camera that chooses the shutter speed. Through the exposure control button we can also control this value whenever we are interested.
WHERE DO I FIND IT?
On some camera models, the exposure control button is located in the upper right area of the camera, near the shutter button and corresponds to the +/- symbol. On other models it is located on the back of the camera also with the +/- symbol or has its own exposure dial . It's a matter of locating it with the naked eye, or using the user manual ?
Mastering exposure in photography is everything. We've said it hundreds of times and we'll probably keep saying it a few more times, and while the exposure control button may not be the first stop you make in this photographic world, it is one of the stops I recommend you make. once you're somewhat familiar with apertures, speeds, exposures, and the different shooting modes. When all of this becomes part of your life (it will be sooner than you think, you'll see ? ) or if it already is, give this small but thug system a chance to effectively and quickly control your exposure ?
I hope this article has been useful to you, if so I would appreciate it if you share it with someone who can benefit from it. Thank you very much and until next time ?
