The most irritating side to our digital photographic world is that we have become clickers.
Click, Click, Click. Take an exposure reading? "Nah, I don't need to." Click, Click.
Look at the monitor, adjust, Click, Click.
"Oh well I'll fix it in Photoshop later." Click, Click.
Well, that just does not cut it in the Pro World.
Of course you end up with tons of nasty noise and posterized chunks of black because you have had to open up under-exposed areas in Photoshop. Your images look bad: it's the camera, the card, the lens, the file size, the transfer rate, the stray light, the subject, the location, the printer, printer profiles, the, the, the, the.......maybe I'll print them in Black and White. Actually …It's YOU the photographer.
Yes, that is you, the Clicker Maniac.
The seasoned Professional on the other hand has thousands and thousands of images and hundreds of situations to draw from. That photographer could go to a job without a light meter of any kind, external or through the lens, and still do a great job of exposing their images.
The light in most situations is fairly constant.
The average room lit with florescent light is more than likely F2.8 at 1/15 of a second at 100 ISO with a dominant green cast on a daylight-balanced camera. Outdoor open shade is more than likely F5.6 at 1/30 of a second at 100 ISO with a blue cast on a daylight-balanced camera.
Using the data learned through experience, the professional would carry on exposing their files with the camera set on Manual.
What the newer photographer forgets is that the SLR camera light meter is a reflective meter. It reads the light reflecting off of your subject. The meter is balanced to translate what it is asked to analyze, to an 18% grey value.
Reading a white surface (a brides dress), your camera will see that as 18% grey, not the true tonal value white with detail that you are looking at. Reading a black surface (a grooms tuxedo), your camera will see that tonal range as 18% grey, not a true tonal value black with detail.
The ideal situation would be to read any surface you wish to photograph with an incident meter. The incident meter will read the light falling on to a subject instead of the light reflected from a subject. That meter reading is not affected by the color or tonal intensity of your subject. It reads the light source as 18% grey: this results in a subject exposure with a truer tonal value.
A photographer could also use an 18% grey card (available from your photo dealer) to produce a more representative exposure. Place the card in the same light situation as your subject and take a reflective SLR exposure reading using your camera meter.
You can then use that data with your camera set on Manual to take a series of exposures under that same lighting condition.
Without the availability of an external incident meter or a grey card, the photographer will need to find an area on the subject that has a tonal value of 18% grey, (like Caucasian skin).
Using the center weighted meter option in your digital SLR, take an exposure reading of the 18% tonal area, lock the exposure setting (AE Lock), and move you camera around to compose the image. Oh, and you'll only need one Click for capture.
So my very simple tip is "EXPOSE AND THEN COMPOSE ".
Take an exposure reading of an 18% grey surface within your subject area, lock the exposure setting, compose the image and then Click.
You'll be much happier with your exposures and you'll have fewer files to sort out at the end of the day. Happy Shooting
