Lesson Info
32. Never Underexpose
Lessons
Buttons, Dials and Switches: What This Course is All About
03:37 2Setting Up Your Camera
05:25 3JPEG or RAW
03:11 4Compression
01:38 5Menu Settings for JPEG Shooting
05:19 6Module 1 Summary
01:42 7Applying White Balance
03:41 8Using White Balance Creatively
01:19Auto White Balance
03:07 10Module 2 Summary
01:31 11Controlling Exposure
01:23 12F Numbers
03:06 13Lens, Aperture, and Shutter Speed
03:32 14Exposure Modes
01:48 15Too Little or Too Much Light
02:34 16Manual Exposure Mode
01:37 17Aperture Priority Exposure Mode
02:23 18Module 3 Summary
01:40 19ISO in Practice
01:16 20ISO and Noise
05:03 21An Acceptable ISO
01:23 22Module 4 Summary
01:29 23Metering Modes
03:06 24The Light Meter
02:11 25The Bucket Test
02:12 26How To Read Tonality
02:32 27Being Creative With Tone
01:14 28Exposure Compensation
01:35 29High Contrast Lighting
03:39 30Histogram
02:06 31Highlights Alert
01:32 32Never Underexpose
04:16 33Digital Exposure Mantra
01:25 34Module 5 Summary
02:57 35Focus Modes
01:23 36Autofocus
02:59 37Point of Focus
02:35 38Depth of Field
02:41 39Hyper-Focal Distance Focusing
02:51 40Focus Tracking
04:19 41Manual Focus
01:57 42Predictive Focus
01:03 43Summary
02:32 44Buying Lenses
05:00 45Summary
01:45 46Quality of Light
01:32 47Direction of Light
01:52 48No Such Thing as Good Light
02:00 49Final Word
02:52 50BONUS - In Conversation with Art Wolfe
07:11 51BONUS - The Source of Creativity
06:34Lesson Info
Never Underexpose
Is it really that important? To get exposure right in the camera, after all, isn't one of the great benefits of digital photography the fact you can fix errors later in image processing software? Well, the answer is yes, and no minor adjustments to exposure can be made without too much effect on image quality, but more significant alterations. To leave you with the problem and to show you what that problem is, I'm going off to do some science. One of the roles of science is to find solutions to challenging problems. When I take a photograph, the shutter opens and light comes flooding into the camera. Now, using water to represent that light. Imagine is collected in the measuring cylinder, while the camera then has to do is decide how to distribute that light across the sensor so it represents the tones in my photograph. Those tones are represented by these test tubes. I'm using five test use. Just to simplify this particular experiment. Test tube on the right hand side of your white to...
nes. Next with the light greys medium, graze dark graze on the black tones over here on the left, the camera uses half of all the light it collected to create the white tones. To represent that, I'm going to fill this right hand, test you with white tones all the way through the top, because light greys are half assed bright as whites, the camera only uses half the amount of light. I'm going to represent that by filling the light grey test tube only half life the same for the medium grace off again. Same for the dark grays off as much again and the same for the blacks half assed much again. So what we can see here is that compared to the white tones, the black tones have very, very little light signal. Now, if I under exposed my photograph by just one stop, what happens is, rather than pouring all of that light into this right hand test tube, the camera simply discards it, and this is what we're left with. But that's okay, because we can fix under exposure in processing, right? Well, let's try it. A computer. What I'd now do is tell the software to take all of the light gray tones and turn them white. Let's replicate what I've just done in the computer using the test tubes. Well, I've got to do is I've got to try and fill up this empty right hand, test you all the way to the top using only the information available in the other test tubes without losing any of that information. So let's give it a go. If I take the light gray tones, you can see where I'm going with this, right? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out. It simply can't be done. What actually happens to the photograph when you do this for real is this you see from the history, Graham. There are now large areas of missing data, which all these gaps and this will show on your images. Banding which areas of distinct tonal variation where you can tell where one tone starts on another ends no good. Now you may have heard the term exposed to the right. What does that mean? Well, to answer that question, let's head back to the science lab. Let's go back to the test use on. Don't worry, it's the last time. This is what my correctly exposed image looks like. We've already seen the effects of under exposing why one stop this time, I'm going to expose for the lighter tones by one stop. What happens now is the camera discards the information in the black tones to fix this in photo shop or in the computer. What I do is I go to the Levels Adjustment tool, and we can look at the history am here and see that it's skewed over to the right hand side. Well, I'm going to do now is going to tell the computer to take all of the dark gray tones and make them black. This time, if I replicate what I've just done in the computer with the test tubes, you can see that there's so much light over here in the right hand side that it's simple to replace a little bit missing in the black tones. So in digital photography, the mantra is exposed for the brightest part of the scene, where detail is important
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
mark jacobson
What a marvelous course! What a marvelous teacher! When I went to college, my father would always ask me about my professors, more than the courses themselves. He was passionate about learning and although too busy with earning an income to go beyond an undergrad degree, continued to read 50 books a year. I still remember how he'd get almost visibly excited when I'd tell him about some special professor who taught with such enthusiasm and, more than just passion, evident delight and joy in the subject. 'Ah they're the best, son. How wonderful you have such a teacher." Well, he passed away decades ago but if he were still around I'd get a kick out of telling him about Chris Weston, the 'Prof' of this course. He's one of the very special ones: a teacher who's loved and lived his vocation--his avocation--since he was a boy--and still is as excited about it now as he was then. The result: a course that seems to be more a labor of love--of pouring far more energy and thought into the details then one typically finds in these courses--than anything else. Bravo Chris! I'm already on to your next one.
user-6402bf
Chris is an amazing instructor who dissects theory giving amazing analogies that bring concepts to life. I have rarely been able to sit through most video course for more than a half-hour but watched this one from beginning to end. A good refresher course if you've been away from the camera for awhile or there are some concepts that still illude you. I highly recommend this course and look forward to watching his others. Thank you for the clarity and great explanations.
Sky Bergman
This was an amazing class. I have looked at a number of basic photography classes. This one was by far the best I have seen. Chris is an exceptional teacher. He breaks things down into digestible information and then inspires you to be creative. Thank you!
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Fundamentals