Exposures in Lightroom
Lesson 6 from: Perfect Exposures from Histogram through LightroomJared Platt
Exposures in Lightroom
Lesson 6 from: Perfect Exposures from Histogram through LightroomJared Platt
Lesson Info
6. Exposures in Lightroom
Lessons
Lesson Info
Exposures in Lightroom
the last thing we need talk about is the actual operation. So we talked about custom settings, and we talked about understanding the history grams so that you're taking the right shot. But the last thing we want to really talk about is the idea of How do you judge what's gonna fool your camera? Because there's a lot that will fool your camera. So when you're photographing something, there's going to be like this kind of a situation. Nothing fools your camera because the walls are neutral gray. They're wearing great. They got a little bit of darkness, dark hair, dark dress, but then bright, you know, white skin. So, like it's it all. If you put it in blender, it becomes neutral, gained so gray and whatever you end up taking a picture of it's just gonna look right, because it is all right. That's That's the photograph it was made for. But when you're in a situation like this, your camera is gonna be absolutely fooled, and so is T T l, by the way. So if you're using T TL lighting on your ...
flashes, the flash is going to see. I put the son in the photograph. You see the sun is in the photograph. So when the sun is in the photograph, the flashes air going to say there's a lot of light here and the camera's gonna say there's a lot of light here and so it's gonna attempt to get you to turn the sun into neutral gray, which is going to make it darker. Whatever is in front is going to get darker. Same thing for the flash. The flash is going to see all that sunlight and say, I don't need as much light, so I won't put as much light on the subject. So in that case, you have to if you're shooting either. If you're shooting manual and you're trying to judge it based on your, um, your, uh, exposure meter There we go. I don't know why, but none of that, um, your exposure meter. If you're trying to judge it based on your exposure meter, you're gonna make the wrong call unless you're spot metering. If you spot meter and point it right at her white dress and then figure out what the right exposure for white is in this circumstance than you'll be fine. But keep in mind that your flash can't do that at all. Your flash can't do a spot meter on address while you're taking a picture. Causes doing t t l. And it's like it's the way t TL works. That sends out a flash pre flash and it gets the response and figures out. Oh, I don't need this much like because there's a whole bunch of light coming in from that son, So I'm gonna power it down, and then it shoots again when the when the shutter opens and it powers down the flash during that exposure. That's how detail works. And it happens just like that. So if you're using T TL, you need to also compensate for the flash. So when I'm in a circumstance where I'm shooting and I know that I'm looking into the sun, I know that. Then the camera is going to tell my meter Hey, we don't need as much light the sons in it. You gotta you gotta, you know, dark in this thing down and so middle gray when it shows me I'm perfectly exposed. I know that they're gonna be about two stops darker than they should be or I know that this, you know, the edge right here of the cliff is gonna be to two stops darker than it really should be, because this sun is so bright. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna overexpose. And if I'm doing that manually, it's just a matter of slowing down the shutter speed or opening up the aperture right, or or increasing the I S O. So I can choose any of those three things. But if I'm using an aperture priority, remember when I made the aperture priority custom mode, What did I do? I thought through the circumstance in which I was going to use it and I knew that I would be shooting a wide shot of them flinging the church doors open and coming out the church doors. And so I knew that it would be mostly dark with a white dress. And that meant that the white dress was gonna blow. So I under exposed it by 2/3 of a stop by just simply dialing it down. So once you've once you've activated your trigger, so on your camera, if you activate your triggers so that you are actually active, ready to take a picture if you dial up or down. So you've got to be in an aperture or shutter priority mode if you dial upper down on the back wheel, at least on the canon, and you can change all of these now on most your modern cameras. But you'll take your compensation dial and you'll dial it up or down so you activate your shutter and then you'll up or down. And generally speaking, if you're shooting a large scene with a small white dress, the small white dress is gonna blow out. So you're going toe under. Expose that by about 2/3 Stop. It will take care of that blowout dress, and the opposite is true. If I'm photographing just a white dress and it's 90% white dress, the white dress is gonna be too dark because it's going to try and make it neutral gray so the whole dress is going to drop down in exposure. So I know that I need to increase the exposure on that. So I'll take this exposure and I'll say, OK, I know that in this circumstance, because I'm zooming in on the white dress, it's going to fool my meter. And so I'm going to overexpose by 2/3 stop or a full stop, depending on how much white I have in there, and that's gonna make sure that I've got the right exposure. Now, if you're shooting in manual, then all you're doing is you're looking at that meter, and usually what happens is people in manual, they take a picture. They go and then they go, Oh, and then they increase their shutter speed or whatever to take care of the problem. And as long as you're looking the hissed a gram, then that's an accurate way to do. It's a very accurate way to do it. But rather than waste the frame, just make sure that you get to the idea that I know that my camera is being fooled. So when I zoom in on that white dress, just look at that that meter and just bump it up it stop, then take the picture, then look at it and figure out if you're right and chances are, you'll go, oh, perfect and then just shoot and you won't waste much of your good shots because usually it's that first shot that's just this awesome. Just something's happening and you turn and take the picture and look in the got to change it. So if you follow the custom setting idea that I gave you and if you pay attention to that meter and know that you need to compensate to the left or the right, depending on how the cameras being fooled, then you'll you'll make better decisions when it comes to that. Right? So compensate, Compensate. Compensate the flashes the same way. If you're using T TL flash, it is going to mess up. So, like, for instance, this is a really good example right here. Okay, I love this shot, right? That's great. That's super cool. So I take this shot and it looks awesome, right? And then, like, let's get a wide shot of that. Guess what happens when I go wide? Do you see what happened? There's the first shot, is bright and airy, and it's got all this flaring going on. It's awesome. And then you back off and everything dials down, and the reason it dials down is because these flashes air now in the shot. And so the camera says, Oh, there's a bunch of light that I didn't see there before. We need Teoh lower the power that causes all t TL. Everything's TDs. So it's dialing it down and saying, OK, and it looked fine, but it wasn't the same shot. Is that one Right? So just be aware of that that when you're shooting with T T l, you're gonna have that kind of stuff happen. So you're better off getting your readings and then setting it manually, especially when things aren't moving when things aren't moving shoot manuals so that that doesn't change the way. Because if he had left it manual, then you would have gotten that cool flaring going on on both shots. But instead you get that cool shot and then you get, uh, whatever, right? Okay, so always remember that your camera is fooled there, the only smart person in the equation. So it's dumb and you're smart. So if you understand that about your camera and you understand what it's reading when it's looking at white or black when it was looking at black, it's going to try and make it great when it's looking at white. It's gonna try and make it great when it's looking at Grey. Bingo. That's right. It's gonna be perfect. If you understand that about your camera and you understand how to compensate for both on your flash and for your camera, then you're gonna be able to make the proper exposure. But you can't make the proper exposure unless you understand the hissed a gram. So I'm telling you, those two assignments I gave you a critical on one of those assignments is to go out and photograph a bracketed set of images and then look at him on your camera and look at him on your computer. And make sure you understand which one what clipping really means. I'm clipping because your cameras always gonna say You're clipping and you're still gonna have a stop or stop and 1/2 or sometimes even two stops, depending on your camera. Get to know that because it's a big deal, it would be an incredible waste if you had. If you had a Canon Eos five D. Mark four and you were constantly under exposing it because you thought your blowing out because that camera has amazing latitude and you just be wasting it right. There's a lot that those camera than modern cameras have the ability to take a picture and the latitudes astronomical. It's amazing. You can get the shadows and the highlights and everything in between. And, you know, I mean, flashes help make things look beautiful. But you can get the exposure even without the aid of a flash. Yeah, Okay, well, so that is the process by which we get perfect exposures. It is all a matter of that hissed a gram. It's all a matter about Onley trusting the actual empirical data. That's what we're looking for.
Ratings and Reviews
Michael Griffith
Jared provides very clear, very specific suggestions on how to make the best use of your camera's histogram. The only suggestion that I have to improve the class would be for him to talk about the basics of the histogram first: what it is, what it shows, how it works. He gets there, but you have to wait for it. Overall, a useful class about an important photographic tool. Jared's photos do an excellent job of illustrating his points.
fbuser 72f69990
Great class! Very clear and straight to the point. There is a lot of incorrect information related to histograms out there, but Jared explained perfectly! I recommend doing the assignment he suggests with your own images (third lesson), this really helped me to understand what my camera´s "proper exposure" is. A real game changer! Thanks!
Fred Innamorato
Finally I found a class focused on understanding and explaining Exposure. With so many examples and visual aids, Jared does an excellent job of conveying his ideas and concepts. This class absolutely filled in the gaps of my understanding on how to correctly compensate the camera's exposure settings to achieve great pictures. He also is an awesome instructor. I rate the course 100%. Not an expensive course either.