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Exposure metering for a backlit subject, using the histogram

June 20, 2013 Neil vN 10 Comments

Exposure metering for a backlit subject, using the histogram

When our subject is backlit, we have a number of options: expose for the background, and then either: -- go for a (semi) silhouette, -- add light to your subject to balance their exposure with that of the background. expose carefully for our subject, and let the background blow out. This is the "ambient-light-only" option. anything somewhere inbetween those two choices, where *we* decide how we want to balance the exposure between our subject and background. Exposing for our subject, very often gives us this  Read more inside...

Using the histogram to determine exposure

July 31, 2007 Neil vN 78 Comments

How to use the camera's histogram for exposure metering

Histograms display the relative levels of the darker to brighter tones. As the histogram stands, it isn't of much direct use to us, since the tonality of the scene that was captured will dictate what the histogram shows us .. without a direct indication of whether exposure is correct. Some will say that a histogram should have an even bell-shaped curve, but this is too simplistic.   A light toned subject against a white wall will show a much different histogram that a dark toned subject against a dark wall .. even though the  Read more inside...

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