Exposure tools

Exposure
Exposure is total amount of light that allow to be taken in camera. It can be adjust by using ISO, shutter speed, aperture and metering. If the exposure is too high, it is overexposed. If it is too low light that allow to be capture, then it is underexposed.

             Overexposed 

Underexposed

ISO
ISO is sensitivity of the image sensor to light. The higher the ISO, the higher sensitivity of image sensor. Different ISO should be use in different light condition. If there is a lot of light, then lower ISO should be use. For example, when in the sunny day, ISO 100-200 should be use. For evening, ISO 400-800 should be use. For night time, ISO 1600, 3200, Hi1 or Hi2 should be use. Higher ISO is use when the photographer don't want to use the internal flash as the flash is not natural. We should avoid to use higher ISO due to the higher ISO, the more grains or noise will produce.









Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is the time that use to take a photo. Shutter speed can from seconds to thousandths of second. The slower the shutter speed, the more light and colour will be capture. A slow shutter speed will cause a blur image. A slow shutter speed also can capture the movement of an object. For example, 1- 6 seconds of shutter speed suitable to use in capture the fireworks or water movement. A fast shutter speed can freeze the image, like the moment or time is stop. Fast shutter speed are use in capture the fast movement object like soccer player playing the game in Futsal. 

The longer exposure (like 1 second) give much more light to the film than a 1/1000 of a second exposure.

Examples:

A half second exposure is ONE STOP darker than a one second exposure. 

A 1/125 exposure is TWO STOPS brighter than a 1/500 exposure. 

A 1/1000 exposure is THREE STOPS darker than a 1/125 exposure.

Aperture

Aperture is referred to the lens diaphragm opening inside a photographic lens. The size of the diaphragm opening in a camera lens regulates amount of light passes through onto the film inside the camera the moment when the shutter curtain in camera opens during an exposure process. The size of an aperture in a lens can either be a fixed or the most popular form in an adjustable type such as an SLR camera. Aperture size usually is calibrated in f-number or f-stops in which each of this value represents one time the amount of light either more or less in quality.

• Smaller F-stops numbers = larger openings
• larger openings = more light

 Large Apertures (f2.8 to f5.6)

Large Apertures, such as f2.8 to f5.6, produce shallow depth-of-field. Basically, this means the area of sharp focus in the picture will be small. This can be useful when you want to isolate the subject of your picture while throwing the background and other distracting elements out of focus. Some useful applications of wide apertures include portraits and wildlife closeups.

Small Apertures (f16 to f32)

Small Apertures, such as f16 to f32, increase depth-of-field which means more elements of a picture, from foreground to background, become sharply focused. This can create a distinct sense of depth to a photograph, drawing the viewer into the picture. It's no surprise that small apertures are a must for most landscape photographs.

Lens "Sweet Spots" (f8 and f11)

Due to technical aspects of lens optics, the mid-range apertures of f8 and f11 often yield the sharpest images. When neither a large nor a very small aperture is needed, these are good apertures to use to maximize the sharpness your lens can deliver.

   


Metering
There are three types of metering: Matrix, Center Weighted and Spot.

• Evaluative Metering/Matrix Metering is the “default” setting on most cameras. The camera sets the metering automatically to suit the scene and subject of the photograph. The entire scene within the camera’s viewfinder is utilized to assess the appropriate metering. This is the mode to use when you’re not sure which mode the scene will require.

Canon Digital Rebel XTi, 50mm f/1.4 lens, RAW file format, SOOC - Exposure: 1/30, ISO 200, Shot in Program Mode, Evaluative Metering

• Partial Metering/Spot Metering is helpful for photographing back-lit subjects. The metering is weighted according to the very center of the shot which has a very small area of the frame. Use this mode when you have a very specific area of the photograph that you wish the exposure to be based upon.

Canon Digital Rebel XTi, 50mm f/1.4 lens, RAW file format, SOOC - Exposure: 1/20, ISO 200, Shot in Program Mode, Partial Metering

• Center-Weighted Average Metering/Center-Weighted Metering which is setting gives priority to the center portion of the photograph, but also takes the surrounding portions of the shot into consideration. Basically, this is somewhere in between matrix and spot metering. Use this setting when the subject is in the center of the photograph and exposed correctly, so that the subject is not affected by the exposure of the background.

Canon Digital Rebel XTi, 50mm f/1.4 lens, RAW file format, SOOC - Exposure: 1/30, ISO 200, Shot in Program Mode, Center-Weighted Metering

Types of Camera

SLR (Single Lens Reflex)

SLR is named of single lens reflex because of it is only can mount for one lens only but it is exchangeable for different kind of lens. SLR is a camera where it uses a mirror system and prisms (light reflection) that allow a photographer to see through in viewfinder what he or she will capture.
In viewfinder, it won't show the exact photo that will capture. It might will over expose, under expose, blur and others effect.

There are two types of SLR:

1. Film
2. Digital

For now, most of the people are using DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex). DSLR is more professional used because of it can be setting to what effect they want to capture. 35mm SLR cameras is mean that the camera are using 35 mm width film.


Example of SLR

Nikon FM10

Example of DSLR



Nikon D60

Twin Lens ReflexTwin lens reflex normally consist of two equally constructed lenses with equal focal length and equal "speed". They are mounted in the front of the case, and their focusing is synchronized so that they are always focused on the same distance. The difference is that the one lens projects the incoming image via mirror up to the reflex finder's ground glass whilst the other lens projects the image into the camera's dark chamber onto the film plane. The camera lens can be stopped down whilst the finder lens is always at maximum aperture.

The scene viewed by the top lens (the viewing lens) is reflected by a mirror onto the ground glass screen so that the image seen on the ground glass is back to front (left is right, right is left) which can take some time for getting used to.
The bottom lens (the taking lens) exposes the film. This means that, unlike SLR cameras, the viewed image is not exactly the same as the image recorded on the film — the difference being the distance between the centre of the viewing lens and the centre of the taking lens. This discrepancy is known as parallax error, which can be corrected by lifting the camera until the taking lens is as high as the viewing lens was when the image was composed.
Example of Twin Lens Reflex


Rangefinder
Rangefinder camera are camera focus using some sort of coincident-viewing distance-determination mechanism, called a rangefinder. The most common form, as used in cameras like the Leica and other classic small 35mm cameras, is to use a prism and mirror arrangement between two viewing windows.

Example of Rangefinder
LOMO

Lomo is short form of Leningradskoye Optiko-Mechanichhesckoye Obyedinenie. Lomo camera is using film. LOMO is an analogue photography where it save in film and it cannot be edit while modern photography is using digital photography where it using memory card and it can be edit.

Michail Panfilowitsch Panfiloff id the person who create lomography after he got a camera. He is very important in LOMO Russian Army and Optical.

There are many kind of LOMO camera:

Lomographic ActionSampler, Lomographic Colorsplash kamera, Lomographic Fisheye Camera, Lomographic Frogeye Underwater, Lomographic Oktomat and Lomographic Pop 9.

Example of LOMO camera:



Compact Camera

Compact camera also as known as point and shoot camera. It is small and light. It very convenient to bring it out. Compact camera will auto focus, auto setting for exposure and it have built in flash on it. Compact camera is totally automatically will setting for the user.

Example of Compact Camera



Digital Camera

Digital camera are slightly alike as compact camera. It also small and easy to use and bring. The difference between compact camera is digital camera can automatically or semi- automatic control by the user but compact camera just got auto mode.

Example of Digital Camera