Photography Exercises and Useful Settings.

In my the second photography lesson we discussed photometry and exposure. Basically, it is the way camera measures light and let it enter into the sensors.

In photography, exposure is the amount of light per unit area (the image plane illuminance times the >exposure time) reaching a photographic film or electronic image sensor, as determined by shutter speed, >lens aperture and scene luminance.
Wikipedia

In Nikon D3400 you can adjust exposure in your camera by pressing the button shown. You keep pressing the button and you adjust accordingly.

In the next exercises you will why this is so important.

Exercise 1

You cameras are built to show a certain average color tone. This is all good when we shoot something with many and different colors, but what about when you have a dominant white or black object ?

You get a shitty grey image like this one.

But don't throw away your camera, yet. Just , play with exposure. If you have a white abject increase exposure and if you have a black decrease it.

Now here's how my towel and jacket look like with more or less exposure.

Obviously, there is no set rule on much you should adjust. You will have to experiment and try different settings.

Exercise 2

In some cases your object has a lot of light behind it. For example it is sitting in window. Average photographers will shoot a dark photo. Not us !!! We will compensate exposure and get an at least decent photo.

Exercise 3

Bracketing is the process of taking three photos; one using the camera's recommended >settings, one intentionally underexposed, and one intentionally overexposed. The reason is >simply to be sure you can get a good exposure from a subject that's hard to meter.
Digital Photography Workbook For Dummies® By Doug Sahlin.

The definition is self explanatory for the exercise . Three shots , three exposures

Exercise 4

Now we will experiment with ISO. ISO is the light sensitivity of the sensor of the camera. With higher ISO, more noise starts to appear in the photos.

Settings

Modern cameras have a lot of points of focus. This works well in auto mode but when you want to shoot something specific your camera may choose the wrong point of focus. So, it is advisable and our teacher made us change to single point of focus. In Nikon D3400 you press i , AF-area mode , single point AF.

Setup

As I said you have to experiment to find the perfect shot. Many times, your camera's screen may not show an accurate picture. So, I have downloaded Nikon's app SnapBridge and paired it with my phone and iPad so that I can immediately see the result of my photos on a much bigger screen.

That's it for tonight.

Hopefully I will come back with more pictures and some Lightroom experiments.

And until we all shoot the perfect shot…
Be healthy, Smile and Steem.