The following is a direct copy and has been Pasted in for future reference from the Art of Photography coursework PDF Doc. (pasted in Maroon)
5 photographs
For this exercise, because you will be varying the exposure, you will need to be able to override any automatic exposure function your camera may have. Automatic exposure is designed expressly to prevent the kind of control you are now going to demonstrate. (If you have a completely automatic camera, you will not, unfortunately, be able to do this exercise).
Find a strong, definite colour – a painted door, for instance – and choose a viewpoint so that the colour fills the viewfinder frame.
Find the average exposure setting – the one your camera’s meter or your own meter recommends. Then take a sequence of pictures; all composed exactly the same, but differently exposed from bright to dark. Start at one stop brighter than the original metered setting, then stop down the aperture by half a stop each time. For example, if the average metered setting were 1/125 sec at f5.6, your sequence would go like this – 1/125 sec at f4, f4.5, f5.6, f6.3, f8. If digital, and if you shoot raw, make sure when processing that you leave the exposure and brightness untouched – do not allow the software to make any automatic adjustments.
Arrange the five images together. Apart from the obvious fact that the five photographs vary from over-exposure to under-exposure, what other difference is there in terms of the colour? Write your answer in your learning log.
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Equipment
Nikon D4
24/70 f2.8 lens
Lightmeter
Tripod
Method
In this exercise I set the camera up on a tripod and used my trusty lightmeter to calculate the exposure. I then stopped up one complete stop and used this as my starting point, To keep things simple I then stopped down at intervals of one third until I got down to aperture f8.
Please see pictures and captions below.
Note – all pictures have been compressed hence there will be a quality reduction when enlarging.
Picture 1
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f2.8 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm, I have also over-exposed the picture by one stop from the initial lightmeter reading.
Picture 2
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f3.2 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm.
Picture 3
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f3.5 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm.
Picture 4
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f4.0 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm, this is the correctly exposed picture from the initial lightmeter reading.
Picture 5
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f4.5 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm.
Picture 6
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f5.0 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm.
Picture 7
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f5.6 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm.
Picture 8
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f6.3 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm.
Picture 9
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f7.1 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm.
Picture 10
This picture was taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f8.0 and a speed of 250th sec. ISO 400, focal length 70mm.
What have I learnt from this exercise
From this exercise I have learnt that the metered exposure is not always the most pleasing. Several of the above pictures are very passable but my own opinion favours the slightly under exposed pictures.
Thoughts and Reflection
This has been another exercise of learning for me and as I mention above, exposure can sometimes be more personal taste but too far either side of correct exposure will ruin the picture. I have always found that having just taken the picture and reviewing the image on the cameras screen, if I cant get correct exposure (to taste) then I deliberately under-expose and edit later to suit. If the camera is mounted on I tripod I will introduce exposure bracketing to aid selection of the image later when editing. If the picture is over-exposed, to later perform edits is never as successful as if the picture was under exposed as more information is captured and not blown out.
stingray493 