5.2 HOW EXPOSURE AFFECTS YOUR IMAGES

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When you take a photograph, the exposure isn’t uniformly distributed over the sensor’s surface—unless you are photographing a subject that is absolutely uniform in tone. Highlights (brighter areas) in the scene reflect the most light, and the areas of the sensor onto which they are focused are exposed a great deal. Darker areas, like shadows, reflect much less light, so the areas of the sensor onto which they are focused receive much less exposure. The perfect exposure retains details in both the highlights and shadows. For the autoexposure system, this is as difficult as your parking a very large car in a very small garage. If there is even a little too much exposure, the image is too light and details are lost in the highlights. If there is too little exposure the image is too dark and details are lost in the shadows.

One way to ensure you get the best exposure is to take three pictures. The first would be at the recommended setting. The second would be lighter and the third darker than the original one. This process is referred to as bracketing because you’re bracketing the suggested exposure. You can do this using exposure compensation (see Topic 0.0).

In this series of photographs you can see the effect of exposure on the image. The middle photo is correctly exposed. The left photograph was overexposed and is too light. The right photo was underexposed and is too dark.