Aubrey Reclining - Notes About Exposure
Added 2018-02-16 15:30:38 +0000 UTCWe get asked about technical things from time to time, particularly about exposure. 'How do you get those soft tones in your photos?' Well, it's all about the light of course, but it's also about properly exposing in the light that you have. This particular image, although pretty, is technically flawed. The highlight on Aubrey's hip, and to a certain extent on her blouse, is far 'too hot'. Once the image is made, there is only so much remedial post processing that can be done to fix it. This problem is most concerning in highlight areas of a digital capture, which this is. Stopping down (closing the aperture) or reducing shutter speed could have resulted in highlights in the captured image that were better controlled. So that brings us to the point: How do we get those pretty tones in our photos? Expose for the highlights! Exposing for the shadows is a pretty basic tenet of photography, and it is a holdover from the film days. Film had greater exposure latitude, and you can always burn down the highlights in the darkroom. As previously stated, once the highlights are too bright on a digital capture, you are pretty much stuck with that. So expose for the highlights and let the shadows go where they will. Darkness can be desirable and even add a level of mysteriousness to a photo. Brittle highlights are never very pleasant.
