Welcome to Photo Friday. If you want to look at some previous “lessons”, (and I use the term loosely), you can scroll down and on the right-hand side under Categories, and click on Photo Friday. We are going through features that are on most digital cameras so we can become better acquainted with our own camera’s capabilities. It is helpful if you can put your hands on the manual for your camera, as they are all a little different in their dials and buttons. And again, I’m not an expert; I just like taking pictures, experimenting with the camera’s settings, and I’m not afraid to try something different if my pictures aren’t working out.
Exposure Compensation. So have you ever wondered what the “+/-” selection does? That is exposure compensation. On my Lumix, it is on the selector dial and it’s very easy to get into. On my Canon PowerShot SD1100, it takes one or two extra steps. This is another feature you may not need very often, but it is very, very useful in certain circumstances and you will be glad you know how to use it!
First of all, what does this feature do? Most, if not all, of the time I am shooting in automatic mode. The camera meters how much light is out there and adjusts the exposure accordingly. Sometimes it is just wrong for the picture I’m trying to get.
When would you adjust the exposure compensation? Sometimes when you are shooting against a bright background (like at the beach, against bright snow), your subject in the foreground looks too dark. The reverse can also be true, where you are shooting against a dark background and your subject looks too light (like shooting a white bird — there sometimes is no detail or individual feathers, just a blob of white). All the photos in the post were taken using the exposure compensation feature. A whooping crane, and a bunch of pelicans:
(Other solutions could be using fill flash, depending upon how close you are to your subject and if you even want to use the flash. You can also check your scene modes and see if one is suitable for backlit photos, beach, nighttime, etc. Try out the exposure compensation though. It’s an important tool on your camera and it isn’t hard to use.)
Note: On both of my cameras, the change in compensation is “remembered” by the camera, even when it is turned off. After you are done with this feature, you will need to change the setting back to zero manually (and change your camera back to “auto” if you changed that setting also). Don’t let that scare you off; it’s easy to do.
It will probably be best if you have your manual out at this point, although you can likely figure it out on your own. On my Panasonic Lumix, I just press the dial upwards on the “+/-” icon and it brings up the exposure compensation settings that looks something like this:
-2 . . 1 . . (0) . . 1 . . 2+
On my Powershot, I need to press the Function Set button, change from Auto to Manual, then on the same screen I can arrow down to +-0 (the plus is above the minus). Select that option, and you will get the same/similar screen:
-2 . . 1 . . (0) . . 1 . . 2+
There should be an arrow or other indicator at zero. That is the normal setting. Try scrolling right and left between the -2 and +2 slowly, watching your image change darker to lighter in your view finder/display. You would basically select the amount of compensation that looks best on the display and take your picture(s)! (At the very end of this post, I will cover Auto Bracketing, which is a related feature that your camera may have.)
Water particularly causes problems for me, and I seem to take a lot of pictures against water. Here are some more pictures where I changed the exposure and/or used auto bracketing. A roseate spoonbill “fishing”, and a tri-colored heron:
Can you see why I LOVE going to Port Aransas, TX?
Auto Bracketing: This is where the camera gives you a little more help. Let’s say that I haven’t changed the exposure compensation — it is still set at zero. I select Auto Bracketing (on my Lumix, I press the +- exposure compensation button up, then push it again to enable auto bracketing. When I press the shutter button, it will shoot off three pictures (in the case of my Lumix; this is not available on my Canon). I will get one picture exposed at -1, one at zero, and one at +1.
This helps if you aren’t sure how well your photo is exposed based on what you see on your display (a bright day, it can be hard to see your display). Additionally, if you set the automatic exposure at -1, then do auto bracketing, you will get three shots at -2, -1, and zero (one shot on each side of where the exposure is set), etc.
As always, let me know by way of a comment or by e-mail using the “Contact Me” button at the top of this page if you have any questions. I’m also open to comments for any area you might particularly like covered on a future Friday. AND, feel free to upload your photos to our Friday Photos album on Flikr, plus be sure to check out other people’s photos.
Obviously brevity isn’t my strong suit — you could get a much shorter explanation in your camera manual — but I’m hoping you will get a better understanding of why you would want to use some of these features!
Thanks for stopping by.
Sue
that spoonbill is soooo pretty!