Look for the Exposure Compensation Icon

It’s in every camera manual and in thousands of photography tutorials online; so why mention it? Because so many photographers don’t know how much it will improve their photography.

In your camera’s green Auto (or Idiot…) Mode, the camera does everything for you. This is great, but it also means that you don’t have much control. Your photos might be too dark or too bright but your camera doesn’t give you the option to over-rule its thoughtless calculation. But with the other modes, you can take back control and make pictures that are closer to your artistic vision.

Making the picture darker using exposure compensation (-)

What is Exposure Compensation?

Exposure compensation allows you to make your pictures brighter or darker.

Your Exposure is the combination of Aperture (size of the hole), Shutter Speed (how long the hole is open for) and ISO sensitivity (how much the camera amplifies the signal to brighten the picture) that determines how bright your picture is.

Photographers used to set the exposure manually by choosing a film with a marked sensitivity such as ISO400, then the aperture and the shutter speed to get the ‘right’ exposure for the brightness of the part of the scene they were photographing. You can still do this with many cameras in Manual Mode (M) but happily with digital cameras you can now change ISO sensitivity without changing films. Because you manually control the three things that determine exposure (aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity), the exposure compensation won’t adjust the brightness.

But when the camera calculates the exposure for you, you can use the Exposure Compensation button and dial to adjust it, making it brighter (+) or darker (-). In Program Mode (P), Aperture Priority Mode (A or Av) and Shutter Speed Priority Mode (S or Tv), the camera still chooses the aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity, but you now have the option to compensate for its calculation/guess, which makes the picture brighter or darker. This is Exposure Compensation.

For more info on the exposure modes, we recommend this article;

Digital Camera World: Exposure Modes

500px.com – it’s become the best place to share photos and get inspiration. If people like and favourite your photo, it can rise to the top and become Popular. This is great publicity, and you can do it like this…

Upload a portrait of a sexy girl, or a beautiful landscape in great light Post-process it in the style of photos that are already Popular on 500px Optional; include a personal story in the description and image tags. Include ‘Please Like and Fav because I love this shot!’ Click on Discover/ Recent and open lots of photos in new tabs. Average or even bad photos are good choices. Open the profiles of the people who have ‘favourited’ or liked the photo in new tabs Follow each person, and like a couple of their photos, preferably ones that have meaning to them; family or pets. Write a two sentence comment on a few, using their name and ‘my friend’. Keep doing this until you get the score on your photo that you want.

This works;

Incoming!

 

Reciprocation is a powerful force. Try this once if you want, but there’s a bigger idea here to understand.

Nice photo, very popular; but not creative, and not Art.

Social feedback can destroy your photography. Especially online, people aren’t thinking. In blind comparisons, we always prefer the sweeter drink or saltier food. This gives us junk food; what is thoughtless feedback doing to your pictures?

Think about the great artists. They’re often not the most popular, because their best work is new, and people don’t like what’s unfamiliar. Imagine if Van Gogh had just painted for his audience instead of himself.

Instead, focus on creating art that moves you personally. Art is an expression of your uniqueness, set against the background of culture and the human condition. Create don’t copy, and keep working to make photos that you think are great.