Image Comments Required
- Thread starter Big E
- Start date
I find it difficult to judge exposure with such a contrasty scene.
I suspect you were shooting jpeg and maybe your camera settings are vivid. You probably would be able to adjust the contrast with a post processing program (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or other). I only find the black buttons lacking of detail.
Hope this helps,
Marcel
I suspect you were shooting jpeg and maybe your camera settings are vivid. You probably would be able to adjust the contrast with a post processing program (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or other). I only find the black buttons lacking of detail.
Hope this helps,
Marcel
Joseph Bautsch
New member
Proper exposure is more often a judgement call by the photographer. To me this shot looks to be a little underexposed. But a handfull of colored glass beads on a black and white cloth is not the best way to make an exposure judgement . What you need is a full tone scale white to black card to shoot. You also need a CMYK card to adjust colors. You can get a card with the B&W tone scale as well as the color scale and an 18% gray card for WB correction from: www.digitalimageflow.com
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Browncoat
Senior Member
Moving this to the Critique forum...
I agree in that this is not a very good subject to perform an exposure and metering experiment. The tablecloth alone is difficult to account for, much less adding multi-colored beads (and glass at that!) to the mix. In summary:
Your D5000 has an exposure bracketing feature, though I believe it is limited to 3 shots. Read up in your manual how use this feature if you don't know how already.
I agree in that this is not a very good subject to perform an exposure and metering experiment. The tablecloth alone is difficult to account for, much less adding multi-colored beads (and glass at that!) to the mix. In summary:
- High contrast patterns (such as black and white) are difficult
- Multiple colors are difficult
- Glass is a difficult texture because of its reflective property
Your D5000 has an exposure bracketing feature, though I believe it is limited to 3 shots. Read up in your manual how use this feature if you don't know how already.
I agree with Joseph and Anthony. The tablecloth is the part that I found difficult to account for. There's a mixture of blue, black and white in there. Too contrasty for making a judgement on. Try the recommendations by Joseph and Anthony, Big E. A grey card would be helpful, too, to set your metering.
Hi all thanks for the help, guessed I was out, have ordered gray card set as suggested will run camera metering tests when it arrives. I feel the d5000 is a bit out tried home made gray, black, White as test, to get real black had to go -4 and White +3 , gray was -1 or +1 will see what happens with proper ones.
Joseph Bautsch
New member
A gray card by it's self will only set the camera white balance. You can also use a white card to do the same thing. With my D90 I can use a white sheet of computer printer paper and get good results. It's also critical when adjusting exposure or white balance that you use daylight corrected lighting. Outside on a clear sunny day works best. To see where the camera is exposing you need to use a B&W tone scale. The scale starts with a white square with each following square a little darker gray ending in black. The scale will have 9 squares with the center one being a 18% gray. You adjust the exposure until you achieve an even progression of the gray color from white to black. If you don't care for the auto exposure the camera gives you, use the EV + or - to move the exposure up or down as desired. Exposure is more often a matter of the photographers likes or dislikes. I most always use the matrix metering to get an overall average exposure. I also often change the exposure up or down in post processing. Exposure is more a matter of learning how your camera performs and learning to make the needed adjustments as you shoot. A good motto to remember is the photographer takes the picture and not the camera.
Sorry Joseph, didn't quite understand what you said, as I said slow today any chance of setting it in steps or a site were I can follow steps and print off, Its these injections ( Medical prob loss of feeling in Legs) at the moment knock me for six. By the way whats a sunny day only rain here. lol
Joseph Bautsch
New member
Sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner. I covered a lot of territory in my last post so it may have been confusing. Your question was concerning exposure and how to correct it. Exposure is a very nebulous thing with most every photographer having their own idea as to what is correct. It's more of an art than an exact science. There are a number of variables that you have to learn to "see" in order to make the exposure you want. You have to develop a cameras eye, that's learning to see what the camera sees and how each of the exposure adjustments affect the outcome. For all the great advances in electronics a camera is still only an innate object that will only take photos the way you ask it to.
1) The Gray Card (or White Card) - Either a 18% Gray Card or a White Card will set the white balance in the camera. They should not be used to try to set the exposure. To set exposure you need a series of contrasting gray colors side by side to see how the camera is recording each one. A camera that is set to read white balance on an 18% Gray Card (White Card) is reading only the colors being reflected off the card and does not read exposure which is a different type adjustment. A white card and the 18% Gray Card are both basically neutral in colors reflected. That is why either the white or 18% gray can be used to set white balance.
2) To see how the camera is performing on exposure. You should use a card with a gray scale. This is usually nine patches starting with white and increasing in gray color until the ninth one is black. The center patch is an 18% gray. This is also often referred to as a gray tone scale. In checking how the camera is performing you should take a picture of this gray scale in normal day light. If the exposure is normal then you should be able to distinguish between all nine patches of gray from the white one to the black one. If any two or more seem to merge then you have either underexposed or overexposed. If the white patch and the one next to it have merged to the same color then you have overexposure. Vice versa if the black patch and the one next to it have merged then you have underexposed.
3) If you want to change the exposure you can do an exposure compensation in camera. On the top of the camera behind the on/off switch to the right you will find the exposure compensation button. It has a +/- printed on it. You use that button to increase or decrease the exposure. See page 90 of the users manual for the instructions on how to use it. When you put an exposure compensation value + or - into the camera it will remain until you change it. Each change you make, either + or - represents 1/3 f/stop. (The exposure compensation button is often referred to as the EV button or Exposure Value compensation button.)
Another way to use this gray tone scale is to take a picture of it before a photo shoot. Then in post processing, that shot will tell you if you are under or overexposed and, you can make exposure adjustments to your shots accordingly.
Hope this helps.
1) The Gray Card (or White Card) - Either a 18% Gray Card or a White Card will set the white balance in the camera. They should not be used to try to set the exposure. To set exposure you need a series of contrasting gray colors side by side to see how the camera is recording each one. A camera that is set to read white balance on an 18% Gray Card (White Card) is reading only the colors being reflected off the card and does not read exposure which is a different type adjustment. A white card and the 18% Gray Card are both basically neutral in colors reflected. That is why either the white or 18% gray can be used to set white balance.
2) To see how the camera is performing on exposure. You should use a card with a gray scale. This is usually nine patches starting with white and increasing in gray color until the ninth one is black. The center patch is an 18% gray. This is also often referred to as a gray tone scale. In checking how the camera is performing you should take a picture of this gray scale in normal day light. If the exposure is normal then you should be able to distinguish between all nine patches of gray from the white one to the black one. If any two or more seem to merge then you have either underexposed or overexposed. If the white patch and the one next to it have merged to the same color then you have overexposure. Vice versa if the black patch and the one next to it have merged then you have underexposed.
3) If you want to change the exposure you can do an exposure compensation in camera. On the top of the camera behind the on/off switch to the right you will find the exposure compensation button. It has a +/- printed on it. You use that button to increase or decrease the exposure. See page 90 of the users manual for the instructions on how to use it. When you put an exposure compensation value + or - into the camera it will remain until you change it. Each change you make, either + or - represents 1/3 f/stop. (The exposure compensation button is often referred to as the EV button or Exposure Value compensation button.)
Another way to use this gray tone scale is to take a picture of it before a photo shoot. Then in post processing, that shot will tell you if you are under or overexposed and, you can make exposure adjustments to your shots accordingly.
Hope this helps.
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