+/- Reading

[Graemey]

Hello All,

I was wondering if anyone can explain the +/- compensation. I gent explained to me about when there is a lot of light behind the subject to use say -2 but when and how do I or should I use the other settings?

Thank you,

Best wishes
Graeme

[dcclark]

Exposure compensation lets you tell the camera that its guess at the correct exposure is wrong, and you want to adjust it a bit. Often, a camera can be fooled by certain kinds of subjects (for example, the "lots of light behind your subject" kind), and it may decide to over- or under-expose the image. In the "lots of light behind your subject" example, the camera may see a lot of light in the scene, and decide to make the image darker -- but the part you actually care about (your subject) isn't bright, and actually needs to be made brighter (at the expense of its surroundings, which can be too bright -- you don't care, they're not the subject). So, you can dial in some exposure compensation, telling the camera to make the scene brighter (even though it doesn't really want to).

My Nikon D40 often overexposes scenes by between 1/3 and 2/3 of a stop, so I usually keep my exposure compensation set between -1/3 and -2/3, to compensate for that. Sometimes I dial in a positive compensation (to make the scene brighter) when things are dim, but the camera's picking up on light from the sky and making things too dark.

Overall, the thing to remember is: your camera's meter is not perfect. It usually does a good job of choosing a shutter speed, aperture, and ISO for you -- but it can be wrong. If you take a photo and see that it's too dark, dial in some positive exposure comp. If it's too light, dial in some negative exposure comp. There are many other things you can do (such as using a flash to take care of heavily backlit subjects), as well.

[OsmosisStudios]

... or, you know, shoot in Manual and do it all yourself

[dcclark]

*Comment about relative usefulness of manual vs. automatic modes*