Spot metering is the opposite of average metering. It samples the brightness of a small screen area. And it allows you to select the exact portion of the scene on which to base your exposure.
It’s very useful for situations where large areas of very light or dark tones would create an exposure bias that would detract from the central subject. This is the case for backlighting, high key, or low key scenes.
The image below is a good example of when you’d want to use spot metering. This is because it has a lot of contrast.
Even the best light meters and exposure systems can be fooled by difficult lighting situations. And the preview screen on the back of your camera is not a very reliable indicator of correct exposure.
To do this, you need to learn the Exposure Triangle; that is, how aperture, shutter speed and ISO work together.
It is also necessary to learn how to read a histogram. Most cameras these days have a built-in histogram function. Using it will be a lot more helpful to you than relying on your LCD screen.
One way to ensure that you got the correct exposure is to shoot the scene at several exposures. Then you can choose the best one.
If your base exposure isn’t correct, then one of the other images is likely to be properly exposed.
This is why it’s a good idea to buy your camera body and your lenses separately. The kit lens that comes with your camera is usually not the best quality. And it will not always be suitable for the kind of photography you want to do. Especially if you’re aiming to take more professional pictures.
When I shoot food photography, I usually reach for my 24-70mm zoom lens, or my 100mm macro. For portrait work, I prefer an 85mm. If you’re traveling or doing landscape shots, you’d be better off with a wide-angle lens.
Keep in mind that the crop factor of your camera will have a bearing on which lenses you choose.
Entry level DSLR or “prosumer cameras” usually have a cropped sensor. A Canon Rebel is an example of a good DSLR with a cropped sensor.
What this means is that a 50mm lens will behave more like a 80mm lens because of the crop factor.
If you have a camera with a cropped sensor, make sure that any lens you buy will be usable if you decide to upgrade to full frame.
Bright and airy photo of a stone tower on a clear day - how to take professional pictures
Aperture is a regulator that controls the flow of light through the lens. But aperture also affects your depth-of-field.
Depth-of-field refers to the area of acceptable sharpness in a photograph. Aperture controls how shallow or deep the zone of acceptable sharpness is.
The size of the image sensor, the focal length of the lens, and the aperture all affect the depth-of-field.
To control the depth-of-field in your photograph, you must control the aperture. This is a balancing act between exposure and depth-of-field considerations.
Specialist Sports PhotographerIn portrait photography, the most important thing is to get the eyes in focus. Many professional photographers shoot portraits at a very wide aperture.
But when shooting still life, you’d want your aperture to be at 5.6 and higher, depending on the subject.
ISO is part of the Exposure Triangle. It affects how sensitive your camera is to light. As you increase your ISO, your image will become brighter.
Digital cameras are much better at handling noise than they used to be. Many digital cameras go up to ISO 6400. At what point you start to see significant noise will depend on your camera.
There’s a major problem with shooting at a high ISO. Increasing the exposure in post-production will alter the look of the grain.
Test your camera to see how far you can push the ISO before you destroy the quality of your images. Use a fast shutter speed and a smaller aperture like F8 or F11 so you get sharp images.
Take the same image at a variety of ISO settings. Start at 100 all the way to the max ISO of your camera and compare them in your editing software.
Take the same image at a variety of ISO settings. Start at 100 all the way to the max ISO of your camera and compare them in your editing software.
Manual focus is when you take complete control of where the camera focuses. You turn the ring on your lens until the area you want sharp comes into precise focus.
This is not the best approach if you have less than 20/20 vision. If you are even a bit off, you can miss focus. Blurry images are often the result of missed focus.
Autofocus is when the camera adjusts the lens to focus on your subject for you. But the AF system can end up focusing on the wrong part of a scene, or struggle to lock onto anything.
One way to make it easier to get that razor sharp focus is to calibrate each of your lenses to your camera body. You can have a professional do this for you or learn to do it yourself.
Straight out of the box, most lenses are either slightly front or back focusing. You need to make micro-adjustments to get accurate focusing.
This is a compositional principle that divides an image into nine equal sections. It does so by using two horizontal lines and two vertical lines.
The important elements in the scene fall along these lines. They can also fall at the points where the lines intersect.
There are other compositional principles that are even more powerful though. Check out the Phi Grid and Fibonacci Spiral.
Think about shooting outside on a cloudy day. The clouds act a giant diffuser, filtering the harsh rays of the sun as they hit your subject.
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