So what's exposure compensation and
why would you use it?
I'm gonna explain all of it on today's episode of
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Today's question is from Mr. Dev,
yes Mr. Dev and he asked:
Alright when we talk about exposure,
first just to make it clear what we're talking about.
Exposure only refers to how bright or dark the image is.
We're not talking about focus or
any other modes or issues just brightness
and darkness.
So when we talk about exposure compensation
there are two kinds:
There's regular exposure compensation and
then there's flash exposure compensation,
and I'm going to talk about each one separately.
First of all, exposure compensation in general.
Now the way the camera works if you're in
some kind of an auto mode, any auto mode
like exposure, aperture priority or
shutter priority even auto ISO.
That's an auto mode where the camera is deciding
what the exposure should be.
You can those different modes allow you to set a
different setting and it will pick the others.
But it's still deciding in general what the
exposure should be.
Now this also exposure compensation does
have an effect in manual mode,
only in the fact that you can see the
change in the meter.
But it doesn't automatically
make any change, like it does in an auto mode.
Now when the cameras looking at a scene
and trying to figure out the exposure,
it wants to average it all out.
So if it sees a lot of bright things,
it's going to darken it down.
If it sees a lot of dark things,
it's gonna brighten it up.
It wants everything to be sort of middle grey.
So I'm gonna demonstrate this.
I'm here with Rosie today in the studio.
Hey Rosie, and what what we have here is
she's against a white background,
she's wearing a white shirt, and I really
want to expose for her face.
But if I just put the camera on auto so right now
this is a 1DX Mark II - I'm using
85mm f/1.4 lens,
and we'll get to the flash in a minute.
I'm not using that right now this is just using
the ambient light from these LEDs, we have in the studio.
So I'm at aperture priority at 6400 at f/5.6,
and if I go ahead and take a picture of her here.
Rosie looks awesome... boom.
So you can see now that is kind of on the dark side.
The background actually looks really good,
but because it's seeing so much white,
it's darkening the overall exposure down
and her face is actually underexposed.
I really am concerned more about the exposure
on her face than the background.
So what I can do is go into the camera
and the little +/-, I can adjust
that to go up one let's say almost two stops,
one in two-thirds of a stop, and
now if I'm in the same setting,
same aperture priority setting 6400 at f/5.6
and I take a picture now... boom
Now you can actually see the difference her face
now is properly exposed.
The background is bright white, that's fine.
That's exactly what I want but I have to think through
and tell the camera okay this is what I want.
So for example, if you were photographing
somebody in the snow, people outside in the snow,
where everything's really bright white, but you
still want to expose for the faces properly.
You could use in this case I could use
maybe the spot meter setting, and put it
right on her face,
and it would expose her properly
without any compensation.
But if you're in a situation like that in the snow,
if people are running around you're not gonna
be able to get that spot meter right in the right spot.
So, by shooting with an evaluative mode
and then just changing the exposure
compensation for all the frames,
you're gonna be much better off.
So that's how it works when we're using
exposure compensation.
By the way, it works also the other direction obviously.
If we were in a really dark scene and
it was trying to brighten everything up,
her face would be overexposed right?
So I could dial it down and have it darken
the exposure overall.
Now new technology is trying to help us a bit.
For example, the new Canon 1DX Mark III
has really cool evaluative metering modes,
where it has face detection built-in, and
it knows the face and it can properly
expose for the face without needing any
exposure compensation.
But that's kind of brand new technology and it's,
and it really helps to understand how the
camera works, and be able to make
those adjustments on your own.
So now the other type of exposure compensation
is flash exposure compensation.
Now this also only applies to auto modes
with the flashes.
Now if I put the flashes on TTL that is
an auto mode right?
I can set my camera on manual but the flash is on TTL.
They are each deciding individually
what the light should be.
So I've changed the setup here in the studio a little bit.
So we turned off the LED that was in the background.
Just lighting it up for the video shoot and
I'm only using flashes now.
So I've got one Canon speed light in this big soft lighter.
I've got another one on the background with a blue gel
on it lighting up that background so we can
really see what's going on here.
Now I'm gonna switch the camera over to manual
mode, I'm gonna go to 800 ISO and 1/250th of second,
which is my flash sync speed.
My max flash sync and then f/5.6 for my aperture and
so now the cameras are manual,
I'm also using the STE-3RT remote transmitter,
so I can I can change settings, and I can do anything
I want remotely with those flashes.
So I've got them on TTL/ETTL with no compensation,
just at zero.
Now if I go ahead and take
a picture here and perfect.
Now we can see that's actually a
pretty good exposure right?
But the thing is, that like I said the flashes are each
deciding individually how much light
should come out of them, and it's making that decision.
I have no control over that.
But what I can do is if I want to change
one of those lights,
remember if I change my overall exposure compensation,
it's gonna change everything.
It's gonna change foreground and
background, up or down.
But let's say I only want to change one.
I like the light that it's
calculating to hit her face right?
Looks perfect, but the background I think is a
little too bright.
So I actually I'm gonna go in and bring my B group,
which is my backlight.
I'm gonna bring it down two stops from
where it was right?
And so now I'm at -2, and by
doing that if I take another picture here.
Hey Rosie what's happening.. boom.
So now you can see the light on her is
exactly the same, but the background now
is two stops darker and it's a little
bit of a deeper darker blue color,
that I actually like a little better.
So flash exposure conversation gives me the
ability to individually control
the ratios of those two lights
without globally adjusting everything.
So it really is all about control.
Now don't forget when you do something like this,
either the flashes or
your regular exposure compensation,
to put them all back to zero when you're done because
tomorrow you're gonna pick up your
camera, do a shoot and everything's gonna
be under or overexposed, and you're not
going to remember why, so that is super important.
So really at the end of the day
like I said it's all about control.
Now I prefer to shoot manual strobes when possible
if the subject distance is not changing.
If we're in the studio here normally I would have those
on complete manual, and that way it's
going to fire the exact same amount of
light every single time.
But if you're in a run-and-gun situation where you're
moving around, and your subject is moving.
Let's say you're at a wedding and you're
photographing the couple, and you're
walking around with them, and your flash
is just maybe it's giving you a little
bit too much light, but you like the way
your background looks.
You can bring down the compensation just on the flash
without darkening the background as well.
So it really like I said a hundred times
in every one of these videos, it's about
taking control of your photography,
so you can get exactly the image that you want to make.
So thanks Mr. Dev for asking that I hope that helps.
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