What is the most challenging part of photography
I think most people would say when they're first
starting out it's getting a good exposure and not losing any detail in your photographs and
sometimes the monitor or the viewfinder can fool you into thinking that you've got a better
exposure than you actually have but there are two tools in your camera that can help you get
perfect exposures every time the second one's my favorite I keep that one on constantly and
the great thing is that once you get to know these two tools they'll help you see if you've
got a bad exposure even before you've taken the photograph the first tool is the histogram and
if you've been a photographer for a while this will be no surprise to you you can even find them
in cameras that are older than 15 years it's basically a graph showing the distribution of
the brightness in your photograph from completely black pixels on the left hand side to completely
wipe pixels on the right hand side and every shade in between now if I take a photo like this
the range isn't that great from the darkest to the brightest parts and the histogram will look like
this the black pixels are few and far between so that side of the graph is really low the medium
brightness pixels are plentiful so this is why the graph is taller in the middle and with the white
pixels there aren't that many either and this is why this part of the graph is low as well with
really bright scenes the graph will be skewed to the right and with really dark scenes the graph
will be skewed to the left so there isn't really an ideal graph shape but you can use this tool to
work out where you might be going wrong the key to understanding your histogram is not to focus
on the height of the graph but to focus on the sides when the graph is bunched up to the left
hand side this means there's lots of dark pixels in the frame if there are too many that are pure
black you'll have lost details in the shadows and the darkest parts of your image if the graph is
bunched up to the right this means there's lots of bright pixels in the frame if there are too many
that are pure white you'll lose details in the brightest parts of your photographs so all you
need to do is make sure the graph is not touching either the right hand side or the left hand side
now this isn't the most exciting frame but if I take a shot like this and look at the histogram
look how much it's over to the right to compensate for this all you need to do is shorten your
exposure by using a faster shutter speed or by closing your aperture down using a bigger F number
on the other hand if I take a shot like this you can see it's quite dark looking at the histogram
you can see it's bunched over to the left so if this is the case you'd need to bring it away from
that left hand side by slowing down the shutter speed or opening up the aperture now there are a
few scenarios in landscape photography that you'll come across where there are lots of bright bits
lots of dark bits and not much in between and the histogram looks a little bit like a half pipe if
this is the case and the graph is squished to both sides you will have to bracket your shots now this
sounds complicated but it's not really and it's a straightforward and easy process to do once you
understand it now I've just spotted this shot and the fog was coming through with these trees which
look quite interesting now the settings I had in the camera were pushing the histogram all the way
to the right hand side so you can also use your ISO to adjust this so if I knock it down to 125
then I get a good exposure the histogram as you can see is even in the middle and not touching
either side now what problems do you have with exposure do you find it quite straightforward in
getting a good shot or there are certain scenarios that you struggle with let me know in the comments
below now the second tool is called zebras it's a tool that's come across from videography but
it can really help with your photography this is a tool that's been in the Sony cameras for such
a long time now I think most mirrorless cameras will have it however if you're a DSLR shooter you
probably won't have this function in your camera now there is a setting in DSLR cameras that's very
similar to this and this function is called the blinkies when you look back at your photos you
can turn this on and it'll flash anything that's Overexposed or underexposed I think they've got
the name highlight alert this may differ slightly depending on what brand you have now the zebra
function is very much like the blinkies but it'll put on the back of the screen or in your evf
before you've even taken the photograph zebras will basically show with lines like this when
a part of your image is over a certain level of brightness in all of the Sony cameras it's under
zebras in the menus and they've changed the menus so many times that it could be in very different
places so you've just got to look for the zebra function so find the zebra function in your menu
turn that on and then set it to 100 plus now when you look at your monitor or viewfinder this will
show you these lines when the brightest parts of your photos are bordering on being Overexposed
when I frame up the shot and see these I'll then change my exposure until these are only
just about showing so on this Frame it's quite a dull sky so I'll probably take it to there
because it's only just about showing the zebras if I click it down one more the land becomes
really dark if I put it there I know I'll get a good exposure with details in the shadows
and the highlights in a scene like this you want to get it so they're just about showing
but not dominating the sky or dominating the brightest parts of your photograph and when I
get it to this level I know that the highlights will still have details in them now there are a
few things that you need to be aware of when using zebras if the scene that you're photographing has
some really really bright parts and really really dark parts and you use this technique of getting
rid of the zebras and you might risk losing a lot of detail in your shadows if this is the case then
you need to get the histogram up on the back of your camera as well and that's the beauty with the
zebras you can have the histogram and the zebras all on that same time the second thing to be aware
of is if you shoot in raw the zebras are being applied to the jpeg image that's created on the
back of your camera so your photos will actually have more latitude and this is why I set it to 100
plus if I was shooting jpegs I'd set the zebras to 100 and then make sure I got rid of 99 of them in
the shot before taking it there's nothing better than having a function in your camera that gives
you the confidence to know that even before you've edited the photo that you're going to have detail
in those brightest parts and then when it comes to editing those photos I'll be able to put a bit
more drama in that sky without doing some false Sky Replacements like I mentioned earlier if your
histogram looks like this or you've got rid of the zebras and your image is looking really dark this
is when you might have to start bracketing your photos to learn this click on this video next in
it I'll show you how to turn your camera into a dynamic range monster I'll see you next time