Today i'm going to talk about exposure compensation and hopefully clear up
any confusion you might have with this function
exposure compensation is one of those settings that's neglected a lot
i've even seen posts about it where someone has put a photo of the exposure compensation dial
asking what it is now this is fine and we've all got to start somewhere and if you were wondering
what the style is it's such a useful tool when you know how to use it properly the main thing about
exposure compensation is that it really opens up those semi-automatic modes at first when you come
out of auto and use the p a or s modes or p av or tv when using canon you'll find that your
camera might not always get it right or you might notice that there's not much difference between
the auto mode and these semi-automatic modes but as soon as you discover exposure compensation and
how it interacts with these modes this is when everything changes basically if you think the
camera hasn't quite got it right with the built-in light meter you can compensate by telling it to
underexpose or over expose the shot by however much you want it's either a dial like this
or it can be a plus minus button or an exposure compensation option in your menus
when you change your exposure compensation it will normally show up on the back of the sony camera
like this next to the plus minus logo in the evf there's a scale from minus five to plus five
and it will show up as a little tag above this scale when you push it into the plus figures that
tag will go into the plus figures and when you push it into the minus figures it will go into
the minus figures on other brands it might be a tag above or below this but it's very similar
now the key with using this function is that it needs at least one of the principal
settings to be able to change either aperture shutter speed or iso so if you're in manual
mode with manual iso the camera won't have control over anything as it's all in manual
so when you do turn the dial in this setting with that iso set to manual it'll do absolutely nothing
therefore you need to know which mode you put your camera in to get it to work properly for you
as long as one of these three principal settings are being controlled by the camera this is when
you can use exposure compensation if i keep the camera in manual mode but i switch it to iso auto
now i'm telling the camera's built-in meter i'm controlling aperture and shutter speed but give me
an iso that will give me a good exposure so the camera chooses the iso for you the camera will
then give you an iso number which it thinks is a good exposure for the composition that you have
so you're giving control of your iso over to the camera if you don't like the exposure the
camera has given you you can nudge it to expose the photo more than the camera decided to by
turning the exposure compensation dial towards the plus figures and this will brighten up the
shot if you think it's too bright all you do is turn the exposure compensation dial towards the
minus figures and this will drop the exposure and the camera will change the iso to suit and that's
the key when you change your exposure compensation the camera needs one or more settings to change
otherwise it can't change anything if you're in aperture priority mode you're controlling the
aperture and you're telling the camera to select the right shutter speed for the conditions or the
composition that you have so again if you don't like the exposure the camera gives you you can
then adjust it with the exposure compensation dial into the plus figures to brighten up the
exposure and into the minus figures to darken down that exposure if you're in shutter priority you
control the shutter speed and you're giving the camera the control over the aperture
when you half press that shutter button it will choose the appropriate aperture for the given
conditions again if you don't like it just adjust the exposure compensation dial to suit by now you
should be getting an idea of how it works into the plus figures to brighten up your exposure into the
minus figures to darken down your exposure now in p or program mode it will change both the aperture
and the shutter speed as you turn that exposure compensation dial so again if you don't like
what the camera has given you nudge it one way or the other now in any of these modes when you have
auto iso on as well different cameras will act in different ways depending on your brand and
your model of camera but what it should do is keep the iso as low as possible and change either the
shutter speed or the aperture first depending on which mode you're in then when it reaches a limit
on one of those first two settings it will start to change your iso in auto mode and scene mode
exposure compensation is greyed out in the menus and if your camera has the exposure compensation
dial this does nothing in your camera these might be called intelligent auto or maybe creative auto
depending on what brand you have but in these modes we're giving up all control to the camera
and all you'll be doing is looking and selecting the composition for your frame so this is one of
the many reasons why it's great to get out of auto ultimately you want more control over the camera
than your camera does over your photos so the best way to start gaining control over your camera is
to come out into one of these semi-automatic modes which are the p a and s modes or the p
av and tv modes if you're using a canon camera then you need to utilize them by gaining control
of that exposure compensation dial to quickly dial in your exposure even further the great
thing about cameras that have the exposure compensation dial on the top as a physical dial
like the sony cameras is that when you really start to use it it becomes quite instinctive
what i've found is all that i need to do is bring my thumb up to that top right hand corner
and if i want to drop the exposure i just push my thumb and that dial to the left and if i want to
brighten up the exposure i push my thumb to the right so it's very easy and very intuitive once
you start using it and when you use it a lot also you can have the camera up to your face using the
evf you don't even have to pull the camera away or look at the dial again you know to bring your
thumb up to that top right hand corner and push your finger to the left if you want to drop the
exposure or to the right when you want to brighten up the exposure it's not limited to photos either
i like to shoot video in manual mode so i have complete control over the exposure but if you're
in aperture priority or shutter priority or even program mode you can use this dial to quickly tune
in your exposure and get it exactly where you want it in the video setting when you're in that p a or
s mode it works exactly like it does in the stills mode so you push it to the plus figures to add
lights and brighten up your exposure and you push it to the minus figures to darken down your shots
decreasing the amount of light that comes into your camera now do you use exposure compensation
in these modes or is it new to you either way let me know in the comments below it'll be great to
hear your thoughts and if you want to learn more click on this video next or if you want to binge
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