Bryan Peterson - Bryan Petersons Exposure Solutions

Acknowledgments
Thank you to my editors, Julie Mazur and Jeff Kent.
Wow, nothing gets past you guys!

This is an Amphoto Ebook Original
Copyright 2012 by Bryan F. Peterson

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Amphoto Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.amphotobooks.com

AMPHOTO BOOKS and the Amphoto Books logo are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Some of the photographs within this book originally appeared in previous Bryan Peterson publications.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Peterson, Bryan
Bryan Petersons exposure solutions : the most common photography problems and how to solve them / Bryan F. Peterson with Jeff Kent.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. PhotographyExposure. I. Kent, Jeff. II. Title. III. Title: Exposure solutions.
TR591.P478 2012
770dc23
2012008033

Cover photographs by Bryan F. Peterson
Cover design by Jessica Morphew
Ebook design by Meegan Spellman and Dan Vecchito

eISBN: 978-0-307-98513-2

v3.1

To my mom:
You are missed by us all!

From my photographic beginnings, way back in 1970, I have been fascinated by the subject of exposure. Despite the massive amount of technology that has influenced photography over the past 40-plus years, photographers still struggle with exposure. For many, exposure continues to be all about lightand the lack of light. But in my mind, it is a much deeper topic. While yes, it is of paramount importance that photographers understand the simple math involved in f-stops, shutter speeds, and ISO, its also critical that they understand the difference between a correct exposure and a creatively and thus deliberately correct exposure.

In this, my latest book on exposure, I present a condensed guide to conquering the most common exposure problems. These are the confusing situations that my students and readers have complained about for yearsall clearly explained with easy-to-understand solutions so that you can impose your creative will on any photographic scenario. As in many of my other books, Ive offered numerous before-and-after images that show the correct exposure compared to the incorrect exposure. What sets this ebook apart from my previous books, however, is a series of embedded video tutorials. These online videos show me discussing the problems and demonstrating the solutions. You can witness the correct exposure solutions unfolding right before your eyes!

I hope you find this book both useful and entertaining. Remember, photography is fun! You shouldnt be intimidated away from pursuing your creative inspiration just because an exposure situation is a little tricky. Hopefully, with the help of this book, you can reclaim your artistic vision and become the photographer youve always wanted to be, regardless of the exposure situation thrown at you.

70200mm lens, f/11 for 4 seconds

1635mm lens, f/22 for 1/15 sec.

ONE OF THE MOST CONFUSING CONCEPTS for photo enthusiasts is the difference between a quantitatively correct exposure and a creatively correct exposure. You might think that as long as your light meter indicates a correct exposure at a certain exposure setting, then youre in good shape. And on one level, youd be correct. Your light meter tells you the correct quantitative value for a properly exposed image. Technically, a correct exposure is nothing more than the quantitative value of an aperture and shutter speed working together within the confines of a specific ISO. This is the case whether youre in Program mode, Shutter Priority mode, Aperture Priority mode, or even manual mode. However, if you blindly follow your light meters advice, youre giving up creative control over your image. Maybe you want to emphasize a certain part of the composition and blur out the rest. Maybe you want to express a sense of motion. Maybe you want to capture a fun lighting effect. Maybe you want to expand your depth of field for a dramatic sense of place. The options are nearly endless if you consider the creatively correct exposure.

A creatively correct exposure is the ideal combination of aperture and shutter speed for the artistic effect you want to produce. Most picture-taking situations have at least six combinations of f-stops and shutter speeds that will yield a quantitatively correct exposure. But typically, only one or two of these combinations will give you a creatively correct exposure. This entire book is about choosing the creatively correct exposure for different shooting scenarios. In this opening section, well start with the two most basic approaches to setting up a composition: storytelling exposures (deep depth of field) and single-theme exposures (shallow depth of field). You can apply many of the principles of these two exposure types to all of the other special effects youll learn later in the book.

1635mm lens, f/22 for 1/250 sec., Nikon SB-900 flash

In my other books, Ive discussed what I call storytelling exposures. Storytelling exposures are, quite simply, images that tell a story. Like all good stories, these images have a beginning (the foreground subject), a middle (the middle-ground subject), and an end (the background subject). To bring all these elements into your composition, you want the maximum possible depth of field so that everything in your frame is in sharp focus. Storytelling exposures are basic building blocks of good narrative photography, but they confound many people who are unsure where to place emphasis within the composition. You might also wonder where to place your focus to achieve this effect.

When using a digital camera with a full-frame sensor, most experienced photographers choose wide-angle zoom lenses (1424mm, 1635mm, 1735mm) to shoot storytelling compositions. If using a digital camera with a partial-frame sensor, try the 1117mm range. Wide-angle zooms are popular because they typically include the full range of focal lengths youll need for a storytelling image. Occasionally, you might want to try a moderate telephoto (75120mm) or one of the normal focal lengths (4560mm), depending on what you want to feature in your image. But regardless of the lens choice, there is one constant when making a storytelling composition: a very small aperture of f/22, or even f/32.