So I was walking down Broadway not long ago headed back to the office and ran into L-E reporter Lily Gordon and her husband Morgan with their big, lovable boy - Dave the Dog. They were sitting outside the Fountain City coffehouse enjoying some espresso. Dave is a teenaged Weimaraner and as sweet as can be. You can pat Dave's head without reaching down to pat Dave's head.
I pulled out a little point & shoot that is with me almost always, and commenced to make a few pictures. Now, it was a bright, clear, sunny beautiful day. One would think that the light would be perfect for pictures. And it would've been -- in a different setting. That little point & shoot was making exposures all over the map. Why?
We had a super-bright sidewalk in the midday sun. The store front awnings made for deep shadows close to the building where many patrons were seated. And although the tables are black and somewhat relective, they are, or course, very dark compared with the 'hot' sidewalk. (Here, I use 'hot' as a photo-term, meaning that it is quite bright and will require either a fast shutter speed or a small aperture opening, or both, to tone down the strong reflection. Also, remember that a small f/stop opening is a large f/stop number.) The bright sun and cloudless sky created deep shadows everywhere. Which can be fine ... just not here.
(Before I continue, let me remind everyone that photos look different on different computer monitors. On mine, these photos look too light. Trust me, the shadows were deep!)
These were taken on fully automatic. The first shot exposed at a 1/200th shutter speed with 7.1 f/stop. Dave and the sidewalk are a bit overexposed. Too overexposed for my taste. You can see right away that Morgan's face was going stay in the shadows if I didn't sit down. So I sat down to take more pictures. This second shot was WAY too hot, meaning overexposed. The camera picked 1/500 shutter speed at f/stop 2.8. This is just a little more than one shutter speed faster (1/200 to 1/500), but it opened up 2-1/2 f/stops from 7.1 to 2.8. Which means that for the second shot, the camera made its exposure primarily off of a much darker area than the first photo, and so it 'opened up' the aperture to allow more light but probably could not speed up the shutter any further.
Let's visit that again. Consider the center of the frame for the first shot. It's roughly the area of Morgan's hands, his jacket and Dave's gray coat. The bright sidewalk and the dark table might have contributed somewhat. I don't know really how big of an area of the center of the frame is used to take the exposure reading. But there was a range of reflected light and contrast for the light meter to bring together to make the exposure.
Now look at the second shot. The center of the frame is mostly the black table, and the shadowed area of Dave and Morgan's hand. Most of the cup is in shadow. So the camera opened up the aperture to expose for the dark table and make it 18% gray (Google this if you want an explanation now --- this subject is another photo tip session), thereby overexposing the cup and the sunny side of Dave's face. If you think about it, if the camera exposed the table as darker black, the hand and the background would be in even deeper shadow.
So what's the lesson here? Point & shoot cameras have their limitations. And pay attention to where your camera will be making its exposure reading if you are shooting in any of the automatic modes. You might need to move and make a different image. Even with a digital SLR. The DSLR light meter should be more sophisticated than this point & shoot, but the challenge is the same. You might want to go to manual settings, decide where in your image you want to make the exposure and check each image until you get into the ballpark. And consider using fill-flash if you can. Using flash outdoors can be helpful.
There was more to this little photo session. I made a few frames using the few manual settings that the camera allows. We'll discuss it next.
As always, Happy Shooting,
Robin
Yesterday evening my coworker Shannon Szwarc and I planned to sit on my front porch and enjoy a beer or two after work in honor of his birthday ... about a week late. I no sooner walked through door when one my cats, Desmond, let out a looooooonnnng moaning howl! Startled, I dropped my bags and found him in the kitchen with his claw caught in the screen door. What's the problem? Then I saw that the window had come down and smashed his paw - which was still pinned by the window. AAAAHHH! No idea how long he had been there. All he could do was stare back at me over his shoulder ... with his big beautiful eyes.
