Under or Over???

In the previous post, I discussed how to achieve a 'technically' correct exposure. However in some cases the wrong exposure is the 'right' one...I'll explain! The exposure helps give the picture an atmosphere. Portraitures or landscapes combined with a slight overexposure gives a very bubbly and exciting picture. However to achieve a very poignant and gloomy atmosphere such as that in Bill Brandt's photograph, underexposure is the key. Here is some examples of what works and what doesn't when I went out to do a shoot using the bracketing feature of my camera...

SET 1

My favourite from this set is the -2 exposure because the fact that the bench is so worn down, combined with the under exposure gives a very sinister mood!

Exposure: -2

Exposure: -1

Exposure: 0

Exposure: +1

Exposure: +2

SET 2

My favourite from this set is the +1 exposure because with the underexposure you lose the colours of the leaves however with the +1 exposure the atmosphere is very different much more bright and uplifting!

Exposure: -2

Exposure: -1

Exposure: 0

Exposure: +1

Exposure: +2

Exposure Issues!

With slow shutter speeds, because the the shutter is left open for a longer period of time, a lot more light is let in than with a fast shutter speed because the shutter is left open for only about 1/1000th of a second!!! This means that with slow shutter speeds it is easy for the photograph to become overexposed (Figure 1) and it's easy for fast shutter speeds to leave the photograph underexposed (Figure 2)...

Figure 1

Figure 2

To fix this problem  you can just amend the shutter speed accordingly. However I found that if i specifically want that shutter speed (e.g. when photographing something in motion, I use a slow shutter speed to capture the entire motion or I use a fast shutter speed to photograph something in motion at a particular position) I would just adjust the aperture or the ISO instead. As you can see, I have solved my exposure issues...

Figure 3

What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed is defined as the amount of time the shutter of the lens is open when capturing the photograph. A fast shutter speed means the amount of time for the photograph to be taken is very small, therefore it is very sharp and there is no 'blur'. On the other end of the spectrum, a slow shutter speed means that the amount of time for the photograph to be taken is large therefore there is more 'blur'. 

Shutter speeds can be used to create photographs such as this...

Figure 1

Shutter speeds vary from 1/16000th of a second to several hours. The blur effect is achieved because while the the shutter is open a number of photographs are taken. The photographs are then built up and create the overall photograph. Therefore the slower the shutter speed the more photographs are taken therefore more of a blur effect( e.g. as in Figure 2) and the faster the shutter speed the more 'frozen' the photograph seems( e.g. Figure 3!)....

       

 Figure 2

Figure 3