Determining how much exposure compensation to use

11 years 2 weeks ago #280109 by Johan Alonso
How exactly do you determine how much exposure compensation to use? For example, yesterday photographing some status while the sun was still out however had jumped behind some taller buildings near by. What was happening was my photos were coming out on the dark side. So I kept bumping up my exposure compensation .03 take a shot, .07 take a shot, 1.0 take a shot, and ended up at 1.7 before I liked it.

Other than trial and error, is there a quicker way of finding out how much exposure compensation should be added to a shot?


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11 years 2 weeks ago - 10 years 5 months ago #280126 by KCook
Start with being more selective in your metering. Try to meter off some object that is near a neutral grey. Or a part of the scene is is equally bright and dark. This may require resorting to the Spot metering mode. If you do use Spot meter, don't forget to switch back to your customary metering mode after you've finished with the shot!

Otherwise, it's mostly practice. Takes some time to train your eye as to what a 1 stop difference looks like. Thank goodness we can all chimp now!

Kelly Cook

Canon 50D, Olympus PL2
kellycook.zenfolio.com/

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11 years 2 weeks ago #280248 by Dana Leeson
Your histogram is your friend!


Photo Comments
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11 years 1 week ago #280363 by JMunoz
:agree:


Photo Comments
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10 years 5 months ago #312869 by KCook
I have put up a case study with several examples of EV compensation by 1/2 stop -

photographyintro.com/canon-vs-olympus-program-mode/

Kelly

Canon 50D, Olympus PL2
kellycook.zenfolio.com/

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