Photography Tip - Range of Light

One of the most important things is to know when you look at a scene is how it is going to look coming out of the camera.

The camera sees things VERY differently than your eyes do and the difference is in the RANGE of light the camera can capture vs what you see with your eyes. Your eyes can see a range of about 16 stops of light. The camera can see a range of light that is 6 to 8 stops.

As you can see in the chart above...there is a grand difference! That cloudy sky you can see all the detail in with your eyes is completely WHITE to the camera. The shadows you can see detail in are completely black. There are a lot of tools to deal with this in the way of filters and software but it is important to be able to look at a scene and know whether the camera can capture it as you see it. Lets take a look at some images!

Recommended Cameras:

Nikon D500 | Nikon D3300 | Canon EOS Rebel T5 | Sony A7RII | Canon 7D Mark II

In the above shot you can see my son, who has been raiding my camera bag since he could crawl. He is in the shade and I have an exposure set for the shade. There in the background we have a sunlit area that is completely blown out. There isnʼt any real trick you can do here to get all this into the camera because that sunlit area is more than 2 or 3 stops brighter than where I have my exposure set. If you expose for the sunny area, you get this....

These are the only choices you have here. You can get one or the other. So, something simple to keep in mind when composing in the viewfinder is to keep the light even. If you have a subject in the shade make sure when you are composing that the background is in the shade as well. If you donʼt you get a bright background that is pretty distracting....

But pay attention to the light and change the angle a bit so you are seeing only a shady background and you get a much more pleasing image!

NIKON Prime Lenses	CANON Prime Lenses	SIGMA Prime Lenses
Nikon 24mm f/1.4	Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II	Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX DG
Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.4G	Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM	Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM
Nikon 35mm f/1.4G	Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L	Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM
Nikon 85mm f/1.4G	Canon EF 85mm f1.2L II	Sigma 85mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM
Nikon 300mm f/2.8G AF-S ED	Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS	Sigma 300mm f/2.8 EX DG IF

A great way to learn how the camera sees is to shoot in manual exposure mode. Set a correct exposure on your subject in manual mode and then point the camera at what you are planning as a background. If that meter spikes up and is telling you that you are overexposed by a couple of stops...that is going to be one bright background. You can then change your angle or move your subject so that they and the background are in a range of light the camera can capture!

All My Best,
Chris Hurtt
Instructor/PPSOP.com
www.ppsop.com

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