Exposure Compensation Made Easy!

[Steve]

Exposure compensation – I don’t think there’s another exposure control that causes more confusion. In fact, I think most people are in for a surprise or two when they watch this one!

In this video, we’ll explore every aspect of exposure compensation and knock confusion to the curb. We’ll discuss what it is, what it does, why you need it, what exposure control(s) it adjusts, what to do when it doesn’t work, and when it’s a better choice than manual mode.

And, most importantly, we’ll talk extensively about how to recognize scenes where you’ll need it with tons of examples.

Wanna play that exposure compensation dial like a Mozart played the piano? You gotta check out the video!

 

[Bill G.]

Fantastic video! I highly recommend it to everyone.

 

[Palouse]

This is very informative. This old dog learned some new tricks!

 

[Jamie Baker]

Great video, I definitely learned a few things. Thank you! The little bird in your video is a Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher I believe. From Costa Rica I'd bet.

 

[Steve]

Great video, I definitely learned a few things. Thank you! The little bird in your video is a Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher I believe. From Costa Rica I'd bet.

Thanks - and correct on all counts This one was in the cloud forest and although they are sort of common, I sure do like 'em!

 

[JHud]

Just a silly question: What metering mode are you using to do most of this, especially at the 12 min. mark with the white bird and dark background? And would spot metering eliminate any of that. Need to go back through the book again me thinks!

 

[Jungan]

Fantastic video as always! I especially like the part where you demonstrate the difference between light level and tonality.

 

[Steve]

Just a silly question: What metering mode are you using to do most of this, especially at the 12 min. mark with the white bird and dark background? And would spot metering eliminate any of that. Need to go back through the book again me thinks!

I'm in matrix for everything in the video - however - note that spot metering is far from immune when it comes to exposure errors. In fact, it it's not used properly, it's actually much worse than matrix. Check out this video:

 

[SNEDDERS6666]

Brilliant as always Steve but can you all help me here, please....

Heh Steve this is my constant dilemma. “I trying to not clip my egret wings and neck and I don’t have very much time to start to dial in compensation usually 2/3 of a stop +, shooting against a bright sky” and I do use spot metering most of the time on my 850 and 500 with 500 PF at f5.6 and usually 1/1000 sec is there a quick way to mechanically do this setting change or is it just practice as neither of these bodies have user configurable buttons like my old 750? I hope this make some sense. I am getting better at it but it would be good to know how you do it Steve.

 

[Steve]

Brilliant as always Steve but can you all help me here, please....

Heh Steve this is my constant dilemma. “I trying to not clip my egret wings and neck and I don’t have very much time to start to dial in compensation usually 2/3 of a stop +, shooting against a bright sky” and I do use spot metering most of the time on my 850 and 500 with 500 PF at f5.6 and usually 1/1000 sec is there a quick way to mechanically do this setting change or is it just practice as neither of these bodies have user configurable buttons like my old 750? I hope this make some sense. I am getting better at it but it would be good to know how you do it Steve.

The D850 does have an option for easy exposure compensation, but I believe it only works with Aperture priority and maybe shutter priority (as a M + Auto ISO user, I haven't looked at it in years). That option allows you to quickly change exp comp with a quick turn.

However, in your scenario, I often go full manual mode too so the camera's meter is out of the equation and can't make changes. I'll also favor a slight underexposure to protect highlights and then pull the RAWs back up in post (while protecting the highlight of course).

As a side note, that's one place where Sony really does well - I love their exp comp dial on the top. I just slide my finger over and very quickly have it set. Nikon mirrorless has a nice option where you can put exp comp on a lens function ring - love that one even more. However, Nikon doesn't have any lenses out yet that are long enough with that function ring. When they do, it'll be a game-changer for fast exp changes.

 

[SNEDDERS6666]

The D850 does have an option for easy exposure compensation, but I believe it only works with Aperture priority and maybe shutter priority (as a M + Auto ISO user, I haven't looked at it in years). That option allows you to quickly change exp comp with a quick turn.

However, in your scenario, I often go full manual mode too so the camera's meter is out of the equation and can't make changes. I'll also favor a slight underexposure to protect highlights and then pull the RAWs back up in post (while protecting the highlight of course).

As a side note, that's one place where Sony really does well - I love their exp comp dial on the top. I just slide my finger over and very quickly have it set. Nikon mirrorless has a nice option where you can put exp comp on a lens function ring - love that one even more. However, Nikon doesn't have any lenses out yet that are long enough with that function ring. When they do, it'll be a game-changer for fast exp changes.

Cheers Steve I thought as much. I also only shoot Manual + auto ISO so the shutter priority option is out. I expect I'll just have to keep practicing. I also shoot only RAW and use Topaz Denoise for noise and process in LR and most of the time it turns out well. Thanks again and as always Steve, as your biggest fan thank you so much.

 

[Steve]

Cheers Steve I thought as much. I also only shoot Manual + auto ISO so the shutter priority option is out. I expect I'll just have to keep practicing. I also shoot only RAW and use Topaz Denoise for noise and process in LR and most of the time it turns out well. Thanks again and as always Steve, as your biggest fan thank you so much.

Some of it is anticipation too. Keep in mind that your D500 and D850 are fairly ISO invariant, so even if you're underexposed in the camera, as long as the ISO was low, you can usually pull out a properly exposed shot in Lightroom later (I've done it a few times myself). In fact, here's a shot where exp comp was like -2.5 or something and I easily pulled it up (and this was a D4).

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[SNEDDERS6666]

Some of it is anticipation too. Keep in mind that your D500 and D850 are fairly ISO invariant, so even if you're underexposed in the camera, as long as the ISO was low, you can usually pull out a properly exposed shot in Lightroom later (I've done it a few times myself).

Cheers again Steve. Onwards and upwards and happy snapping and stay safe. Here is one of my recent shots, care to comment?

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[Steve]

Cheers again Steve. Onwards and upwards and happy snapping and stay safe. Here is one of my recent shots, care to comment?

That's a tough one with the light on the back like that. I'd drop exposure and protect those highlight for sure, then bring it back in post.

As a side note, and strictly my opinion, I usually try to avoid 'em flying away.

 

[SNEDDERS6666]

That's a tough one with the light on the back like that. I'd drop exposure and protect those highlight for sure, then bring it back in post.

As a side note, and strictly my opinion, I usually try to avoid 'em flying away.

Yeah I also thought you might say that. I was above it on a small delta river bank and mud flat and it would have been gone by the time I got to the other side, heh ho, that's our lot as bird snappers I suppose. Thank you for taking the time Steve, love the video.

 

[SNEDDERS6666]

Some of it is anticipation too. Keep in mind that your D500 and D850 are fairly ISO invariant, so even if you're underexposed in the camera, as long as the ISO was low, you can usually pull out a properly exposed shot in Lightroom later (I've done it a few times myself). In fact, here's a shot where exp comp was like -2.5 or something and I easily pulled it up (and this was a D4).

View attachment 11055

Wow what a cracker Steve, thanks.

 

[gbodave]

Steve. How much does the use of single point AF and spot metering affect the findings ?

 

[Steve]

Steve. How much does the use of single point AF and spot metering affect the findings ?

None.

Matrix is actually smarter than spot or center weighted and tends to need less exposure comp overall - at least for the stuff I shoot. Spot is still completely susceptible to the same tonality issues matrix is, and often with more dramatic swings since it's only looking at a tiny bit of the frame (i.e. if that part of black or white, it'll be really off while matrix can look at the rest of the frame and maybe get a better result).

 

[gbodave]

Interesting and strange how things work out. I've used single point AF and spot metering in all genres for a long time now and rarely found the need to use exposure compensation - on Nikon cameras.

Since switching to Sony things have become different. I still use single point AF but the different metering options on my Sony give quite different results so I now have to shoot "corrective" shots quite often which takes time and duplicates the effort. Frequently there isn't time for that. Switching metering mode does take probably 2 or 3 seconds - enough time to miss shots. Add in time to adjust EV and that time stretches further.

Because of the way Sony seems to handle metering I took a lot of test shots a couple of months ago in decent light photographing the same scene with all the metering options. In that decent light I found that there were minor variations such that it wasn't worth fiddling about and losing time. However, in poor light, those variations are more marked, although, as I said by and large they are easily sorted in LrC.

The exception is a white bird where water fills the frame behind the subject. I was able to take numerous shots of swans from 10 - 30 yards in cloudy conditions and although the swans came out with full, fine detail, the tendency was to make the water black or near black. Only the Sony version of matrix kept the water truer to it's real colour which wouldn't have been bright anyway. In that situation I wouldn't have wanted to increase brightness using any option and darkening wouldn't have improved anything.

As they say there's always a silver lining in that a photo of a large white bird on a black background is pleasing anyway and something that many contrive to create deliberately with software.

On shots where I just take what the first one gives me, correcting in LrC is no problem so it's debateable to me as to whether "corrective" shots have that much value.

 

[Laurent Dieu]

Thanks for this new video, really interesting as usual

 

[Hermann]

Some of it is anticipation too. Keep in mind that your D500 and D850 are fairly ISO invariant, so even if you're underexposed in the camera, as long as the ISO was low, you can usually pull out a properly exposed shot in Lightroom later (I've done it a few times myself). In fact, here's a shot where exp comp was like -2.5 or something and I easily pulled it up (and this was a D4).

That's one of the really nice things with modern cameras. As long as the ISO is low enough I don't worry about some underexposure. Overexposure is a different matter though.

 

[Steve]

That's one of the really nice things with modern cameras. As long as the ISO is low enough I don't worry about some underexposure. Overexposure is a different matter though.

When in doubt, underexpose a bit (except for the D5/6 - they are not ISO invariant and you can pay a stiff price for more than 1 stop of underexposure in those cameras).