For this exercise I had to take a series of exposures based around the exposure that my cameras meter deemed correct and then decide which exposure I prefer.
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| Under Exposed by 1 Stop |
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| Under Exposed by 1/2 Stop |
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| Correct Exposure |
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| Over Exposed by 1/2 Stop |
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| Over Exposed by 1 Stop |
In the above set of images of a Hydrangea flower the under exposed pictures are definitely too dark, the so called correct exposure has nice colour saturation, but is still a little to dark. I feel the 1/2 stop over exposed has just the right amount of brightness and saturation, any more exposure and the flower starts to lose texture.
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| Under Exposed by 1 Stop |
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| Under Exposed by 1/2 Stop |
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| Correct Exposure |
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| Over Exposed 1/2 Stop |
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| Over Exposed by 1 Stop |
In the series above although the under exposed pictures have greater saturation I feel that the higher exposure images suit the style of shallow depth of field picture. The flower centre is also much more colourful and the lighter petals draw your eye from the outside of the frame towards it.
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| Under Exposed by 1 Stop |
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| Under Exposed by 1/2 Stop |
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| Correct Exposure |
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| Over Exposed by 1/2 Stop |
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| Over Exposed by 1 Stop |
In this set of portrait photographs the under exposed images are too dark and the 1 stop over exposed is too light and has started to lose detail in the skin. The correct exposure has nice skin texture and the 1/2 stop over exposed has a good brightness to it, and because of this it is my favourite of the five exposures.
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| Under Exposed by 1 Stop |
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| Under Exposed by 1/2 Stop |
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| Correct Exposure |
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| Over Exposed by 1/2 Stop |
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| Over Exposed by 1 Stop |
As you can probably tell from the series above I am no landscape photographer, the 1 stop under exposed is too dark and has lost detail in the trees. The over exposed images suffer from burnt out and loss of detail in the lightest areas. Of the two pictures left I prefer the extra saturation of the slightly under exposed one.
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| Under Exposed by 1 Stop |
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| Under Exposed by 1/2 Stop |
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| Correct Exposure |
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| Over Exposed by 1/2 Stop |
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| Over Exposed by 1 Stop |
The three lighter exposures of the tree above suffer from major burn out and loss of detail in the sky. Of the two under exposed pictures I prefer the almost complete silhouette of the full stop under exposure.
I think this exercise has been very interesting, in that, it shows there is no correct exposure for any subject, a lot is down to personal taste and what the original artistic intention was when the picture was taken.
Deciding how I want the final picture to look at the moment of taking, exposure wise, and not leaving it to my cameras meter is obviously a skill I am going to work hard at to make it second nature.
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