Basics of Photography: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed

Basics of Photography: Exposure Value

Exposure Value (EV)

the term exposure value refers to the relationship between: aperture: the amount of light that the lens lets through to the sensor shutter speed: the amount of time that the sensor is exposed to the light ISO: the sensitivity to light of the sensor the term 0EV refers to a photograph that has a pleasing exposure: a good balance between highlights and dark areas nothing too dark, nothing too light: no image loss in either direction colour is strong throughout the gamut

Exposure Value (EV)

the term exposure value is a relative term there are many combinations of aperture, shutter and ISO that can achieve 0EV

1/800 @ f2.8 @ ISO 200

1/400 @ f4.0 @ ISO 200

1/200 @ f5.6 @ ISO 200

1/125 @ f8.0 @ ISO 250

1/125 @ f11.0 @ ISO 500

1/125 @ f16 @ ISO 1000

1/125 @ f22 @ ISO 2000

Exposure Compensation (+/- EV)

the term 0EV can be confusing photographers can use the term to refer to a perfect exposure Camera manufacturers use 0EV to refer to a picture that has had no exposure compensation dialed in many scenes that you will want to photograph will contain portions that are brighter or darker than the rest of the scene ie: that have different light values in the same scene

Exposure Compensation (+/- EV)

DSLRs contain light meters that examine every portion of the scene, and try to give you a 0EV photo based on what the camera guesses is the most important part of the scene ie: the camera tries to create an exposure that averages out any drastic differences in light values sometimes, however, the camera guesses incorrectly this is why the camera has a built-in exposure compensation that you can easily set

Exposure Compensation (+/- EV)

+EV means that you are overexposing your image you are allowing more light to be exposed to the sensor, either through a wider aperture or a slower shutter, or you are making the sensor more sensitive (ISO )

-EV means that you are underexposing your image you are allowing less light to be exposed to the sensor, either through a narrower aperture or a faster shutter, or you are making the sensor less sensitive (ISO )

Exposure Compensation (+/- EV)

when we decide to compensate the exposure we often we dont know what the perfect compensation will be

so we bracket our exposures

bracketing refers to the practice of taking the same picture while methodically moving through a series of EV compensation values typically we begin by underexposing and then working upwards towards overexposing

0 EV

-3 EV

-2 EV

-1 EV

0 EV

+1 EV

+2 EV

+3 EV

0EV

-0.3 EV

+0.3 EV

+0.7 EV

+1 EV

1/60 @ f13 @ ISO 200 @ -0.6 EV