Adjusting Exposure

As you’ve seen, there are many creative options to weigh and decisions to make when you choose an exposure for an image. For example, you might know that you want a shallow depth of field, so you will select a wide aperture. However, perhaps your images include many dark-colored objects that you feel need to be underexposed. At this point, you would probably choose to adopt a shorter shutter speed, rather than a smaller aperture, to preserve your shallow depth of field. Of course, if there are some fast-moving objects in your scene you were hoping to blur, you’ll have to consider just how much you can speed up your shutter speed. All these different factors must be weighed and balanced.

Once you’ve made your decisions, you can begin to use your camera’s settings to adjust your exposure accordingly. Fortunately, even if you have a less-expensive camera, you probably have enough controls to make some simple adjustments.