Chapter 3: Measuring the Light

Regardless of what the subject is that you’re photographing, what lens you’re using, or what time of day it is — or for that matter, even if you’re shooting on a dark street in the middle of a rainy night and can barely see the puddle you’re standing in — there is one very important piece of information that you (and your camera) need to know to create a good exposure: You need to know precisely how much light is in a scene. After all, light is the basic element of exposure and until you know how much you’re dealing with, everything else in the exposure sequence is in limbo. So the very first thing that you need to do to get a good exposure is to measure the light.

To measure the light, of course, your camera is equipped with a very sophisticated tool called a light meter that is designed to perform just that (and only that) task. The meter that is built into your digital camera is no run-of-the-mill technological gizmo, either: it’s a modern miniature electronic marvel. If they ever vote for the “Seven Miniature Electronic Wonders of the World,” your meter will be nominated. You can pretty much point your camera at any scene and faster than your teenage kids can text message “Great sunset!” the meter has measured the light and shared the information with your camera’s eagerly-waiting exposure chain of command. Also, while your camera has only one built-in meter, it probably has several different lig....