Exposure Compensation: Manual Control For Automatic Modes

Exposure Compensation: Manual Control For Automatic Modes

"No collection without compensation." - Jeff Rich

     "What??? A manual control for my automatic mode?!" Yes, I know, it doesn't make any sense. But after you've read a little further, it will make perfect sense and you auto-people will be glad you read this. It essentially gives you a very basic control over exposure when shooting in any of the semi-automatic modes: Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, or Program. But first, let's go over some basic stuff about making an exposure. 

      A photograph is made using 3 different methods of light capture at the same time: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO speed. The aperture controls how much light enters the camera at one given moment. The shutter speed controls how much time passes while light is entering the camera, and the ISO speed is a measure of how sensitive to light the film or digital sensor is. In manual mode, you have the responsibility to control each one so that it works in harmony with the other two and provides you with a properly exposed photo.

     When you're using the camera in an automatic mode, like Shutter Priority for example, you set the shutter speed to a desired amount and the camera changes the aperture and ISO speed accordingly to achieve a proper exposure based on what the light meter sees (which also involves the metering mode you've selected). In most normal environments, and aside from setting the shutter speed to a very fast or very slow setting, the resulting image will be no different than if you set the camera to full auto. So what if you're in Shutter Priority, and the camera does it's calculations and you end up with a picture that's too bright? If you increase the shutter speed, the camera will automatically compensate by choosing a larger aperture or higher ISO speed, and you'll get the same exposure again.

The "Av +/-" button on a Canon T5i

     Well, this is where exposure compensation can save the day. If your using a Canon camera, and it's not of professional grade, you'll likely have an "Av +/-" button on the back somewhere near where your right hand thumb sits. While in one of the automatic shooting modes, press this button (and hold it down) and turn the wheel with your right index finger. You should see the little bar on the light meter inside the view finder change position. It will go up to let you know that the camera is "seeing" more light, and down when it "sees" less light. The scale will show from -2 up to +2, and this is telling you by how many stops the light is changing. So, if your image is too bright, press the "Av +/-" button and turn the wheel to the left to lower the exposure. On pro grade camera like the 5D models, you would instead just turn the rear wheel without pressing any buttons first. 

     I wish there was more to say about exposure compensation, but it's a pretty simple in theory and in practice! If you normally shoot in one of the semi-automatic modes, this will be something you use a lot. If you always shoot in manual, well... you know.

     Hey thanks for reading guys, I do hope you've learned something. If you like my little blog project, please share it with your friends and click the little social media icons below the articles. It would mean a lot! If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below!

Back That Thang Up! : Hard Drive Backups

Back That Thang Up! : Hard Drive Backups

"Storing files on a computer without any backup is like putting all your eggs in one basket, and then throwing it off a very high cliff. They may be safe for a while, but eventually things will get messy." -
T.E. Ronneberg

     So first off, I'd like to apologize for such a late post. I was out of town for work and when I got back, I discovered that one of my hard drives had failed while I was gone. Thankfully, I'm a good boy and I backup my hard drives regularly! So it was only the loss of an $100 hard drive and not the loss of thousands of irreplaceable photos.
     Backing up your stuff on external drives is so easy, simple and valuable, there's really no good reason for you to not be doing it. And with the prices of hard drives consistently dropping, it doesn't hurt your wallet either.

     There's a couple different ways to backup your photos, and while some techniques are bit more advanced, they can also be more robust in features. Without going into lengthy detail on each option, here's a list of the more common ways to backup your photos and some general info about each one:

    * RAID Array Setup This is where multiple hard drives are used together as one storage device. There's different methods for configuring the drives, and each method has it's own benefits. For example, some configurations allow for better performance than one hard drive could provide, while other configurations allow for data redundancy that a single drive could not provide.      
    * Automatic Backups I know it's more of a general term, but what I'm referring to is the software that sometimes comes included with the purchase of a hard drive. Essentially, it automatically stores changes made in a specified folder onto a backup drive. Very handy if your not interested in messing around with backups all the time, as it does it all on it's own. As with anything these days, there's several different companies that make the software, and you'll have to do some research to find one that fits your personal needs.
    * Drive copying This is pretty much what it sounds like... You copy the contents of one drive onto another drive. As an exact duplicate of the original files, this is usually the safest way to backup, as there won't be any proprietary file formats to contend with in the future. However, this is also the most time consuming.
    * Cloud storage backup Putting your photos and videos out there into the great interwebs is an option with serious pros and serious cons. The good part is that it's offsite storage so that if something should happen to the physical location of your hard drives, you have another copy safely waiting thousands of miles away. This could be a real life saver in the case of theft or fire or something like that. The bad part is that those hard drives "in the cloud" could be hacked by mean people that like to steal personal data. Maybe you have nothing to "hide", but doesn't it make you feel a little uncomfortable to know that your trusting a company that's trusting employees who are trusting third parties who are trusting their employees who are trusting other employees and so on?  It's easy for Carbonite or Dropbox or whoever to say "your data is secure", but does any one person really know that that's true?
    * Burned DVDs Two words: SLOW & SAFE.
    * Thumb Drives This is a great option in my opinion, because it focuses on the photos that really matter. With this backup method, you don't copy every single photo or file on your hard drive, but instead only copy onto a thumb drive the pictures from the important shoots or the big events.This is also meant to be a temporary storage solution for short term extra backup until your other drives get settled. Then it can be erased after a week or two without worry.

     When I need to copy and backup new photos, what I do is copy directly from the camera to the primary storage drive. This is the drive I access when working in Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I then copy again directly from the camera to a second drive that acts as a mirror to the primary drive. The reason I copy directly to both is that if there happened to be an error while copying to one drive, the error (hopefully) would not be likely to occur on the other drive during the second round of copying. Whereas if I only copy directly to one drive and an error occurs during copying, then duplicate that drive, then I have two bad files! This has happened to me several times, which is why I always copy directly to two different drives. After that's done, I convert the raw images to large JPGs and upload them to Flickr in a private folder. This way, if my two drives fail, I at least have high quality JPG versions to turn to.

     I know my method isn't as fancy as some other photographers, but it's cheap (2 WD My Passport drives for $99 each), it's completely under my control, and I have the 3 copies. Perhaps if gigantic loads of money start falling into my lap, I might upgrade the configuration a bit, but I don't think it's really necessary. Well that's it... hard drive backups. Don't be lazy or you'll be sorry! Get some drives, and start copying!

     As always, thanks for reading, and I really hope that you find some helpful information in all my rambling. If you have a comment or question, I'd love to hear it! Just below, there's comment boxes, and social media links, and even a cool survey! Have fun!

Photo Walks: Take A Hike!

Photo Walks: Take A Hike!

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

     I'm sure you've all heard about photo walks, but have you all participated in one? If not, you should. It's loads of fun, and you can end with some really cool pictures you'd have never thought to make otherwise! There's all different kinds of photo walks too: 

• Themed walks - Maybe the idea is to walk down a busy road and only take pictures of cars
• Group walks - You'll likely find a group on Flickr, if not check the Community section on Craigslist
• Solitary walks - You're walk'n solo. No pressure, very relaxing....
• Objective walks - For example, minimum of 100 pictures, no round objects, no red objects, etc.
• Make one up! - Be creative, be limiting, and stick to it! Your brain will work harder to make it happen!

     These are some pictures I made just this morning on a quick photo walk through my neighborhood. It's not award winning stuff, but it helped me to get the day rolling and I made some images I've never made before.

     Again, you can go with a formal photo walk group, maybe bring a friend along, or just go by yourself. There's also the option to drive more than you walk; essentially, you drive to random locations around town, get out and take pictures for a little while, drive to another location, and on and on... This can be bad on your gas mileage, but great for your practice. It also allows you to find new locations for shooting later. This how I find a lot of the spots that I take models for photo shoots. Just be careful about where your driving, parking, and walking. There's a lot of people & businesses that don't like having photographers around.

     Well that's the post for this week. I was out my own photo walk, and thought it would be good to remind you of how fun it can be...so get out there and start walking! As always, thanks for reading, and leave a comment about how you go about your photo walks!