How to turn okay outdoor photos in the Sun to nice photos? It is easy. Just use Exposure Compensation or meter it on the dark object!

How to turn okay outdoor photos in the Sun to nice photos? It is easy. Just use Exposure Compensation or meter it on the dark object!

Here is the original photo:

Photo in Auto mode

As the photo was too dark in the Auto mode, I used Exposure Compensation and set it to +1.5

Here are new photos! 

New photos with Exposure Compensation of +1.5

The Sun can make or break your photos! Use it to your advantage!

Some parents and I were taking photos of kids in my son's school on Super Hero day. We wanted to

capture kids wearing super hero clothes. To get better light on the face, the natural instinct was to have kids face the Sun. However the morning Sun was coming in the eyes and kids were barely able to keep eyes open. See the first photo below. One could barely recognize any kids. It was a disaster.

To get better photos, I asked kids to keep the sun on the back so they can keep the eyes open. However, as there was significant back light, I knew the photo will be very dark. So I quickly changed Exposure Value compensation on my Samsung Note 4 phone. As the bell had rang, kids were rushing to get back into the close so I didn't have lot of time to fine tune exposure. I just move it to some positive value and took the shot. As you can see below, the photo came much better. YOu can see kids and their super hero t shirts better. It is not a perfect photo but it would work to share with other parents and save the photo for memory

Isn't Trial and Error photography easy and effective?

Learn this simple button- EV compensation/ Exposure Bias

Many times when you take photos, they come out dark and people's face are also too dark (especially on a beach or in snow) or sometimes faces get washed out (particularly when background is a bit darker).

Camera is a machine and many times, it doesn't understand what is in front of the lens. It is programmed (particularly in AUTO mode) to take say x amount of light (light is measured in Lumen but it is hard to interpret). So on a beach when everything is too bright, camera tries to take in x amount of light but that is too less to properly expose human faces. That is the reason we look darker on a beach, on snow or on a bright day. Opposite happens in evenings or in dull light. Camera tries to take in x amount of light but that exposes the faces too much causing people in the photo to be washed out.

Probably you are not aware but somewhere on your camera, you will see this icon or a button with + and - minus sign as shown below. It is called EV (Exposure Value) button or Exposure Compensation button.
Please note that some cameras don't allow EV compensation in AUTO mode. If this is the case, hopefully, your camera has P (Program) mode and you can use it with EV compensation.
Sometimes it is also referred to as Exposure Bias. Click on it and it will open up a scale or a value on your LCD.

You will see a number with + or - sign or a scale which has a value bar with values from -3 to +3 or -2 to +2 as shown below. Which scrolling button or with directional control buttons on your camera, you will be able to select any plus or minus values.



So what is the big deal about this?

By selecting a value here, you can tell your camera to take in more light or less light! This can come very handy to brighten up those dark faces or make those washed out faces more pleasant!!

To tell camera to take in more light, select any positive value. Don't rush to select too high of a value because that can wash out the whole photo! Start with +.3 or +.7 and camera will take in 30 to 70% more light. This can help get people nicely exposed in your photos.

To tell camera to take in less light, move the slider/value in the other direction. Start with -.3 and your camera with take in 30% less light!

To show this with some images, I shot the moon in the sky with my camera with different EV values or Exposure bias. With 4 different images, I can pick the one that comes out better. Probably I could have take photos of people on beach to show this more effectively. However with these photos of the Moon, you can see how camera takes in less light with my pressing of the EV button!

Luckily my Pentax K-01 took the right exposure in the AUTO mode but take out your camera tonight and try to take a photo of the Moon in Auto mode. Mostly it will be washed out. Then start with negative EV values and at some value,  you will have a nice capture of the Moon!

It is not the camera that always takes good photos! Many times it is a little help from the cameraman that helps camera take a nice photo.

Underexpose Your Indoor or Low-light Photos- A Better Photography Tip.

Many times in low light or for indoor photos, your compact camera or your kit lens on SLR may not take nice sharp photos. It is not your camera's fault. It happens because light is low so to get enough light in, camera has to keep the shutter open for longer time (slow shutter speed). Most cameras have lenses which don't open much wide open beyond their hardware limitation so Aperture/lens opening is not much of an alternative. So camera has two things to play around with.
1) Either keep the shutter open for longer time or increase ISO. Higher ISO can result in noisy image. Most compact cameras have distinct noise for ISO higher than 400. For ISO above 1600, most images are unuable. However if you really want to capture a photo, this ISO can come handy.
2) If shutter is kept slow so enough light can get in, this can result in camera shake in your hands or the subject in front of you can move too. This results in blurry or shaky image. Normally any shutter speed slower than 1/75 second can result in blurry image.

One more solution in such situation is to use Exposure Compensation and tell your camera that it is okay to take in a little less light. This will cause your photo to be a bit darker but camera will be able to use a bit faster shutter speed or a lower ISO. A bit darker photo then can easily be fixed in Picasa or any image editor software.

Underexpose your photos to -1/3 value or if in dark, you can even try with -2/3.

How to take underexposed photos:
* Take a bit underexposed photos. For indoor and in low light (and many times outdoor too), I use EV (Exposure Value) Compensation on the camera.

This is the button with +/- sign on it.

 I mostly keep it set at -1/3 value. Click on this button on the camera:

Then move the scrolling button or left and right arrow to set the value to -1/3 as shown in image here.

What is the benefit of doing this?

This setting tells your camera that it is okay to have a little bit darker image. This helps camera to take in less light so camera a can use a little lower ISO or a bit faster shutter speed. This causes the image to be a bit less noisy or it reduces camera’s shake or movement of the subject a bit lower as camera shutter speed is likely to be faster.

The drawback is a bit darker image. When I move such photos to my camera, I make the photo a bit brighter in Picasa.

The other logic behind this is that an underexposed photo (a dark photo) can be easier to fix in post-processing on the computer than an overexposed photo. In an over-exposed photo, if some detail is lost, sometimes you can’t bring it in but if the photo is under-exposed, you can probably add some light and make it look better.

Remember one more thing. We are talking about low light or indoor photos. As you might have read in earlier posts, one good alternative is to add some artificial light or use camera flash. Your camera will love this and with more light around, it will be able to take better photos easily. If with flash, the face is washed out, as it often happens with compact cameras, you can use the same Exposure Compensation and ask camera to take less light in. This will avoid washed out photos in flash photography too.

Enjoy your camera. Actually, your camera can take better photos even in tough light if you are willing to help it a bit.