To ensure that you capture your
composition’s entire brightness
range, you need to shoot a series
of images that properly exposes
its darkest and brightest elements.
To gauge the darkest parts of your
composition, use your camera to
spot meter the darkest element—
something with detail—not an area
that’s solid black. Focus on the area
and press the shutter
down halfway; your cam-
era should display the
shutter speed required
for proper exposure—jot
this down. For example,
our camera indicated a
1/2-second shutter speed
to properly expose the
area behind the dragon’s
ear. Do the same for the
brightest detailed ele-
ment—not an area of
total white—and jot down
the displayed shutter
speed; in our example,
the lamp’s surface
requires a 1/750-second
shutter speed.
Now calculate three
additional shutter speeds
between the two so thateach is set equally apart for a total
of five shutter speeds. In our exam-
ple, we calculated our five shutter
speeds to be 1/2, 1/189, 1/376,
1/563, and 1/750. Round to the
nearest shutter speed if values fall
between your camera’s set speeds.2 Gauge the Brightness
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To determine the proper shutter speed to
expose our darkest details, we spot-metered
the area behind the dragon’s ear.
3 Go Snap Happy
OK, let’s shoot. Make sure that your camera and tripod are steady, set your camera
to its Manual mode, check that your aperture setting is still the same, and set the
shutter speed to the slowest speed you jotted down. Then frame your composition
and snap your first shot. Without moving the camera, reset the shutter speed with
the second-slowest speed and shoot again. Repeat this process with the remaining
three shutter speeds, taking care not to move the camera. When you’re finished,
review the five images in your camera—you should see a gradual progression of
exposures without any frame movement. If you detect movement, shoot again.
Our five-shot series shows a range of detail at opposing ends—from some
dust on the dragon’s fins down to the dirty details on the surface of the lamp.