Exposure & meteringSpend the first morning at home getting to grips
with your Nikon's exposure and metering systems
What you’ll learn
How predominantly
light or dark scenes will
affect your Nikon’s
metering, and so the
exposure of your shots,
and then how to use
exposure compensation
to correct it.What you’ll need
White, grey and black
card or thick paper
(one sheet of each),
plus a small subject,
such as a flower, to
place in front of it.1 | Explore basic metering and exposure
TAKE IT FURTHER
Press the playback button
to review the first image that
you shot for the previous
exercise. You can change the
display mode by pressing
the top or bottom of the rear
control pad, which will scroll
through the various options
available. The most useful
option for assessing theexposure is the histogram
display, which shows you a
graph of all of the tones in
the image. The horizontal
axis indicates the tones,
from pure black at the left
to bright white at the right.
Ideally you want the body
of the graph to fall between
these extremes. If the graphis over at the left-hand end,
with a gap to the right, then
the image is under-exposed.
If it’s at the right, with a gap
to the left, it is over-exposed.
However, the exact shape
and distribution of the graph
will be different for subjects
that contain a different
range of tones.Go through the images
that you shot for the
previous exercise, and you
will find that the histogram
for the image of the subject
against the grey background
is all bunched in the middle,
with a peak in the centre of
the graph. This is ideal, as
this indicates that the greybackground has been
recorded as a mid-tone.
Move on to the first image
shot against the white
background and you will find
that the histogram appears
similar to the first one, but
as the background should
be white, this indicates that
the shot is under-exposed.Discover the histogram playback feature
With your camera
set to aperture-
priority exposure
mode and matrix
metering, and an aperture of
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the frame with the grey card,
t hen s w itc h you r Ni kon to
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Repeat this with the white and
black cards. You will see that
all three images your camera
produces are grey, rather than
grey, white and black. This is
because the metering system is
c a l ibrated to e x pec t most scenes
to contain a range of tones,
which will average out to grey.
Next, place your small subject
in front of the grey card, buten su re t hat it on ly t a kes up a
small area of the card. Position
your Nikon in front of your
subject and card – putting it on
a tripod will make it easier to
ensure that the framing of the
card and subject doesn’t change
during the shoot. Adjust the
zoom setting so that the card
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focus on the subject. Take a shot
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that the subject and the card
are perfectly exposed.
Replace the grey card with
the white one and take another
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that the white card is recorded
as a grey tone in your shot, and
the subject is under-exposed. Tocorrect this you will need to
increase the exposure by using
the exposure compensation
feature. Set the exposure
compensation to +1, and take
a shot, then set it to +2 and take
another one.
Finally, replace the white
card with the black one, reset
the exposure compensation to
zero and take another shot.
This time the black card will
cause the camera to over-
expose the subject as it tries to
record t he c a rd a s g rey rat her
than black. To correct this you
need to reduce the exposure by
setting exposure compensation
to a negative value. So, take a
series of shots at -1, -2 and -3.30
minsWHITE CARD, NO COMP WHITE CARD, +1EV WHITE CARD, +2EV26 March 2016 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
MASTER YOUR NIKON
IN A WEEKENDDAY 1 | MORNING