essential skills: digital photography in available light
Extreme contrast
In an attempt to previsualize the fi nal outcome of a scene with a high brightness range, many
photographers use the technique of squinting or narrowing the eyes to view the scene. This
technique removes detail from shadows and makes the highlights stand out from the general
scene. In this way the photographer is able to predict the contrast of the resulting image. If the
photographer fails to take into account the image sensor’s limited capabilities both shadow detail
and highlight detail can be lost. It is usual for photographers to protect the highlight detail in the
exposure and fi ll the shadow detail with additional lighting.
In many instances when the photographer is expected to work quickly it is all the photographer can
do to notice the extreme brightness range and make quick judgements from experience to alter
the exposure. The least appropriate exposure in extreme contrast situations is often the exposure
indicated by a camera’s TTL meter. This average exposure may not be suitable if the subject or
detail is located in the deep shadows or bright highlights. In these instances the photographer
must override the exposure indicated by the meter and either open up (increase exposure) if
shadow detail is required, or stop down (decrease exposure) if highlight detail is required.
In the photograph above the lighting contrast between the noon sun and the shadows was too
great to record using the JPEG format. Increased exposure over the indicated meter reading was
required to capture the shadow detail.
ACTIVITY 5
Create an image where the tonal range of the subject will exceed the tonal range that can
be recorded onto the image sensor. Indicate whether the exposure has been increased or
decreased from the TTL meter indicated exposure.Mark Galer