Chapter 5. Essential Photography Concepts
In This Chapter
Exposure
Understanding depth of field
Exposure compensation
For some of you, this chapter contains well-known concepts, while for others, it is a good refresher. Some of this information may even be brand-new if you are just stepping into the world of dSLR photography. If you are an advanced user, you may choose to skip this chapter, although you may discover some new information or something you may have forgotten. This chapter covers information on exposure, the effects aperture has on depth of field, and some tips and hints on how to use histograms, bracketing, and exposure compensation.
Exposure
The exposure is the basis of photography. In basic terms, exposure is the amount of light that falls on your sensor (or film). Note that the term exposure doesn't necessarily mean the amount of light that's needed to expose your image properly. There are good exposures and bad exposures. Whether an exposure is good or bad also depends on the subject and the photographer's artistic vision. Underexposures and overexposures are usually considered "bad," unless the effect it has on the image is good — then it falls into the good exposure category. Basically, it boils down to the fact there is no such thing as a bad exposure so long as the exposure works for the image in question.
An exposure is made of three elements that are all interrelated. Each depends on the others to create a good exposure. If one of the elements changes, the others ...
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