General Exposure Guide For Digital Cameras

**RICHARD L.** · 06-24-2021, 03:42 PM

Originally posted by dmach47

I shot some more this last weekend and found that the -1.7, -0.7, and +0.3 EV cover just about every image.

Way to go ! You will gain experience and bracketing is an "old pro advice" ... lol !

Regards

dmach47 · 06-28-2021, 09:04 AM

Originally posted by RICHARD L.

Way to go ! You will gain experience and bracketing is an "old pro advice" ... lol !

The newest thing I learned (here, in fact) is that for digital pictures, exposures are essentially free. With bracketing, I'm now shooting SEVERAL "rolls" of film each time I go out. And why not? Memory is cheap. I bought two HUGE memory cards for my K-1ii and I have yet to even get close to filling them on a shoot/hike. I can even preview them on the way home from the hike (let my wife drive). And when I go to print the pictures, I no longer have to worry about the cancer-causing, mind altering chemicals needed to process the film or the prints. My old darkroom can be a bathroom once again.
I LOVE digital photography!

dmach47 · 07-06-2021, 04:17 PM

I'm really amazed how well the -1.7, -0.7, and +0.3 EV bracketing works. I've found "the best image" on all three exposures, depending on the subject. I'm really glad I got back into photography. Now I just need to start making prints...

**rogerstg** · 07-09-2021, 02:18 PM

Originally posted by dmach47

I'm really amazed how well the -1.7, -0.7, and +0.3 EV bracketing works. I've found "the best image" on all three exposures, depending on the subject.

It's a good way to learn accommodations needed for various scenes, but don't let it become a crutch for getting good exposure. Dynamic subjects; animals, groups, etc., are often best shot with a burst to capture nuance and pose. You can't effectively burst shoot while exposure bracketing.

Also, to the extent that exposure brackets are due to changing ISO, the same effect can be had by increasing exposure on post because Pentax sensors are ISO invariant. IOW, if your bracketed shots would be at ISOs 200, 400 and 800, pushing the ISO 200 shot two stops in post would look the same as the ISO 800 photo.

dmach47 · 07-10-2021, 07:50 PM

Originally posted by rogerstg

...Dynamic subjects; animals, groups, etc., are often best shot with a burst to capture nuance and pose....

Good news is I don't use my Pentax for that type of shooting. I have a Pentax P&S for those shots... The K-1ii is just for "nature" shots.

**rogerstg** · 07-13-2021, 08:36 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by dmach47

Good news is I don't use my Pentax for that type of shooting. I have a Pentax P&S for those shots... The K-1ii is just for "nature" shots.

Kudos if you can get this type of sequence with a P&S or while bracketing exposure with your DSLR. I had to rely on a healthy burst to capture such thievery.

CedrusMacro · 07-13-2021, 09:26 AM

I would also say the specific lens and personal taste will impact your under/over exposure. I'm nearly always -1 stop more than anything the camera recommends just to reflect what my taste is.

dmach47 · 07-16-2021, 11:54 AM

Originally posted by rogerstg

Also, to the extent that exposure brackets are due to changing ISO, the same effect can be had by increasing exposure on post because Pentax sensors are ISO invariant. IOW, if your bracketed shots would be at ISOs 200, 400 and 800, pushing the ISO 200 shot two stops in post would look the same as the ISO 800 photo.

That I didn't know. I'll have to look at my shooting, but I thought the camera changed the aperture/exposure to get the bracketing, not the ISO.

**Photos-by-Chas** · 07-16-2021, 05:39 PM

I'm not sure where I stand in this. Recently I attended a webinar about landscape photography where the presenter said for landscapes, expose to the right up to +1 so the details are there without being blown out. Some others I have worked with say ETTR because the details are there but with ETTL the details may be lost.

I copied the photo posted by Richard L. and did a little post on it with PSE because I thought it was slightly oversaturated and the dark areas lacked some detail. I lightened the sky and got some more detail in the light areas. I also removed some haze and brought more detail in the ground area. I will post if Richard permits.

mtkeller · 07-16-2021, 05:49 PM

Originally posted by Photos-by-Chas

I'm not sure where I stand in this. Recently I attended a webinar about landscape photography where the presenter said for landscapes, expose to the right up to +1 so the details are there without being blown out. Some others I have worked with say ETTR because the details are there but with ETTL the details may be lost.

This really comes down to what your gear’s capabilities are, and any presenter needs to emphasize that or stop giving presentations. I personally would never expose based on the shadows since the last couple generations of Pentax cameras do quite well on shadow detail recovery. (Well, except maybe if there’s a critter I’m trying to capture in shadow and I will be cropping off extremely blown highlights in post.) When highlights are blown, they’re blown and there’s nothing there to recover. (Of course, if shooting in raw, the blinkies on your screen are where JPEG clipping has occurred, so if you have just a little, there’s likely no clipping in your raw.) As further indication that Pentax engineers believe protecting the highlights to be critical, the K-3 iii offers us highlight-weighted metering. I’ve found this metering mode to be spectacular for sunrise and sunset shooting, when I typically wind up using exposure compensation to knock things down a couple of stops (even shooting bracketed) and have to waste time deciding on what exposure compensation to set.

**Photos-by-Chas** · 07-18-2021, 06:18 PM

Originally posted by mtkeller

This really comes down to what your gear’s capabilities are, and any presenter needs to emphasize that or stop giving presentations. I personally would never expose based on the shadows since the last couple generations of Pentax cameras do quite well on shadow detail recovery. (Well, except maybe if there’s a critter I’m trying to capture in shadow and I will be cropping off extremely blown highlights in post.) When highlights are blown, they’re blown and there’s nothing there to recover. (Of course, if shooting in raw, the blinkies on your screen are where JPEG clipping has occurred, so if you have just a little, there’s likely no clipping in your raw.) As further indication that Pentax engineers believe protecting the highlights to be critical, the K-3 iii offers us highlight-weighted metering. I’ve found this metering mode to be spectacular for sunrise and sunset shooting, when I typically wind up using exposure compensation to knock things down a couple of stops (even shooting bracketed) and have to waste time deciding on what exposure compensation to set.

Thank you for your reply, you make sense of the subject and that helps me a lot. I'm not really great on the technical stuff and all the little extra hints and ideas that are out there.

dmach47 · 07-20-2021, 07:36 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by rogerstg

Kudos if you can get this type of sequence with a P&S or while bracketing exposure with your DSLR. I had to rely on a healthy burst to capture such thievery.

Even if I put my camera on burst instead of bracketing, I'd likely miss such a shot as I'd be just looking at it going, "Wow!". Afterwards, I'd realize I never even TRIED to shoot it. I'm not good with quick decisions. I tend to stand there with a deer in the headlights look...

That is a great sequence...

**rogerstg** · 07-20-2021, 06:56 PM

Originally posted by dmach47

Even if I put my camera on burst instead of bracketing, I'd likely miss such a shot as I'd be just looking at it going, "Wow!". Afterwards, I'd realize I never even TRIED to shoot it.

I think I might fill a room with great photos if I'd only bothered to take the shot instead of standing in awe. I know the feeling well but never regret being so immersed as to miss the shot. In this case, I took advantage of luck. I'd already confirmed exposure and focused on the stationary eagle eating a fish when I noticed the other eagle's interest. As it unfolded, I only needed to hold the shutter down. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

dmach47 · 07-20-2021, 07:15 PM

Originally posted by rogerstg

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

I think that's true in general....

dmach47 · 07-24-2021, 01:39 PM

Our local Botanical Garden has a "Night Blooms" exhibit where they setup glowing figures, plants, bugs, mythical creatures, etc. at night at the Gardens. I shot some pictures there last night and found that 1) the K-1ii with a 50mm F1.4 lens gathers more than enough light to hand-hold shots of the glowing stuff, and 2) I actually needed to LOWER the exposures to -2.3, -1.3, -0.3 to get images that were not saturated. I am amazed at the low-light capabilities of that camera. It was wild to look into the viewfinder, not see much, take the shot, and then see the image BETTER than it looked in real-life.

The K-1ii is DANG good camera for low-light.

07-13-2021, 08:36 AM - 1 Like	#36
rogerstg Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Rhode Island Photos: Albums Posts: 1,168	Originally posted by dmach47 Good news is I don't use my Pentax for that type of shooting. I have a Pentax P&S for those shots... The K-1ii is just for "nature" shots. Kudos if you can get this type of sequence with a P&S or while bracketing exposure with your DSLR. I had to rely on a healthy burst to capture such thievery. Last edited by rogerstg; 07-13-2021 at 08:44 AM.

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06-24-2021, 03:42 PM	#31
RICHARD L. Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Quebec City, Quebec Posts: 6,573	Originally posted by dmach47 I shot some more this last weekend and found that the -1.7, -0.7, and +0.3 EV cover just about every image. Way to go ! You will gain experience and bracketing is an "old pro advice" ... lol ! Regards

06-28-2021, 09:04 AM	#32
dmach47 Senior Member Join Date: May 2021 Posts: 130 Original Poster	Originally posted by RICHARD L. Way to go ! You will gain experience and bracketing is an "old pro advice" ... lol ! The newest thing I learned (here, in fact) is that for digital pictures, exposures are essentially free. With bracketing, I'm now shooting SEVERAL "rolls" of film each time I go out. And why not? Memory is cheap. I bought two HUGE memory cards for my K-1ii and I have yet to even get close to filling them on a shoot/hike. I can even preview them on the way home from the hike (let my wife drive). And when I go to print the pictures, I no longer have to worry about the cancer-causing, mind altering chemicals needed to process the film or the prints. My old darkroom can be a bathroom once again. I LOVE digital photography!

07-06-2021, 04:17 PM	#33
dmach47 Senior Member Join Date: May 2021 Posts: 130 Original Poster	I'm really amazed how well the -1.7, -0.7, and +0.3 EV bracketing works. I've found "the best image" on all three exposures, depending on the subject. I'm really glad I got back into photography. Now I just need to start making prints...

07-09-2021, 02:18 PM	#34
rogerstg Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Rhode Island Photos: Albums Posts: 1,168	Originally posted by dmach47 I'm really amazed how well the -1.7, -0.7, and +0.3 EV bracketing works. I've found "the best image" on all three exposures, depending on the subject. It's a good way to learn accommodations needed for various scenes, but don't let it become a crutch for getting good exposure. Dynamic subjects; animals, groups, etc., are often best shot with a burst to capture nuance and pose. You can't effectively burst shoot while exposure bracketing. Also, to the extent that exposure brackets are due to changing ISO, the same effect can be had by increasing exposure on post because Pentax sensors are ISO invariant. IOW, if your bracketed shots would be at ISOs 200, 400 and 800, pushing the ISO 200 shot two stops in post would look the same as the ISO 800 photo.

07-10-2021, 07:50 PM	#35
dmach47 Senior Member Join Date: May 2021 Posts: 130 Original Poster	Originally posted by rogerstg ...Dynamic subjects; animals, groups, etc., are often best shot with a burst to capture nuance and pose.... Good news is I don't use my Pentax for that type of shooting. I have a Pentax P&S for those shots... The K-1ii is just for "nature" shots.

07-13-2021, 09:26 AM	#37
CedrusMacro Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2020 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 513	I would also say the specific lens and personal taste will impact your under/over exposure. I'm nearly always -1 stop more than anything the camera recommends just to reflect what my taste is.

07-16-2021, 11:54 AM	#38
dmach47 Senior Member Join Date: May 2021 Posts: 130 Original Poster	Originally posted by rogerstg Also, to the extent that exposure brackets are due to changing ISO, the same effect can be had by increasing exposure on post because Pentax sensors are ISO invariant. IOW, if your bracketed shots would be at ISOs 200, 400 and 800, pushing the ISO 200 shot two stops in post would look the same as the ISO 800 photo. That I didn't know. I'll have to look at my shooting, but I thought the camera changed the aperture/exposure to get the bracketing, not the ISO.

07-16-2021, 05:39 PM	#39
Photos-by-Chas Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Northwest Pennsylvania, USA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,318	I'm not sure where I stand in this. Recently I attended a webinar about landscape photography where the presenter said for landscapes, expose to the right up to +1 so the details are there without being blown out. Some others I have worked with say ETTR because the details are there but with ETTL the details may be lost. I copied the photo posted by Richard L. and did a little post on it with PSE because I thought it was slightly oversaturated and the dark areas lacked some detail. I lightened the sky and got some more detail in the light areas. I also removed some haze and brought more detail in the ground area. I will post if Richard permits.

07-16-2021, 05:49 PM	#40
mtkeller Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2019 Location: Sioux City, IA Photos: Gallery Posts: 938	Originally posted by Photos-by-Chas I'm not sure where I stand in this. Recently I attended a webinar about landscape photography where the presenter said for landscapes, expose to the right up to +1 so the details are there without being blown out. Some others I have worked with say ETTR because the details are there but with ETTL the details may be lost. This really comes down to what your gear’s capabilities are, and any presenter needs to emphasize that or stop giving presentations. I personally would never expose based on the shadows since the last couple generations of Pentax cameras do quite well on shadow detail recovery. (Well, except maybe if there’s a critter I’m trying to capture in shadow and I will be cropping off extremely blown highlights in post.) When highlights are blown, they’re blown and there’s nothing there to recover. (Of course, if shooting in raw, the blinkies on your screen are where JPEG clipping has occurred, so if you have just a little, there’s likely no clipping in your raw.) As further indication that Pentax engineers believe protecting the highlights to be critical, the K-3 iii offers us highlight-weighted metering. I’ve found this metering mode to be spectacular for sunrise and sunset shooting, when I typically wind up using exposure compensation to knock things down a couple of stops (even shooting bracketed) and have to waste time deciding on what exposure compensation to set.

07-18-2021, 06:18 PM	#41
Photos-by-Chas Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Northwest Pennsylvania, USA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,318	Originally posted by mtkeller This really comes down to what your gear’s capabilities are, and any presenter needs to emphasize that or stop giving presentations. I personally would never expose based on the shadows since the last couple generations of Pentax cameras do quite well on shadow detail recovery. (Well, except maybe if there’s a critter I’m trying to capture in shadow and I will be cropping off extremely blown highlights in post.) When highlights are blown, they’re blown and there’s nothing there to recover. (Of course, if shooting in raw, the blinkies on your screen are where JPEG clipping has occurred, so if you have just a little, there’s likely no clipping in your raw.) As further indication that Pentax engineers believe protecting the highlights to be critical, the K-3 iii offers us highlight-weighted metering. I’ve found this metering mode to be spectacular for sunrise and sunset shooting, when I typically wind up using exposure compensation to knock things down a couple of stops (even shooting bracketed) and have to waste time deciding on what exposure compensation to set. Thank you for your reply, you make sense of the subject and that helps me a lot. I'm not really great on the technical stuff and all the little extra hints and ideas that are out there.

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07-20-2021, 07:36 AM - 1 Like	#42
dmach47 Senior Member Join Date: May 2021 Posts: 130 Original Poster	Originally posted by rogerstg Kudos if you can get this type of sequence with a P&S or while bracketing exposure with your DSLR. I had to rely on a healthy burst to capture such thievery. Even if I put my camera on burst instead of bracketing, I'd likely miss such a shot as I'd be just looking at it going, "Wow!". Afterwards, I'd realize I never even TRIED to shoot it. I'm not good with quick decisions. I tend to stand there with a deer in the headlights look... That is a great sequence...

07-20-2021, 06:56 PM	#43
rogerstg Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Rhode Island Photos: Albums Posts: 1,168	Originally posted by dmach47 Even if I put my camera on burst instead of bracketing, I'd likely miss such a shot as I'd be just looking at it going, "Wow!". Afterwards, I'd realize I never even TRIED to shoot it. I think I might fill a room with great photos if I'd only bothered to take the shot instead of standing in awe. I know the feeling well but never regret being so immersed as to miss the shot. In this case, I took advantage of luck. I'd already confirmed exposure and focused on the stationary eagle eating a fish when I noticed the other eagle's interest. As it unfolded, I only needed to hold the shutter down. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

07-20-2021, 07:15 PM	#44
dmach47 Senior Member Join Date: May 2021 Posts: 130 Original Poster	Originally posted by rogerstg Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I think that's true in general....

07-24-2021, 01:39 PM	#45
dmach47 Senior Member Join Date: May 2021 Posts: 130 Original Poster	Our local Botanical Garden has a "Night Blooms" exhibit where they setup glowing figures, plants, bugs, mythical creatures, etc. at night at the Gardens. I shot some pictures there last night and found that 1) the K-1ii with a 50mm F1.4 lens gathers more than enough light to hand-hold shots of the glowing stuff, and 2) I actually needed to LOWER the exposures to -2.3, -1.3, -0.3 to get images that were not saturated. I am amazed at the low-light capabilities of that camera. It was wild to look into the viewfinder, not see much, take the shot, and then see the image BETTER than it looked in real-life. The K-1ii is DANG good camera for low-light.