AYWMC: Part 1: Technical, Lesson 1: Intro. to Exposure

 This post is part of a series entitled A Year With My Camera.

 

Lesson 1.1 in my own words: 

• Exposure - the amount of light in a photograph. Overexposed photos appear too light; underexposed photos appear too dark.
• 3 things control exposure: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO
• In auto or program mode, the camera is programmed to adjust exposure to an approximate overall tone of 18% gray. This may or may not be correct (or what the photographer wants).
• Overall tone - the average of all the tones in an image. To assess this, the camera is programmed to interpret color in black and white. From this, it automatically adjusts exposure to equate 18% gray.

This week's project: 

With the camera in auto or program mode, take two photos. For one, fill the camera frame with solid black (paper). For the other, fill the entire camera frame with solid white. Aim for the same lighting for each, with no shadows, highlights, or reflections. 

photo of black posterboard

photo of white posterboard

What I learned: 

The project illustrates the lesson! That the camera will default to a mid-tone gray when dealing with color. Interesting.