There are two sides to underexposure.
Theres a technical side, where you can look at a photos histogram a graphical representation of tones in the picture and see if the darker tones have been cut off, or clipped.But theres visual side too, where a picture just looks darker than you intended.
Thats a creative choice thats not always the same as getting a picture technically right.
Sometimes you want a picture to look dark and moody because it suits the subject, and sometimes you want an image thats airy and light for the same reason.So how does underexposure happen, and what can you do about it when it doesHow your cameras exposure system worksCameras have very sophisticated ways of measuring the light in a scene.
They try to anticipate the kind of thing youre photographing and how you might want it to look, but they dont always guess right.For example, if youre taking a portrait shot with a sunset in the background, the camera has to guess whether you want a silhouette, with your subject in darkness, or whether you want your subjects face properly exposed and the background washed out.
In fact it could be either.
Theres often no single correct exposure for a scene because it all depends on what you want that particular picture to look like..Shots taken into very bright light are a very common cause of underexposure, though different cameras may be able to intelligently compensate for this, so it depends on your camera.
But theres another cause of underexposure intrinsically light-toned subjects.Image 1 of 2Here the camera's meter has underexposed the shotImage 2 of 2and here's an alternative shot that's been compensated manually In-camera light meters have a key limitation; they can only measure the light reflected from your subject, not the amount of light generally.
So if youre photographing a snow scene or a bride wearing a white wedding dress, the camera will simply measure a high light value and reduce the exposure to compensate.
It has no way of knowing these things are meant to be a bright white.
This means those brilliant whites you wanted to capture will come out a muddy, underexposed grey.So this is another common cause of underexposure.
The camera thinks its got a technically correct exposure, but you know it hasnt because your its your subject thats bright, not the lighting.This is where you have to step in.
Ultimately, its up to you to say how bright or dark you want each picture to look, and sometimes you have to compensate manually when the camera gets it wrong.How to override your cameraYou can use your camera's exposure compensation dial to correct for your camera's meteringThis might sound a lot more difficult than it actually is.
With digital cameras you get to see the picture you just took on the screen straight away, and if it looks too dark you can simply increase the exposure and take the picture again.The simplest way to do this is with the cameras EV (exposure value) compensation control.
You can usually increase the exposure in 1/3EV increments, but often it takes an increase of +1EV or more to make a big difference.Phones operate on a similar principle.
It does depend on the camera app youre using, but in general you can tap on an area of the screen to focus and set the exposure, then use a slider to increase or reduce the exposure set by the camera.If you want to get scientific about it and you have a more advanced camera, you can use manual exposure, try different metering modes and techniques or use the cameras histogram display to get a technical readout of the distribution of tones live as you compose the picture.Can you fix underexposure in softwareImage editing programs like Lightroom allow you to easily correct underexposed imagesYes and no.
If its a small amount of underexposure then its easy to fix in almost any photo-editing app.
But if a picture is seriously underexposed then its likely that some of the darker areas will be clipped.
If you check the image histogram and see that its abruptly chopped off at the left-hand side, thats whats happened.
When this happens, theres just no detail available to bring out, and those darker areas are going to stay a solid black or, if you push the image too far in software, they might turn into an even more unpleasant muddy grey.Thats why its important to get the exposure as close as possible in-camera.
The more you use your camera, the more youll get to spot those situations where its likely to underexpose.ZHBygQBBf3Y7V4eMHEmCP6.jpg#