The brief here was to find a strong color and compose so it dominates the frame. I did this with a tree I've had my eye for quite some time, a mammoth, bush-like growth just behind my apartment building. Using a tripod, I set the camera in P mode, and shot 6 exposures - the first what the camera suggested, and then using the exposure control, 5 additional images with decreasing amounts of exposure. The afternoon sun was over my shoulder.
Some oddities resulted.
First, the exposure suggested by the camera is overexposed. Secondly, as I decreased exposure in steps, or clicks of the wheel (as it is designed on the Nikon D5100), I produced images that were increasingly underexposed. This much is obvious. Curiously, though, the data attached to the images suggests something different, that two sets of images are identically exposed (1/250 - f8.0, and 1/320 - f9.0).
I guess I'll have to post to my tutor and to the forum and see what brighter minds might suggest.
In any case, the effect is quite clear here, not only in the green of the tree, but in the blue of the building and in the sky.
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RESHOOT: 19 Jan 2013
After advice from Duncan over at the OCA photo forum, from Lucy below, and waiting for a free afternoon (I typically work in the hours this tree is sunlit), I reshot this assignment with perhaps more typical results. Images were captured via tripod in Aperture Priority mode. All other variables were constant. The outcome is much the same - reduced exposure produces a darker, richer color. This is equally noticeable in the tree and the sky.
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Hi Jeff.
ReplyDeleteWhat ISO did you use for these photographs? What metering mode did you use?
I find that there is often a slight variation between images when using my Nikon D80 (with 3D matrix metering). I assume this is because the camera has picked up on different parts of the scene to measure exposure - I notice your images are all slightly different, with varying amounts of building and traffic. I wonder if this influenced the camera? Also, even on a sunny day I guess the light still varies a bit.
It's very interesting and I think I will have a play around with my camera settings a bit more in future to try to understand better what's happening..
Lucy, thanks for taking the time to comment. ISO in all these images was 100, but after you asked I noted I had spot metering engaged. Perhaps this was the problem. As you pointed out, there was some slight shitting of the camera, and this probably resulted in moving the metered spot, and thus the exposure. Silly me. Thanks for asking!
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