Exposure Compensation

Exposure Compensation can be used to adjust the overall exposure of a picture by very fine amounts. The flexibility of digital cameras means that the exposure of a shot can be checked and adjusted instantly, using the preview screen. The exposure compensation is sometimes represented on the camera screen as Exp or AV+/-. Moving the indicator towards or choosing plus figures will brighten the image, and choosing the minus figures will darken your picture.

There is another exposure compensation setting in most modern digital cameras, and that is the Flash Exposure Compensation. When taking pictures indoors or in low light situations where the flash is required, it is sometimes necessary to adjust the strength of the flash. If the subject is too close when the flash fires they will be overexposed or you will have very bright areas in the picture, these are called hotspots.

Shiny surfaces are notoriously difficult to photo without having shiny hotspots showing on them. Look at the pictures below, both were shot from a range of about 5ft/1.5m. The one on the left was taken using the flash set on auto, and the hotspots are easily visible, around the rim, on the handle and on the rings around the cup. The picture on the right which was taken from the same position with the flash reduced to -1. The hotspots are still there but greatly reduced and the red has more depth.

This is also true when it comes to snapping the human face, areas such as the forehead, nose and chin can easily contain hotspots if the flash is too strong. Practice with different settings at home, and you will soon learn how changing the flash strength will give you better pictures with your particular camera, and of course because it’s digital, you won’t be wasting film.