Stunning nature and landscape photography – getting the exposure right is essential

Getting the exposure right is essential for any quality nature photo.

Exposure is the amount of light that is let into the camera and contributes to the photograph that is recorded. A good exposure has the right amount of light to produce a balanced shot.

Light is the key word here. Letting in the right amount of light can be tricky, but luckily our cameras have automatic features that measure it. Some cameras allow a manual function, which means that we can manipulate the amount of light that reaches the camera. If we allow too much, the photo is overexposed, which means the image is too light and washed out. Details become difficult to see in an overexposed image.

Similarly, if we let in too little light, the photo is underexposed. This means that the image is darker than it should be. This makes the photo look gloomy and gloomy, but underexposing is better than overexposing. Because? Because the image can be lightened later and the detail will still be there, whereas in an overexposed image the detail cannot be salvaged because it was never captured in the first place.

Your camera will have a function to adjust the brightness. This is symbolized by the + or – symbol, which normally allows you to adjust the light by 3 stops in either direction. You have to do this before taking the image. So, for example, you might take a picture of a tree and decide that it’s too bright because of the sun. So you should change the exposure to -1, then take the photo again and see if it helped. If it’s still too bright, you can turn it down to -2 and see if the shot is satisfactory.

This is sometimes called bracketing. When you take the same shot but with different exposures from -2 to -1 to 1 to +1 to +2, this is bracketing. It gives you the option to choose the best photograph of the group.

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Metering is how your camera decides the correct exposure. Your camera’s meter measures the amount of light in the area where you are taking the picture. Ideally, the camera will capture a mid-tone area that is neither too dark nor too light, so that the light is balanced. When you shop for an SLR camera, you’ll be given a few options on how to size your images.

There is ‘center-weighted metering’ or ‘average metering’. This means that the camera will take an average of the light in the scene. Most cameras focus on the center of the photo, while some take the edges into account. Since the focus of an image is usually in the center of a frame, this produces a good overall result.

Multi-zone metering is also known as ‘matrix metering’. This method calculates multiple areas of the scene to get the best exposure, typically from multiple points. Cameras from different brands will differ in results.

Then there is ‘spot metering’. With this method only a small area of ​​the viewfinder is measured, typically a ‘spot’. For best results, you should move the point into a mid-tone area to get an even amount of light.

The advantage of spot metering is that it is very accurate and can be precisely controlled. It’s good for tough scenarios, for example when we have a bright light beam, then very dark areas. Too great a contrast between dark and light confuses the camera. Average metering would assume the entire scene was bright and would measure incorrectly. With spot metering, we can choose a gray area so that the camera doesn’t overestimate the light and compensate accordingly.

A good way to get familiar with spot metering is by choosing the function and aiming it at different areas of the same scene and taking pictures. Then compare how the choice of different areas affects the final image.

Most professionals will choose spot metering for landscape photography as it gives you more control.

Where speed is important, matrix metering is useful as it involves less guesswork.

Flash

Flash is commonly used with point-and-shoot cameras, but is used with caution in landscape and wildlife photography.

The flash is normally attached to the camera body. When the camera detects low light, the flash appears automatically, though you can manually adjust the setting to stay low.

If you need more power, you can buy a flash head separately. This is common in press and fashion photography, where they spend a lot of time working at night or indoors and need to be able to capture evenly lit images when there’s a lot of action going on without the risk of blur or bad lighting.

Flash is useful in a night situation. If there’s no other light source, you’ll need to use the flash, although you can use creative techniques like delayed flash to capture some movement and light trails.

However, in general, the effect with the flash can be harsh. It is also not suitable for reflective surfaces such as mirrors, as it will return bright light back to the camera. For landscape photography, you need to know how to turn off the flash, especially if you’re using a slow shutter speed for the specific blur, as the camera will want to use the flash automatically.

The flash is useful in extremely dark situations as a fill light. This is called fill flash and is used when there is a bright sun behind the subject and all that is left is the silhouette of the subject. Using the flash will bring detail back to the image.