Dialling down on exposure

[Grockle]

On another thread that I don't want to hijack, Diego Garcia said to try dialling down on exposure, not using exposure compensation.

I take it this means closing down the aperture by a couple of stops or even lowering the ISO by a couple of stops. What difference will this make compared to using the exposure compensation method?

 

[Joe T]

You can only do this in manual mode. It will have a similar effect as exposure compensation, except that you will be able to define exactly how the shutter speed and/or aperture are affected.

 

[Diego Garcia]

Correct - it yields more control for you as a photographer especially when metering bright against dark. Much better than ex comp as this lowers the whole scene, resulting in flat images that lack contrast and in my experience you cant bring em back.

Nice one.

 

[towershot]

And when you do it in manual you will not forget as you change for most shots.
In any other prog and exposure compensation you could forget (like I did in Italy for fifteen wasted and over exposed shots):shake:

 

[HoppyUK]

If "dialling down on exposure" means reducing exposure, it makes no difference whether you do this by adjusting manual settings or by adjusting exposure compensation. By either route, you can alter shutter speed, aperture, ISO, or a combination of all three to get the same result.

All I would add is that this seems to go against the general rule of when in doubt 'expose to the right' which means you increase exposure and push the data towards the right hand side of the histogram, provided you don't over-expose of course. There is loads more image data in the lumens-rich right of the graph, than is there is on the lumens-poor left side which is also where noise lives, so in post-processing you can extract the maximum dynamic range.

Here's a link: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

Regards,

Richard.