Many beginners often find their photographs are either underexposed (too dark) or overexposed (too light or white). However, there is a way to manually change the exposure to compensate for them being darker or lighter.
Underexpose it.
The first thing you'll notice in an amateur night shot is the lack of detail on lights and signs due to over exposure.
underexposed
film or emulsion that has been exposed for less than the recommended time, or at full time with a weak light source, or with a light source that is positioned too far away.
Underexpose. To expose film to too little light. Underexposing film produces a transparency that is too dark.
Underexpose the Ambient Light
Think of your ambient exposure as your background exposure.
Underexposed image
The histogram indicates there are a lot of pixels with value 0 or close to 0, which is an indication of "clipped shadows". Some shadow detail is lost forever as explained in the dynamic range topic.
Underexposed image (too dark) due to strong backlighting - Take photo from another angle. Or should have locked in focus and exposure on the darker area, then recompose.
Underexpose a bit with backlighting to highlight the outline of a furry creature, or go the other direction and overexpose a portrait for a high-key effect.
Underexposed and drab colour shots can looking striking when converted to mono, here's how to do it.
<><>
Master striking black and white conversions in Photoshop ...
An underexposed image will be too dark, shadow areas will lose detail.
Unsharp Masking ...
So an underexposed image will have a shape that flattens out well before the end of the horizontal axis. An overexposed image will look like a share price that's doing really well.
A dark underexposed image with few light tones.
LPI:
Short for lines per inch; refers to the frequency of horizontal and vertical lines on a halftone screen.
Conversely, underexposed negatives are produced when not enough light has been in contact with the film. Underexposed film will have more dark spaces that are poorly defined.
In severely underexposed pictures, you lose details in the shadows. In severely overexposed pictures that result in blown highlights, you lose details in the highlights.
An underexposed image or area; the opposite of Dense.
Through-the-Lens Meter (TTLM)
An in-the-camera meter that can, in the case of video, adjust the iris as you shoot. It performs sophisticated readings of virtually everything except your mind.
If your image is underexposed simply open it in your Photoshop software, from the menu tab select Image, then Adjust, and finally Brightness/Contrast where a slider feature will allow you to manually adjust the images.
Figure 1 shows an underexposed image of a leaf. The image appears dark, and the colors are muted.
Figure 2: Histogram of Leaf Image ...
Color picking the underexposed lower right corner we have 182R-179G-166B for a sight warm overall color balance.
Silkypix Developer Studio
Color picking the underexposed lower right corner we have 209R-201G-181B for warm overall color balance.
The foreground is underexposed but the sky is correct
The camera's automatic metering set the aperture to f/10 and shutter speed to 1/250 second which recorded the sky correctly as a light blue with bright white clouds.
A negative that is underexposed or underdeveloped (or both). A thin negative appears less dense than a normal negative.
Through-the-lens (TTL).
Preventing Dark (underexposed) Photos
Photography lesson on preventing dark, or underexposed, photos.
Readers Respond - Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Point… ...
The Histogram of an Underexposed Photo
Ok, now let's look at the histogram of an underexposed photo. You can see a spike in the shadows that starts with a peak on the left of the graph. That means that the picture has lost data in the shadows.
I never arbitrarily underexpose scenes unless I find through testing that a camera and its meter are consistently giving me too much exposure-and that's no different than when I shot film. And I admit that I've made mistakes in this area.
The caption for the underexposed photo says the values are skewed to the right. I think it should say that they are skewed to the left.
Otherwise, very nice! ...
When you are in doubt about the correct exposure for a negative type of film, it is always better to overexpose than underexpose.
Warning: When underexposed 1 stop (1600) it gets grainy and difficult to color correct.
Has 4th color layer.
Fuji Superia 1600:This is a different film and my favorite.
To illustrate why, let's start with a sample photo that is underexposed. The image and its histogram are shown below on the left.
If the image is overexposed, the colors look washed out and if it's underexposed, they look muddy. Check the histogram at the time of capture to verify the pixels don't bunch up at either end it.
When the subject is backlit or against a bright background, it can be underexposed. Fill flash is also a good way to get accurate color balance under unusual lighting.
If you shoot digital it's better to underexpose the shot, as underexposure is easy to correct later on in software.
But there is a huge difference with marginal exposures of the underexposed kind.
Don't meter to the brightest spot of the scene - this would lead to underexposed results. Try to find a place which has to be exposed right but always think of the limitation of the metering system.
In-camera, do everything you can to get strong highlight detail -- underexpose, bracket, shoot RAW; whatever you can and whatever it takes.
Develop a "B/W negative.
If your film is processed normally, all images will be underexposed. You must tell your lab how many stops each film was pushed. What the lab will do is push process the film for additional cost to correct exposure. Pushing film has its draw backs.
The first is underexposed because, as explained in detail in the article, the meter is calibrated to measure an 18% grey mid tone and render that on the film. Hence the snow becomes an underexposed light grey instead of pure white.
Notice that, overall, this image is dark and underexposed looking. The clouds are pretty well exposed, but the image is not very usable unless the clouds are the primary subject.
Film has great exposure latitude; meaning that you can over- or underexpose and still get a very useable image.
If you have noticeable grain or speckles on your film-derived prints it's very probable that your negatives are highly underexposed (ie: they were not exposed to sufficient light).
It's obvious that if you work in low levels of light you will have darker (underexposed) images
unless you compensate in some way for the lower light. But what may not be obvious to the ...
Most of the cameras underexpose a little. That means you have to move the Midtones slide somewhere to the 3/4 (closer to the right) However some of your images could be overexposed (already too bright).
Many photographers use a rule of thumb for shooting digital that's slightly inaccurate, but it's a good on-the-fly guide for quick digital photography: Shoot your images slightly underexposed.
One main advantages is latitude, or the ability to produce a good image from over- or underexposed negatives. Slightly overexposed digital images can lose all data in the highlights, and underexposed images will lose significant shadow detail.
Take the classic contrast test: a glorious east window as a backdrop to the choir and high altar - either the window is correctly exposed with the high altar underexposed, or vice versa. You can’t have it both ways… or can you?
What you will see after processing your film is a series of the image, from (probably) rather underexposed to (again, probably) rather overexposed.
(Sometimes an exposure meter or light meter is "tricked" into providing settings that will underexpose or overexpose an image, for example, when the subject is relatively small in a field of bright, white snow.
In the old high school and college days we used to push Tri-x to 1200, underexpose another third of a stop and shoot wide open with a f/stop of f/1.4 or f/ 1.
Take three exposures - The camera tends to underexpose the shot if the candles are included, since it sees them as a bright spot.
(Latitude is the amount by which a film can be over or underexposed and still produce a reasonable image). Fast film has a coarser grain (and hence lower definition), lower contrast, but more latitude.
Too much light can create an overexposed image while not enough light can result in an underexposed photograph. An overexposed photograph is lighter than it should be and an underexposed photograph is darker than it should be.
Note: If your image is slightly over or underexposed the histogram will spike at one end of the graph i.e.
When exposing a jet against a clear blue summer sky, automatic camera settings will often properly expose the sky, and leave you with an underexposed plane.
Chemical treatment for adding density to an underexposed or underdeveloped negative or print.
If you underexpose the shot the colors will be more saturated and if you overexpose slightly, they'll have a more pastel appearance. I tend toward underexposure simply because I like richer colors. Don't know if you should under- or overexpose? BLH! ...
Thin
A negative that is underexposed or underdeveloped and therefore appears less dense than a normal negative. A thin neg will need a harder paper to print correctly.
(see Contrast, & Papergrade ) ...
When the subject is light-toned (a snowy landscape, for example), the camera tends to underexpose. The image may be too dark. Conversely, if your subject is very dark-toned (a black cat, for example) the camera is likely to overexpose.
Sunsets. Try sunset shots over a body of water. Underexpose these shots and photograph rapidly as the sun dips quickly into the horizon. Try focusing on a subject in front of the sun and keeping the sun out of focus for different results.
Here the scenes were underexposed to silhouette the people in the foreground. To show detail in the people, exposure would have had to have been increased two stops(+2).
Use your camera's exposure-compensation feature to underexpose by a half or a full stop for more saturated color bands.
The Digital Push gets its name from the "push processing" technique: The photographer underexposes the image, but then later instructs the photo-lab to "push" the film by leaving it longer in the processing chemicals.
D-Lighting A function built into several Nikon D-SLRS and into Nikon's Capture NX2 imaging program that allows you to brighten subjects that have been underexposed or enhance the contrast of an overexposed subject.
 See also: Camera, Image, Light, Exposure, Photograph
|
