‘E’ is for ‘err… a bit of a delay since the last in this series, however I’m back on it now!

So ‘E’ firstly is for ‘exposure’. Do you understand what exposure means and is determined by on your camera? Let me clarify/simplify it a little for you. Three main things determine the exposure of shot:

Aperture – discussed under ‘A’
Shutter speed – will be discussed further on
ISO – or your cameras sensor speed and sensitivity.

‘Over’ exposed mean your image has had too much light allowed in and the results will be too bright and ‘under’ exposed means just the opposite – not enough light allowed in resulting in your image being too dark.

If you leave your camera on ‘auto’, this decides on the above three settings for you, according to the composition you are framing up. Understanding how to gain a good exposure also involves getting your head round your cameras metering – which I will cover further on.

Have attached a couple of very random examples of both over and under exposed images.

Over exposed

Better exposed.

Under exposed.

Better exposed.

‘E’ is also for ‘expressions’ – in my opinion capturing a natural expression in people photography, is what rates a successful image and one that people will like of themselves, whether it’s smiling or serious. There can be a very fine line between a truly natural expression in a person and the one that displays a degree of tension, stiffness, or just not appearing quite comfortable. This is why many people like images of themselves when they didn’t know a photograph was being taken and their attention was elsewhere. Many many times, I see people become quickly uncomfortable as soon as a camera is produced!

So consider this, among other reasons, it can be a self perpetuating thing. You see an image you don’t like of yourself and next time you’r e in front of a camera, consciously or not, tension creeps in and you don’t know where to look or how to be – indeed, you may put on a brave face, but inside are wishing the whole process was over… and it shows! So you see yet another image of yourself you’re not particularly happy with and so it repeats itself – you just resign to thinking you don’t take a good photograph.

But, who was in charge of the camera, did they try to put you at ease and guide you how to stand/pose? The feeling ‘uncomfortable’ only likely crept in when the camera appeared (unless you were already not in the best of moods)!

People are a lot more photogenic than they think!!