In my summary I mentioned two critical photographic tools that we will get right into.
The first is middle gray and the second the histogram.
Middle gray is the first concept I want you to learn because it is the foundation on which anything to do with photographic exposure is built.
So what is middle gray? Well, if you think of a landscape in terms of the lightest tone to the deepest tone, then middle gray would be the middle tone of those two extremes.
One might think that middle gray is simply gray, the middle between black and white, but that would be inaccurate in the real world of photography.
Middle gray is simply the tone that is in the middle of a particular scene, no matter what kind of light is present.
You might have a high contrast scene or a very low-key scene with low light; middle gray might be different in each case.
So why does this matter to my photographs? It matters a great deal and this is why.
Your camera has a meter in it.
That meter tries to read the light of the scene you are pointing your camera at so you get great looking exposures.
Now the interesting things is that light meters, like the one in your camera, use the concept of middle gray to help you get a good exposure.
In simple terms it reads the light of a scene and determines the middle tone of that scene.
The way it determines this may vary from camera to camera, or meter to meter, but the goal is the same; to determine what the middle tone is for that scene, and give you an exposure setting automatically or manually for a good exposure.
If the camera meter gets the right middle tone then, theoretically, all other tones fall into place and look natural.
This all sounds easy until you realize that light meters are not human, and they are not foolproof.
For instance, one possible challenge for a meter might be that some bright highlights reflecting off a mirrored surface may fool the meter into thinking that the light is brighter than it actually is.
In turn the meter will determine the wrong tone for middle gray and give you the wrong exposure.
In this case the photograph will probably be too dark.
That is just one example of a real world problem your camera might have determining a good exposure in AUTO setting.
There are thousands of ways a camera meter can be fooled.
If you know even a little bit about middle gray it will help you help your meter and ultimately get better exposed photographs.
The Histogram Now before we end this I just want to talk a little bit about the histogram.
Almost every digital camera I have ever seen has a histogram feature in it.
The histogram is a graphic representation of the light in your photograph.
Look at your camera manual to see how to view your histogram and make sure it's on in your camera.
You might see the histogram only after you take a photograph or you may be able to see a histogram before you take the photograph.
Seeing the histogram before you take the photo is called a live histogram and it's very useful for metering purposes.
The graph shows the photographic information in your photograph from the lightest tones to the darkest, and how much of each tone you might have in a particular photograph.
If the information is contained in between the left and right side of your histogram you are, at the very least, safe from extreme over or under exposure.
That said, it does not mean the exposure is spot on.
Understanding your histogram in conjunction with middle gray is a powerful duo as far as metering light and great exposure is concerned.
So we have the concept of middle gray and the histogram.
They both work together to help you gain control of your photography and get great looking exposures.
This short article is not sufficient to explain it all, but hopefully it let's you know that it is an important lesson to learn.
In my thinking it's the single most important lesson or skill you can learn about the technical and metering part of photography.
Leaning it will set you free and give you control of your camera no matter how you might use it.
You can continue to learn about it all the in the tutorial guide called Finding Middle Gray at the link below.
The first is middle gray and the second the histogram.
Middle gray is the first concept I want you to learn because it is the foundation on which anything to do with photographic exposure is built.
So what is middle gray? Well, if you think of a landscape in terms of the lightest tone to the deepest tone, then middle gray would be the middle tone of those two extremes.
One might think that middle gray is simply gray, the middle between black and white, but that would be inaccurate in the real world of photography.
Middle gray is simply the tone that is in the middle of a particular scene, no matter what kind of light is present.
You might have a high contrast scene or a very low-key scene with low light; middle gray might be different in each case.
So why does this matter to my photographs? It matters a great deal and this is why.
Your camera has a meter in it.
That meter tries to read the light of the scene you are pointing your camera at so you get great looking exposures.
Now the interesting things is that light meters, like the one in your camera, use the concept of middle gray to help you get a good exposure.
In simple terms it reads the light of a scene and determines the middle tone of that scene.
The way it determines this may vary from camera to camera, or meter to meter, but the goal is the same; to determine what the middle tone is for that scene, and give you an exposure setting automatically or manually for a good exposure.
If the camera meter gets the right middle tone then, theoretically, all other tones fall into place and look natural.
This all sounds easy until you realize that light meters are not human, and they are not foolproof.
For instance, one possible challenge for a meter might be that some bright highlights reflecting off a mirrored surface may fool the meter into thinking that the light is brighter than it actually is.
In turn the meter will determine the wrong tone for middle gray and give you the wrong exposure.
In this case the photograph will probably be too dark.
That is just one example of a real world problem your camera might have determining a good exposure in AUTO setting.
There are thousands of ways a camera meter can be fooled.
If you know even a little bit about middle gray it will help you help your meter and ultimately get better exposed photographs.
The Histogram Now before we end this I just want to talk a little bit about the histogram.
Almost every digital camera I have ever seen has a histogram feature in it.
The histogram is a graphic representation of the light in your photograph.
Look at your camera manual to see how to view your histogram and make sure it's on in your camera.
You might see the histogram only after you take a photograph or you may be able to see a histogram before you take the photograph.
Seeing the histogram before you take the photo is called a live histogram and it's very useful for metering purposes.
The graph shows the photographic information in your photograph from the lightest tones to the darkest, and how much of each tone you might have in a particular photograph.
If the information is contained in between the left and right side of your histogram you are, at the very least, safe from extreme over or under exposure.
That said, it does not mean the exposure is spot on.
Understanding your histogram in conjunction with middle gray is a powerful duo as far as metering light and great exposure is concerned.
So we have the concept of middle gray and the histogram.
They both work together to help you gain control of your photography and get great looking exposures.
This short article is not sufficient to explain it all, but hopefully it let's you know that it is an important lesson to learn.
In my thinking it's the single most important lesson or skill you can learn about the technical and metering part of photography.
Leaning it will set you free and give you control of your camera no matter how you might use it.
You can continue to learn about it all the in the tutorial guide called Finding Middle Gray at the link below.
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