What is exposure compensation?
The camera isn t always right when determining the proper exposure for a photograph. Sometimes for technical reasons – the camera s internal light meter might be fooled by a bright light, for example. And sometimes for artistic reasons – the camera is only a machine and doesn t know what areas of a picture you consider particularly important. So for that reason most EOS cameras have a way of overriding the exposure setting determined by the camera. This is quite often implemented via a rear command wheel which you can rotate to select the number of stops of light to be added or taken away from the camera s default measurement. EOS cameras which lack a rear command wheel, such as low-end EOS models, usually allow you to apply exposure compensation by pressing a back-panel button and rotating the main command dial. For example, since camera light meters assume you want everything to be a medium-light shade of grey it can be a real problem taking a photograph under bright conditions. The
Exposure compensation is adjusting the exposure value of the exposure meter by increasing or decreasing it. You can change the aperture preference and shutter speed to intentionally underexpose or overexpose the image. In Manual mode, adjust the aperture and shutter speed based on the value displayed on the viewfinder or LCD display. Set the scale to + or – to adjust the exposure. The embedded exposure compensation device is mainly used in Auto or Semi-Auto mode. When the value is set using the device, the exposure meter of your camera automatically determines the ‘reasonable’ exposure value for the latest reading. The value on the exposure meter indicates the exposure value after exposure compensation is applied. [Before exposure compensation: reasonable exposure on the exposure meter] [After exposure compensation: +3 stop] Exposure metering and compensation The basic reason why exposure compensation is necessary is related to exposure metering. The embedded exposure meter measures th
