Understandin

PDATED

How to Shoot Great Photogra Any Camera

BRYAN P E T E R S O N

UNDERSTAND NG EXPOSUR3RD EDITION

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UND

How to Shoot Great Photggraphs with Any Camera

BRYAN PETERSON

AMPHOTO BOOKS

AN IMPRINT OF THE CROWN PUBLISHING GROUP/NEW YORK

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Clearly, I would not have the successful author's lifewithout the full support of the following people who,for reasons perhaps known only to them, just keep onbelieving in me: Victoria Craven; Julie Mazur; and myincredibly patient editor, Alisa Palazzo; and Bob Fillie,the best darn graphic designer in New York!

Page 1: 70-200mm lens at 120mm, ISO 100, 1/3 sec. at f/14Pages 2-3: 28-70mm lens at 28mm, ISO 200, 2.5 seconds at f/8Page 5: 28-70mm lens at 32mm, ISO 200, 1/13 sec. at f/14Pages 6-7: 17-55mm lens at 20mm, ISO 125, 1.6 seconds at f/2.8Pages 8-9: 12-24mm lens at 14mm, ISO 100, 2 seconds at f/5.6Page 10: 17-55mm lens at 22mm, ISO 125, 6 seconds at f/14Pages 12-13: Nikon D2X, at 15mm, ISO 100, f/4Pages 40-41: 70-200mm lens, ISO 100, f/22 for 1/125 sec.Pages 78-79: 70-200mm lens at 175mm, ISO 125, 1/320 sec. at f/2.8Pages 100-101: 75-300mm lens at 300mm, 1/60 sec. at f/16Pages 144-145: 12-24mm lens, nine-exposure multiple exposure

with Lee Sunset filter

Copyright 1990, 2004, 2010 by Bryan Peterson

All rights reserved.

First published in 2010 by Amphoto Books,an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,a division of Random House, Inc., New York.www.crownpublishing.comwww.amphotobooks.com

AMPHOTO BOOKS and the Amphoto Books logo areregistered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataPeterson, Bryan, 1952-

Understanding exposure : how to shoot great photographswith any camera / Bryan Peterson. 3rd ed.

p. cm.Includes index.ISBN 978-0-8174-3939-2 (pbk.)

1. PhotographyExposure. I. Title.TR591.P48 2010770.28-dc22

2009043770

Printed in China

Design by Bob Fillie

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Third Edition

5|1

Every photograph is a lie, but it is within that lie that a mountain of truth is revealed!And the climb toward that mountain of truth is greatly accelerated

when one's steps are rooted in the simple understanding of exposure.

-BRYAN F. PETERSON

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NTRODUCTIONn a recent field workshop, one of my studentsgot wind of the fact that I was writing stillanother revision of Understanding Exposure:"Are you seriously writing another revised edi-

tion of Understanding Exposure?'Considering I was working on the third edition, my ini-

tial response was a simple one: "You bet I am! And youknow what they say, the third time's the charm!" His ques-tion was certainly a fair one, and my response was not anattempt to be flippant nor did it suggest that the first twoattempts had fallen short of the markquite the contrary,in fact. I'm incredibly humbled by the sales of both the firstand second editions of Understanding Exposure. And soperhaps the better question might be, "Why mess with awinning formula?" To be clear, I am not messing with thewinning formula, but since the release of the second edi-tion of Understanding Exposure in 2004, a great deal ofchange has taken place in the photo industry, and unfor-tunately, those changeschanges that imply a positivemessage about exposurehave, in fact, created even moreconfusion among photographers.

Still, I'm pleased to say that the formula (or what I callthe Photographic Triangle) for successful exposure hasnot changed one iota since the inception of photography-or since I wrote the first edition of Understanding Expo-sure back in 1990despite the digital age we're now livingin, and will be living in for what I'm guessing is years andyears to come. A correct exposure was, is, and will alwaysbe a combination of your choice of the right size hole inyour lens (the aperture), the right amount of time thislight is allowed to remain on the digital sensor (the shutterspeed), and sensitivity to light (the ISO).

Back in the day, the pinhole camera proved to be aterrific tool for recording an exposure; it was much like alightproof shoe box that held a piece of light-sensitive filmand had a hole in it, and as far as I'm concerned, the digitalcameras of today are nothing more than lightproof shoeboxes with a piece of light-sensitive "film" (the sensor)inside. Granted, they don't look like lightproof shoe boxes,but they perform in much the same way as those first cam-eras, albeit with the ability to record a single image a bitfaster.

And yet despite these similarities, there are severalreasons why I find it necessary to update UnderstandingExposure yet again. Since 2004, when the second editionwas published, the Digital Age was, in many respects, in itsinfancy. Now that the Digital Age has grown up, it's alsofair to say that more shooters than ever beforeespeciallythose who are just starting out in photographyare moreconfused than ever before, and for this, I hold the cameramanufacturers responsible.

In manufacturers' attempts to make so much of thepicture-taking process automated, the once-simple man-ual cameras of yesterday are, in fact, today reminiscentof the cockpit of a Boeing 747. And I don't know aboutyou, but I find the cockpit of a 747 amazingly intimidat-ing! The once-straightforward shutter speed dial on thecamera body and the aperture dial normally found on thelens have taken a backseat to dials that are crammed with"features" such as Landscape mode, Flower mode, Portrait

mode, Aperture Priority mode, Action Sequence mode,Sports mode, Group Portrait mode, Shutter Priority mode,and Program mode. There's even a Bee on Flower mode!

Combine all of that supposed automation with autoWhite Balance, auto ISO, and auto Flash, and you've gota huge recipe for frustration. Attesting to the frustrationare the many shooters who've discovered that automationworks only sometimes and only with some subjects. As mye-mail in-box shows on a daily basis, there's nothing worse

12-24mm lens at 14mm, ISO 100, 2 seconds at f/5.6

(or perhaps more embarrassing) for beginning photogra-phers than when they're asked, after taking a really niceimage, how they did itand have absolutely no clue!

I recall with vivid detail one photographer who trulyhad a remarkable eye. She had only been shooting withher new Nikon D300 and her 18-200mm zoom lens foreleven months, yet she was receiving a great deal of atten-tion from her peers. As the attention increased, so did thequestionsnamely, "How did you expose for that?" or

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