The Beginners Questions Area

If you go look in the Beginners Questions forum you will see I did start a thread explaining why images look noisy in which I mention exposure*

* exposure - amount of light striking the sensor per unit area while the shutter is open.

Exposure = intensity * time.

This is the proper definition of exposure. Anyone who denies this is the proper definition of exposure does not properly understand it.

Stop hijacking this thread which was not originally about exposure.

Intensity of what? Your blood pressure maybe? judging by the tone of your post 😜

Maybe this is a joke to you but photography is a very serious subject to me and you should not be joking around in a beginner's thread because you are likely to mislead them into believing falsehoods like the exposure triangle and ISO is a component of exposure and exposure is the total amount of light falling on the sensor.

I have answered your glib question in another thread. If you wish further discussion then start a new thread and stop hijacking this one. It is obvious to me that you are afraid to acknowledge that you do not know the proper definition of exposure.

Exposure = intensity x time. That is the definition that works for all forms of photography. Any other definition denies the proper definition.

I would like to address your other improper definitions but first I need to know that you understand the proper definition of exposure. E = I x T.

Intensity of what? I don't believe you know the answer 😉

I am going to continue with

* exposure - amount of light that struck the sensor while the shutter was open
** optimal exposure - the maximum exposure* within dof and motion blur requirements without clipping important highlights.
*** under exposed - more exposure* could have been added with the DOF and blur constraints still being met without clipping important highlights.

I think you must have taken a wrong bus to this forum because if you have a look up you will see we are currently in Open Talk, not the Beginners Forum 😊

I have answered in another thread and am not going to repeat myself here. I cannot be responsible for you being unwilling to look at the other thread which discusses intensity.

Then you will continue to show that you do not know the classic and correct definition of exposure.

I am sorry but I cannot comment on these until I know for certain that you accept the proper definition of exposure, which is E = I * T.

I refer you to this thread:

www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3549399#forum-post-52198438

Please let me know when you have read it.

I too used to use an improper definition of exposure before I had the proper definition shoved through my thick head by people much wiser and more experienced than you or I.

Anyone who denies that E = I * T is clearly a beginner.

I think your post proves my point: You and others are so far removed from being a beginner that you cannot help a beginner.

Arguing over the meaning of Exposure won’t help a Beginner. To me, personally, it is a toxic expression; it’s like holding a hand grenade. Because whenever I’d try to help a Beginner on DPReview, if I used the term “Exposure,” the thread would turn into a dogpile. The Beginner photographers couldn’t get any help because the nerds were too busy trying to impress themselves.

We have the talent and experience assembled here to be the best photography learning resource in the world, but only if we figure out how to focus on the Beginner and Intermediate levels.

No, the automation is being used to simply fill in the blanks for the best complementary exposure settings according to your preset parameters. It always does exactly the “right” thing so you can worry about the manual settings that matter. It’s not deciding for you. You always have the ability to fine-tune with exposure compensation if needed. It’s faster, easier, and you give up zero creative control.

I find that, left to its own devices, automation often does things I don’t want it to do. I use it sparingly.

With automation you always trade control for comfort. That is why people are afraid of AI.

This is a long thread with several somewhat subplots, but if you are talking fixing the shutter speed and aperture, and letting the ISO float then I tend to agree with Jim on this.

I shoot BIF, and I consider BIF against blue sky as more documentary than anything, so I shoot against scattered background. So in constant light, if I'm panning against a scattered and varied background, if I go from a light background to a dark background, with floating ISO, the exposure will change where it should not have.

It's really not that hard to use M. A subsequent post says something to the effect that you're giving up something for the convenience of letting the floating ISO determine "an exposure" (not necessarily a correct one) Similar to me getting lazy and using my 200-500 instead of my exotic long primes. You give up something.

Edit: Another member said "With automation you always trade control for comfort."

I think I have a fundamental disagreement with that. I disagree that “Nailing Exposure” is the most important thing, it’s “Nailing Lighting.” More to the point, it’s about learning how to see light and seeking out good light.

When the lighting is poor, the photo is no good, and it doesn’t matter how you twist the dials.

In my current pursuit, concert photography, the lighting is always poor, and you have to create ways to position yourself to optimize the result. And you have to twist the dials a lot.

To summarize: When the beginner asks about exposure settings, we should steer the discussion to lighting. With modern sensors, the Aperture and Shutter controls are more about controlling blur.