Now that the British summer has settled into its true weather pattern: changeable - often cloudy with outbursts of rain - there is the opportunity to capture dramatic scenes at either end of the day.
Today's photograph was made at 5:21am before the sun had risen and to get a sharp image I have to press the camera against a makeshift jamb - in this instance a convenient flagpole.
Now, light levels at this time of day are low, and most camera metering systems will try to average-out a scene to give what it thinks is the best exposure, but this is not always the case. This is where the photographer steps in. Had I left the camera to its own devices I would have ended up with a rather bland image of Bournemouth Pier, albeit with a dramatic sky. So I switch to manual control and take a meter reading from the beach. This is the basis for my exposure, but I then modify it by setting the exposure compensation to give two stops less exposure than the meter reading. This produces an image far closer to what I saw at the time, not what the camera designers deem correct.
There is no such thing as "correct exposure", although for the majority of photography modern metering systems produce results far superior than your best guess. It's at either end of the day when the sun is below the horizon that the system needs the most help.
24-70mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor. 1/15 second at f/8. ISO 640. - 2 stop EV compensation.
© 2010
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