Setting everything on full auto isn’t always the ideal solutions. Try these tips to get your best shots every time.

Most experienced photographers know the importance of correct exposure. If you overexpose, the highlights are gone irretrievably. If you underexpose, the image will be murky with no true black tone in the darkest area. However, a common attitude among digital photographers these days seems to be, “Oh, I’ll fix it in Photoshop.” Truth be told, I’m sometimes guilty of it too. However, I’ve learned that while you can do some amazing things with Photoshop and other similar software, you can’t make an under- or overexposed image look as good as a properly exposed one.

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Consequently, correct exposure is just as important for digital photographers as film photographers. In the following paragraphs I will be discussing a few tools you can use in order to help you achieve just that. . . correct exposures.

Metering Modes

In general, SLR cameras provide several metering modes (multi-segment, center-weighted, and sometimes spot metering). Multi-segment metering produces good exposures in a wide range of exposure situations. Spot metering, when done properly, can produce the most accurate exposure of all. However, doing it properly takes time and therefore rules out action shots and fast-breaking events.

Bracketing Exposures

Essentially, this means making one shot at the exposure you think is right, then additional shots giving more and less exposure. This helps to ensure you have one good exposure in tricky situations.

Histograms

Most D-SLRs can display histograms on their LCD monitor. This is a graph of tones in the image, with dark tones on the left and bright tones on the right. A well-exposed image will have a histogram that goes from one edge to the other, even if most of the tones are to one side.

RAW Format

You’ve probably heard that you should shoot digital images in RAW format for best image quality. Of course this is a personal choice for each individual photographer but there are several reasons why RAW images can produce better image quality that JPEGs.

1. RAW images are either uncompressed or compressed losslessly while JPEGs are lossy compressed and lose data in the process.

2. RAW images are 12-bit or more while JPEGs are 8-bit. Essentially, that means RAW images provide a lot more material to work with.

3. Nothing is done to the pixels of a RAW image until it is saved as a JPEG or TIFF after processing. When you shoot JPEG, the camera processes it using default or user-selected parameters and saves the image as an 8-bit lossy-compressed file. So each time you save a JPEG there is further degradation of the image quality.

Back in the early days of the digital age, many photographers became lulled into a false sense of security, believing they would be able to fix any exposure problems in Photoshop. This is simply not true. There’s no substitute for getting the exposure right when you shoot. Remember to use tools like spot-metering and bracketing to ensure that you get your exposures right.

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