This first article on this page "Exposure" has several sub-topics that help you understand what photographic exposure is and why it's important. I've tried not to let it get to technical.

The second article "Lighting" explains things you can consider and do with regard to the lighting in your scenes to help you get good exposure in your photos.

The third article "Photographing a shiny object" gives you guidance on the difficult task of photographing something shiny.

Exposure:

Spending the light to dark range of your film:

Any film you can put in your camera has a specific range of light to dark it can capture. Setting the exposure for the image you capture on your film is the way you decide how to spend the basic light to dark range capability of your film on that image. I say spend because you had to pay for your film and that capability was part of what you paid for. If you waste its light to dark range you’re wasting some of the money you spent and some of your effort taking the picture. The best approach to this in general is to try and make as many of your pictures as you can using a normal exposure. There are some cases where the range of light to dark in the scene you’re photographing is greater than the film can capture. There are many fine books available that will provide you with much more detail on learning how to recognize and cope with these situations.

What’s an F stop?:

An F stop is a measure of exposure; one F stop, or stop for short, is changing the amount of exposure that your film gets by either 2 or 1/2. So if you increase exposure by one stop you have doubled the amount of exposure. If you decrease exposure by one stop you have cut the exposure in half. Two stops would likewise be 4 times or 1/4, and so on.

The Right Exposure:

Each film has a right exposure that is the correct amount of exposure that will produce "Normal" results according to the manufacturer. Exposure has two parts: First is how bright is the light shining on the film. Second is how long was the light shining on the film. Since exposure is made of these two parts there a lot of combinations of how bright and how long that will give the correct exposure. It’s sort of like pouring water into a measuring cup both how fast the water is running and how long you let the water run into the cup determine how much water you get. Film manufactures tell you how much exposure the film requires for a correct exposure by the ISO film speed number that’s printed on the film box and on the film cartridge. So an ISO 100 film takes a certain amount of light to make a normal exposure. The good news is that you don’t need to worry about the actual correct exposure of a given film. That knowledge is built into your light meter or your cameras exposure sensor. one handy thing to note here though is that numbers having to do with film exposure work by 2s or 1/2s. For instance, let’s say just for talking purposes, that the amount of exposure the ISO 100 film requires for a correct, "normal", exposure is equal to 1 cup of light. An ISO 200 film rated the same way would require only 1/2 as much exposure or 1/2 cup of light. Similarly an ISO 400 film would require only 1/2 the exposure that the ISO 200 film required or 1/4 cup of light. So the ISO 400 film only requires 1/4 the exposure required by the ISO 100 film, or in other words the ISO 400 film is 4 times more sensitive than the ISO 100 film. Now, of course, you can’t measure light in your measuring cup, but the numbers work out like that. The normal is in quotes above because in actual practice some people decide that they are going to change their personal definition of what normal is and choose to slightly over or under expose their scenes as a matter of preference on a given film, or experience with something, etc. This ISO number is also often referred to as the film speed. Films with higher numbers are then referred to as "faster" than films with lower numbers. This is because for a given brightness of light, the light will need to shine on a fast film for less time than it would need to shine on a slow film to get a correct exposure.

Many cameras have the capacity to allow the user to adjust exposure. One way this is done is by changing the shutter speed. This changes how long light shines on the film. A common range of shutter speeds is from 1/2000 of a second to 2 seconds. So the user can adjust the time that light shines on the film with in that range, but in a set of fixed speeds. These are typically: 1/2000, 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, and 2 seconds. notice that each shutter speed is either 2 times or 1/2 the next speed depending on which way your moving through the list of speeds. So each shutter speed is one stop different in exposure from the ones next to it because the time the light shines on the film changes by either 2 or 1/2. Many cameras also have the capability to set these shutter speeds themselves. Not all cameras have this wide a range of shutter speeds; some automatic cameras may have only two shutter speeds they can use.

The second way exposure is changed is by adjusting the Fstop of the lens. Inside lenses that provide this capability there is a means of changing the size of the hole (lens opening) where light shines through the lens. When the hole is set to a small size only a little light shines in; when the hole is set to a larger size more light shines in. This is just a bit like opening and closing a set of venetian blinds. My 28MM to 100MM zoom lens has a range of F4 to F22 again this is in a set of fixed steps: F4, F5.6, F8, F11, F16, F22. Now it gets a little tricky here; don’t get confused by the numbers. Even though the numbers don’t look like it each setting is one Fstop from the next . The numbers are based on the geometry of the lens and there isn’t any need to worry about that. The way it works is that the smallest number, in this case F4, is the setting where the hole where the light shines through is the largest it can be. In this case at F4 you would get the most light through the lens. On the other end, F22 is the setting where the hole is at its smallest size so you get the least light through the lens. The way the Fstops work on lenses is that F5.6 lets in half as much light as F4. F22 lets in half the light that F16 lets in and so on. Some lenses may have even larger hole openings available like F1.2, or even smaller hole openings available like F32. The thing is that when you change from one setting to the next you are changing the amount of light shining through the lens by either 2 (twice as much), or 1/2(half as much). Many cameras have the ability to change the lens Fstop (lens opening) automatically. Some automatic cameras have just two or three lens openings they work with.

As noted above, exposure is a combination of shutter speed and lens opening. An automatic camera will set these depending on the speed of the film you are using, how much light is available, and perhaps if you have set some particular feature of the camera to operate. With a manual camera the photographer has to set the shutter speed and lens opening according to either what their light meter tells them or by some other guide they use. Some cameras offer the capability to operate in what you might call a semi-automatic mode. One of these is called shutter priority. With shutter priority the user has manually selected the shutter speed to meet some particular requirement; then the camera automatically sets the lens opening to obtain a correct exposure. The second semi-automatic mode is aperture priority. With aperture priority the user has manually selected a lens opening to meet a particular need; then the camera automatically selects a shutter speed to obtain a correct exposure. An important point to remember in all this is that depending on the light conditions and the ISO number of the film you are using there may not be a combination of shutter speed and lens opening that will give you a correct exposure. At this point with an adjustable camera you can choose to make an exposure anyway if you’d rather have something than nothing. If you’re using an automatic camera in a case where a correct exposure can not be obtained you get lots of different things depending on what the people who designed the camera decided was the best thing to do. Some automatic cameras won’t let you take a picture under such conditions. Others warn you, but you can go ahead if you want. Some always take the picture no matter what. By far the largest population of cameras in the world have NO capability at all to adjust either shutter speed or lens opening. These cameras have just one shutter speed and one lens opening. The main advantage these cameras offer is that they are the least expensive. These cameras are designed assuming some typical scenes people take pictures of. The problem is when you take a picture outside the anticipated use of the camera you quickly find your pictures are over exposed or under exposed. If your pictures are looking very dark, very light, washed out, sort of muddy, or low contrast, incorrect exposure is likely to be the problem.

Filters and Exposure:

Whenever you put a filter on your lens you reduce the amount of light that reaches the film. If you have more than one filter in use the effect adds up for each filter. This must be compensated for in your exposure setting. With most filters, the box they came in, the instruction sheet that came with them, or a combination or all three are usually marked with the filter’s exposure factor in stops. If a filter has a factor of 1 stop you must increase your exposures by 1 stop while using that filter. If you are using two filters, one with a factor of 1 stop and one with a factor of 2 stops they add up to get the total filter factor. In this case the total filter factor would be 3; so you would increase your normal exposure by three stops. Now if you are using a camera that meters through the picture taking lens then the exposure will be automatically compensated since the camera’s exposure sensor is looking through the filters.

Trades in Setting Exposure:

As it turns out it’s a good thing that there is usually more than one combination of aperture and shutter speed that will provide a correct exposure in a given circumstance. This is because you may want to set either the aperture or shutter speed to account for other considerations in taking a particular picture. For instance if your subject is moving you may want to use a fast shutter speed to reduce blurring in your picture. On the other hand you may want to use a slow shutter speed to cause blurring of a moving subject. Another consideration is depth of field in the picture. Depth of field is how far behind the point where you focused (likely your subject) things will stay in focus. For example: Let’s just say that the way your camera is set that the depth of field is two meters. This means that as you look into the depth of your picture everything from the point where you focused up to two meters behind that point will be in focus. Things farther back than two meters will start getting blurry and get blurrier the farther back they are. So what has this got to do with exposure? As it turns out depth of field changes with lens aperture. Depth of field is greatest (you get the most distance behind the focus point in focus) when the aperture (lens opening) is the smallest. This might correspond to F22 on a given lens. Conversely you get the least depth of field with the largest aperture; say F1.8 for example. So depending on if you want to control depth of field in the picture you’re taking you may want to select an aperture setting that makes the best compromise between getting a correct exposure and the depth of field you want. Another trade comes in something called resolution. Resolution has to do with how much fine detail you can see in your picture. Lots of things effect resolution and that will be another topic later. For now, it’s important to know that aperture setting also effects your picture's resolution (how much fine detail you can see). A Lenses middle range aperture setting will give the best resolution (all else being equal you see the most fine detail in your picture). Let’s just say a lens has these specific aperture settings available. F4, F5.6, F8, F11, and F16. In this case the F8 setting will give best resolution. At settings above and below this middle setting the resolution will be somewhat reduced.

Lighting:

Outdoor:

One of the problems people see in their outdoor pictures is haze in the background parts of their scenes. This can be helped with an ultra violet or UV filter. As a general rule it’s a good idea to buy a UV filter for each of your lenses and leave them on the lens. Besides helping with haze they also protect your lens. If the filter gets scratched it is a lot less expensive to replace than the lens. Unfortunately UV filters aren’t the end all for haze. If it looks like a very hazy day to your eyes it will still show up in your pictures.

Another problem on sunny days is glare. If part of your scene looks like a glare to your eyes it will be a problem in your picture too. The glare is usually very bright compared to the rest of your scene or notably your subject. This can cause you to make an incorrect exposure for your subject. Even if you get a good subject exposure the glare often looks bad in the picture. This can be helped with a polarizing filter. Once you have the polarizing filter mounted on your lens, there is usually a part that turns (see the instructions that came with the filter), just turn the filter until the glare is minimized. The above description is how it usually works with a single lens reflex (SLR) camera. Some non-SLR cameras have polarizing filters available too. Check your local camera store to see if one is available for your camera.

If you have both bright sunny areas and deep shadow areas in your scene this can present a problem as well. It is very likely that the total range of light to dark in your scene is well beyond what your film can capture. There are three general ways you can deal with this. The easiest way is to decide if your subject is in the bright area or the shadow area; then pick the area where your subject is to set your exposure. The other area will likely turn out poorly in your picture, but at least your subject should be correctly exposed and look fine. Using your flash is also a good alternative. In this case the usual thing to do is to manually set your camera exposure for the bright part of the scene using the shutter speed the works with your flash. Set your flash for automatic operation at the lens opening you’re using and distance you are from the shadow part of your scene. Then just point your flash at the shadow part of the scene and take the picture. The last way is to have someone hold something reflective so it reflects some of the available sun light into the shadow part of your scene. Camera shops often sell portable reflectors for just this sort of use. On the other hand, in a pinch, just about anything reflective can be used. Just be aware that if your reflector has color that color will tend to tint the area of your picture it shines light into. Also if your reflector has texture or the surface isn’t flat the light in your picture may show a pattern related to that. Another thing to note is that sometimes the deep shadow parts of your scenes aren’t obvious. When you are taking pictures look closely at the peoples faces, through the walkway, through the door, etc.; compare the amount of light there to the general light in your scene. Many outdoor scenes end up with faces, etc. you can’t see (very dark) in the picture because the light there was deep shadow compared to the scene in general. You can help these situations using the same methods I mentioned above.

Be aware of where the sun is with regard to you and your subject. Never have the sun behind your subject.

Indoor:

Indoors glare can come from a light that is between you and your subject and you either can’t move or you want the light in the picture. Here again a polarizing filter can reduce the glare. Then all that remains is to ensure your subject will be appropriately lit either by the existing light, your flash, or a combination of the two. Again, this is a topic where there are many fine books that can help you learn about the art of lighting a scene.

There are some common problem situations I will cover here. First avoid photographing someone such that his or her back is to a brightly-lit window. This again will be a case where the scene’s light to dark range is beyond what your film can capture. You can, move so the window doesn’t appear behind the person. You can, set your exposure so the person will be properly exposed; in this case the window will likely wash out to white in the picture. Another common problem comes from taking a flash picture to close to the subject. In many cases the person washes out to white in the picture. In cases where the subject is properly exposed they appear against a black or very dark background. You can, light the background with a separate, off camera, flash. You could also set your exposure for the background and use the flash to give detail light for the person. As a general rule, when photographing indoors with a simple camera, stay back a little from your subject, say about 8 or 10 feet. If you shoot a roll of indoor scenes with flash at different distances from your subject you will be able to get a feel for a good distance range for your camera. Of course if you still have the instructions that came with your camera they usually give rules of thumb for flash distances.

Photographing a shiny object:

Mirror finish:

In my experience, some of the most difficult photographs to make are of objects that have a mirror finish. Some examples are a mirror with etched artwork, a piece of decorative silver or gold. Anything with a mirror finish reflects other objects and surfaces around it. Any light sources will also be reflected. The result is that photographs of anything with a mirror finish tend to feature glare from light sources and images of other objects reflected by the mirror finish.

The first step is to surround the object to be photographed with a neutral environment. Placing the object in a box or a room that has flat finished (not reflective) walls, floor, and ceiling can do this. These surfaces should also be color neutral (gray) and must be of a fine texture. The wall where the camera is to be located should be non-reflective, flat black and allow for only the camera's lens to penetrate the wall. This environment should be sized appropriately so the corners of the room or box don't become featured geometry reflected on the surface of the object you are photographing. In such an environment the mirror surface of the object has nothing to reflect.

Next light must be provided so a proper exposure can be made. The light must be completely diffuse. That is there must not be a discernable light source. The light seems to come from all around the object with equal brightness. Using a box with translucent walls and back lighting them with a diffuse light source. Such conditions can sometimes be met by hanging drop clothes or bed sheets on a frame made from lighting stands.

With this done, there is one more consideration. The way we see details in objects in a two-dimension photograph is by the shadows they produce. The details on most shiny objects are very fine and we just went to a lot of trouble to make the lighting very uniform. Now you will need to experiment with changing the light intensity of the various walls of the environment until the details of the object become visible. The last possible resort is to use a spotlight or other point source of light. If you do, your next challenge will be to position the light so it shows the detail you want and doesn't produce a glare the camera's lens can see.

Yes, this is a lot of work, it comes down to how good a photograph you are willing to work for. I do this sort of thing only on very rare occasions. The objects in the Sailor Moon Gallery are examples of where I compromised, quite a lot, on what would do for my purposes there compared to what I would need to do for better results. I some cases I took the item outside on an overcast day. In other cases I photographed them in a room with a white ceiling with white sheets hung at the windows. The results aren't ideal to be sure, but visitors to that Gallery can certainly tell what the objects look like.

Sparkly objects:

Another class of shiny objects that require special attention are items like jewelry. They usually do not have a noticeably large area mirror finish so the problems of environment are reduced. A neutral color environment is still best though because jewels will tend to be tinted by the color of light that shines on them. If you want the photograph to show their true appearance the light should not be tinted and the surrounding environment should be relatively neutral. A good way to see if you have a potential problem is simply look carefully at the object in the environment in which you intend to photograph it.

Where the trick comes in with jewelry, is that you almost always want a few sparkly highlights to show in the picture. This can be helped by having a diffuse general lighting as described earlier and a single point source to show the highlights you want. The source should be a very narrow beam and as close to the object as possible without showing in the scene. Fiber optic light sources like used for lighting microscopes can help with this sort of lighting task.

With the general lighting turned off, in a dark environment if possible, adjust the light source position and angle and the camera angle until you see the highlights you want. As a starting point, I set the incident light (measured with the light meter pointed at the light source from the object position) from the spot light so it is about twice (one stop more) that of the general lighting measurement. Set the camera for a normal exposure based on the scene reflected light (light meter pointed at the object you are photographing from the camera's lens). This is a lot of effort and I want good results; so on a project I would usually shoot a whole role of film. I would vary the light ratios, spot light angle, and even +- ¼ stop for overall exposure.

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