Yaya

I am fairly new to photography, and even though I have read a good deal about the exposure triangle and I understand how it works, I continue to have problems. When I look through the viewfinder at the metering lines it does not help. In order to get it to the "Zero or close" I have to change the shutter, aperture or ISO thus changing what I wanted to achieve. Any suggestions would really be appreciated. Does everybody use their exposure meter? Do you always get correct exposure by setting it to the zero? When I do finally get it to zero everything, including exposure is off. Thanks for any helpful suggestions. Oh, I reset my camera to the original settings just in case that was the problem to no avail.

BebuLamar

I am sorry because the triangle book left out the important thing. How to determine exposure. So which ISO, shutter speed and aperture you set is depended on the brightness of your subject and not so much on your want to achieve.
You look at the subject and you think I want a lot of DOF on this one and also want a rather high shutter speed to make sure there is no motion blur and you want a low ISO to keep the noise down but if the subject is not very bright you can't do that.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
To learn more about how exposure works, consider Bryan Peterson’s excellent book, “Understanding Exposure” - many UHH members use and recommend it as their go-to source on the subject.

BebuLamar

I think the OP read the book and because of that it caused the OP the confusion. The book left out the most important thing, how to determine exposure.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

The exposure guidance you are using only really applies to when you are reading an 18% reflectance gray card. When the viewfinder metering line is at zero it means that the exposure of a gray card will result in a proper tonal value of that card when you view the image or print it. If the line is on the plus side, the image will be brighter, and vice versa for the minus side.

If you are reading a scene with three cats - one white, one black and one gray, you will get the following result if you read the light reflected by each cat by itself (using the spot meter function in the camera).

If you read the gray cat, the cat will be gray, and the black cat will be black (darker) and the white cat will be white (lighter)

If you read the white cat, the white cat will be gray, the gray cat will be very dark and the black cat will just be a big black blob with no detail

If you read the black cat, it will be gray, the gray cat will be very light, and the white cat will be a white patch in the image.

Each part of the subject (the three cats) reflect different amounts of light, but the meter doesn't know what it is reading, so it just tells you what the reading is for middle gray. It is up to you to determine how you want to shoot it.

Setting the camera so that the exposure indicator shows zero will only work for a subject that is 18% reflectance.

Now, camera manufacturers have set up very elaborate schemes in the cameras to allow you to not have to go through this to take a picture. Set the meter to matrix or evaluative metering, and it will examine the entire scene, look at the shadows and highlights and come up with a setting that will provide a "best guess" exposure for the scene.

But one thing is true - if you have a good exposure but want to adjust one parameter in the balance of shutter speed/aperture/ISO,to get "what you want to achieve" you will definitely have to adjust one or both of the other parameters - there is no escaping that. If after setting the parameters so that you have "zero" and the image is too dark, then you either increase ISO or open the lens up or lower the shutter speed until you get what you want. It doesn't have to be zero.

If you put an 18% gray card in the scene, read that (and nothing else - fill the frame with it) with the camera's spot meter a the card receiving the same light as the subject(s) with the card facing the camera position, and you get everything to zero - then and only then will your exposure be correct.

justhercamera Loc: NW Michigan

I think from what you learned about exposure, it may have given you the idea that you can always get the effect you want, by just setting the choices of ISO, SS, and Aperture, and you are all set. The problem is, all too often, the "ideal" of what we want, does not match the lighting conditions of what we have. It is why there is so many different gear choices, (cameras, lenses, filters, flashes, reflectors, etc.) to help us get to our ideal. It is all part of the challenge (fun) of photography. What may help is posting a photo or two where you did not get what you wanted,(explain your goal) and perhaps you will get some helpful suggestions as to what you could have done differently to help you achieve your goal.

autofocus Loc: North Central Connecticut

Depending on how and what you are shooting you have to understand that the camera's meter is trying to average out all the light it sees. So, if your shot has a lot of sky in it, that brightness will will surely influence the overall exposure. And the opposite would be true if you were shooting a predominantly dark area / subject. In these situations all the meter will be is just a guide, and centering the meter will not yield what you want your final exposure to be. The bottom line; 1) you have to know how to read the light in the scene or subject you are shooting, and 2) make those adjustments accordingly to your settings. Basically, you have to be smarter than the meter. It may sound counter intuitive, but often shots of very bright subject matter needs to be over exposed, and conversely shots of very dark subject matter needs to be underexposed when shot. And lastly, learn to shoot in full manual mode, such that you can make those adjustments, and not in the semi automatic modes of aperture or shutter priority where the camera will be making those decisions for you, and often getting it wrong.

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

I have the D7500 and I absolutely love it. The metering system (and sensors) of the D7500 is the same as the one in the D500 and it works really well in Auto. I keep in in auto most of the time, knowing that it will properly expose at whatever I point the camera. I concentrate of composition and verify focus. When I have more time to take the picture and I want to control more of the exposure, say for DoF or trying to freeze movement, or something, I switch to Aperture priority or shutter priority. I don't spend much time in manual mode, except when I'm digiscoping or doing something very specific. I paid good money for an awesome camera that can do everything for me if I want it to.

I realize it's important to understand exposure and I commend you on trying to do that, but I find even the D7500 not as easy to set manually as the old Nikons and Minoltas of yore. It was easy to line up the two needles by turning a knob (shutter speed) or aperture ring on the lens. The ASA was determined by the film and I just set the camera meter to that value and off I went.

If you really want to learn to do everything manually, I would suggest you nail the ISO value and then play just with shutter speed and aperture.

autofocus Loc: North Central Connecticut

Well, that is one school of thought, but if you're going to shoot in the auto modes you may just as well own a P&S camera, or shoot with your phone. The op probably is already shooting in one of the auto, or semi auto modes, and he's not happy with his exposures. He has an expensive new toy, and why not learn to use it right. Shooting in manual mode is not hard to learn, but it's the ability to learn and understand how to read light that's more difficult, especially in difficult lighting situations. Shoot a bride in a white dress in bright overhead light at the beach and the auto modes will never get her, the primary subject right. I could almost guarantee that her dress will be tell tale gray and her face will be underexposed...the simple solution is to overexpose the shot by a stop or two. Neither auto nor aperture priority will get that right (unless you've taken the time to dial in some EV, and if you're doing that, why not just shoot in manual??) Conversely, shoot four groomsmen in black tuxedos while leaning against a black limo...the end result in auto mode(s) will be gray car and tuxedos, and probably grossly overexposed faces. The solution to that is to intentionally underexpose the shot by a stop or two. If you want to learn how to do it right start by learning how to read light, and how to take that knowledge and apply it to your camera settings. if you don't care about learning your hobby, just keep taking snap shots in auto mode with your $1200+ toy.

Yaya

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and help. I assume I am the op, but I have no idea what that stands for. My goal is to learn to shoot in manual, so when you say read light how do I learn that? I do have an expo disc 2.0. Would that help? Is that what you mean by reading the light?

Because of everyone’s helpful comments I think I understand more about exposure. I am so grateful for all the information each of you was willing to share with me. I am so happy to be part of this group.

BebuLamar

As in my earlier post, the book "Understanding Exposure" left out half of how to set exposure. The first part is to determine the exposure level and the second part is to pick a combination that satisfy that exposure using the exposure triangle. To determine the exposure level the easy way is just to set the camera so that the meter indicates 0. Of course as others have said there are times you should set the exposure so that the meter indicates some plus or some minus depending on the scene.
Once you decided on an exposure level you would choose the aperture, shutter speed and ISO depending on your preference but within the limit that the meter must indicates the level of exposure that you have decided on in step 1.

autofocus Loc: North Central Connecticut

Well you might say that light can be looked at in several different ways. The first is direction, and that should be obvious. Is it front lighting the subject, or maybe it's back light on the subject? Exposures will need to be adjusted and will be different in either of those circumstances. Remember, light is the key element in all photography, and having your subject well, and properly exposed is always of paramount consideration. Low in the sky morning and early evening light will be the most flattering on your subject, and it's a warmer light than midday light on the kelvin scale. Midday light is probably the least flattering on your subject, especially if your subjects are people. It creates hard dark shadows on the face, and it tends to be a cool temperature (Kelvin) Dappled light under a tree is also not very flattering, and reflected light off leaves and grass may leave a greenish cast across the skin. So far, we've covered the direction of light and the color of light, and now we'll compare hard light vs soft light. Small unmodified light sources like flash and strobes produces hard contrasty shadows. And believe it or not, the sun is considered a small light source because of it's distance to the earth, especially at midday. It is a hard light with strong well defined shadows and without smooth transitions between the highlights and the shadows. An overcast sky is a soft light, very much like a softbox in studio shooting. It produces soft shadows with very good wrap and with smooth transitions between highlights and shadows...a very flattering light for most subjects, unless you are looking for an edgy contrasty look which can be interesting on some subjects. Basically, soft light is a larger light source, so use of a softbox or umbrella is actually making a small light better distributed and therefore making it a larger light source. You can take advantage of bounced light which also will make a small light into a larger source of light, but care needs to be given to the color of the reflected material...bouncing light off a yellow or light green wall will give you a sickly skin tone to your subject. Being able to mix ambient light with flash might be something you may want to know about in the future. Flash will allow you to control the direction of light, the color of light, and the volume, or quantity of light. A good thing to learn if you want to advance your skills as a photographer...maybe at some future date :) As I mentioned above in the other post understanding what you're dealing with when it comes to reading light and your exposures is important. And shooting in manual mode will give you the best control overall...it's not hard to master. The meter should be viewed as a guide, and nothing more. And surely centering the meter will work just fine in most situations, maybe 75-80%, but it's those difficult lighting situations that you will have to be smarter than the meter and to know when to overexpose, or underexpose a shot, and if you happen to be using flash, when do you want to turn it on, and when can you leave it off. So, we covered (or touched upon) direction of light, color of light, time of day light, hard light vs soft light, quantity of light, and a bit about artificial light. I hope I've adequately answered your question. I would say go out and practice, in full manual mode, setup a subject (a person would be good as a subject) shoot the subject at different times of the day, try backlighting a subject and I promise, the first time you do it you will wind up with an underexposed subject, so try the following: with the subject backlit by saay the setting sun, walk up to him/her and take a reading right off the face at about 12 inches away, then keep that setting (in manual mode) and take the shot of the subject again and see the difference between your first shot and your second shot. You will blow out the background, however, but your subject will be better exposed. ~or~ in the same setup, expose for the backgound in manual mode, leave that setting in the camera, and turn on your flash. Now you should wind up with both, a well exposed background and a well exposed subject (just make sure you stay within your sync speed when using flash and depending on the camera don't use a shutter speed faster than 1/200 second. And remember what I said above, very bright lit ambient locations like the beach or snow shots and when shooting a person, overexpose the shot on your meter by a bit (flash can also be beneficial in these situations) and conversely, dark clothed subjects against dark backgrounds underexpose the shot a bit. None of your auto modes will help you with this, only your eyes and your brain...go out an practice ! :)

twowindsbear

OP = Original Post(er)

jcboy3

I am at a loss to figure out what you would want to achieve with a particular ISO.

That said, check your metering mode; there are a number of different ones. Spot metering, for example, can produce wildly varying results because it is only sampling the center spot of your image.

My suggestion is set ISO to AUTO, turn on highlight/shadow display on playback, and use exposure compensation if you have a scene that is producing blown highlights.

To answer your question of whether I use my camera exposure meter all of the time, the answer is no, I do not. When shooting in the studio, I use a flash meter to set strobe power, and then set ISO/aperture/shutter speed to match what I used on the flash meter. When shooting fireworks, I don't use any exposure metering; I'm shooting with fixed settings.

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

I love your prose and you make a good case. I would also urge you to look up the concept of "paragraph."

Looking past your thinly-veiled insults, let's get real here. I totally understand the concept of exposure control and even the desire to take all pictures under full manual control. The OP has stated that he is very new to photography and has read books about exposure control but right now, he is amassing a pile of lousy pictures using a D7500 that will take amazing pictures automatically. You counter with examples of fairly advanced photographic concepts and specific situations as the reason to never use auto. In other words, according to you, the OP should eschew the use of 80% of the camera's capability so he could be prepare to take proper blacks and whites in his pictures when he photographs weddings. Gotcha.

To me, taking pictures is getting the right moment, the right shot, the right composition. It's getting pictures that are properly focused, with the best composition that I can get. Sometimes I sit there waiting for the proper shot, other times, my D7500 is whizzing at 8FPS loading up my SD card with tons of RAW files. This is where I take 100 shots of a swimmer doing the butterfly stroke in 25 yards to get that one picture with the arms extended and the resolute expression on the swimmer's face, outdoors, with the camera close to the ground and the monitor pointing up. The D7500 is a fantastic camera.

I spend a great deal of time getting the right composition, not making buildings fall, not presenting the horizon on an inclined plane, making sure that tree is not growing out that person's head, and focus, focus, focus. Make sure I have the right focus. In PP, you can fix a lot of things, but focus is not one of them. Shooting in RAW (never too old to learn) I can do a LOT of stuff to the exposure in PP, including white balance. I cannot fix the person's expression, I can't fix the out of focus shot and I can't create the shot that I missed because I was busy fumbling with the exposure controls.

We have had people mention highly specific situations where manual control was indicated, but those ARE highly specific situations and time & experience come into play. For a new person learning about photography, I suggest strongly that composition and focus are far more critical than exposure control as skills to master. The D7500 is an absolutely astounding camera that allows a new photog to learn all the skills of photography. It does not limit the user in any way.

And to answer your snide remark about the fact all I need is a smartphone, I will have you know that I can take excellent pictures with a smartphone as I apply my skills at composition and patience. My Note 8 has great cameras built in. A DSLR allows me to use various lenses for different purposes and I have them running from a 10-20 zoom all the way to 300mm at the long end. I'm now considering a 200-500mm and I have had great luck digiscoping using high-end spotting scopes.

I think it's far more important for a new photographer to learn composition and focus shooting in auto, rather then getting a pile of badly exposed pictures with no attention to composition. Fighting against the tool is NOT a great way to develop skills. The D7500 will not limit the user but it will help the user develop photography skills.

By the way, composition frequently involves the use of something called "feet."