14c E-950/E700/E800 Digital CameraTutorial : Exposure Compensation
Intro | Metering | Sensitivity | Exposure Compensation | Image AdjustmentAfter the camera has taken into account the light level according to the metering method (Spot, Centre Weight, Matrix) it may be the case that the overall exposure is too bright or to dark. An example of this is a side-lit shot where there is a lot of glare from reflective objects surrounding the subject such as on a beach or near water.
In this case, the Exposure Compensation can be used to override the measured setting to lighten or darken the image.
Example
This display cabinet was strongly lit from the side, through a full-height south-west facing window. The strong light source caused the metering system to return a combination with which the subject was too dark.
With no exposure compensation, the bright light from the left (the window was in-shot and has been cropped out) has resulted in the display cabinet being too dark. With exposure compensation set to +1.0, the light from the window is now over-exposed, but the contents of the cabinet can been seen. As an alternative, spot or Centre-weighted metering could have been used, but with this complex image, it was decided to use the averaging effect of Matrix metering to produce a stable reading, then to employ exposure compensation to achieve a reliable and pleasing result. Intro | Metering | Sensitivity | Exposure Compensation | Image Adjustment
