NIKON ACADEMY – CONTINUED

exposure meter ‘into the middle’.

If you are shooting in Program, Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, or have Auto ISO turned on, this should happen automatically – unless you are shooting extremes of light. In these situations, the exposure bar is not actually shown as everything is working as designed. If you’re using Manual mode, and setting the ISO manually, you will need to balance the creative choices of shutter speed, aperture and ISO with the need to balance the exposure meter. How you approach this depends on the subject you are photographing. Auto ISO with Manual mode is also a good way of shooting.

Once you have your shutter speed, aperture and ISO set, the camera’s metering system (more on that next issue) will now assess the light coming into the camera and help you achieve a balanced exposure in most situations.

After taking a picture, review it on the LCD to see if you like the results. Optionally, you can use the histogram display to check the accuracy of your exposure, but remember this is a histogram of your JPEG thumbnail on the screen, not the histogram of the Raw data (which has more dynamic range in it) that you will be editing with.

One of the big benefits of mirrorless cameras is that you see the exposure in ‘real time’ through the viewfinder or on the rear screen before taking the shot.

Once you have mastered balancing the exposure on every shot, it’s time to experiment with creativity and deliberately over- or underexpose your images with exposure compensation to develop your look as a photographer.