NIKON KNOW-HOW – CONTINUED

to understand. If you expose the sensor for a longer time, you let in more light.

The second way to affect how much light hits the sensor is to change the aperture setting – the size of the opening in the lens.

Finally, altering the ISO makes the sensor more or less sensitive to the light it receives. It can be changed easily nowadays, but in the days of film you were stuck with the ISO rating of the film until you changed the roll.

USING YOUR JUDGEMENT

Although your Nikon has a superb exposure metering system, which will give good results in most situations, it can still go wrong. Fortunately, you can review the shot you’ve just taken on the LCD. The screen also offers some more precise checks, such as the handy histogram.

But the in-built metering system might not always get the result you want. Fortunately, there are several ways to fine-tune or override it and get closer to the perfect shot.

Firstly, there’s exposure lock, which allows you to take the meter reading from one area of the scene and then reframe before taking the shot.

Exposure bracketing (see box, right) is a way of telling the camera to take a series of shots at different exposures. You can then choose the best one later. Basically, it’s a quick way of hedging your bets.

Exposure compensation (see below) allows you to increase or reduce the overall exposure by an amount of your choice.

Finally, you can always set the camera to manual (M) mode and take direct control of both aperture and shutter speed.