31 Days of my XTi | Day 13 -Exposure

Exposure is such a subjective thing, what you may think is over-exposed (too light) someone else sees as perfect.  Which is exactly the reason that you should play around with it! You may discover that you prefer to shoot a click over exposed in certain situations, or under exposed in others. Or you could take a shot and realize that it is too dark, and rather than change aperture and shutter speed you could just adjust the exposure. The only creative mode that this doesn't work in is Manual, because if you remember the little meter is an indicator then, and not adjustable-except by bringing in more light or taking it away in your environment.
You can see the meter on your screen and in the viewfinder, if you have not played with it (and are not in manual) the little bar should be right in the middle.  If you want to change it, hold down the Av button (top right on the side of the screen) while turning the dial either way. If you turn left you will make your next shot darker, if you turn right it will be lighter. Here are my examples:

(All of these are SOOC, just sharpened and saved for the web)
The center picture is the "regular" exposure, taken at 1/40, f 4.5
Top left is one stop underexposed (-1), top right is two stops underexposed (-2), bottom left is one stop overexposed (+1), bottom right is two stops overexposed (+2)


If you notice when you are taking your pictures, the camera will show you how each stop changes your aperture and/or shutter speed, depending on what mode you are in. I took these in Av, so my shutter speed got faster as the picture darkened, and slower as it lightened.

Like my cool little storyboard? That came from Rita at The CoffeeShop Blog, and was free as is most of her stuff. It was easy to install (once you get the hang of installing actions) and pretty easy to use, it took me about 35 minutes to get it web ready.

Go give changing your exposures a try, you may find a totally different way of shooting that you love!