Edinburgh Photographic Society - International Exhibition of Photography 2010

The last of the three exhibitions that I visited in Edinburgh last month was the 148th International Exhibition of Photography organized by Edinburgh Photographic Society. The exhibition showed about 200 photographs from forty countries. The nature and range of the images was typical of club photography these days.

I made notes of several of the entries where the composition seemed interesting.

Winters day - Robert Fulton

This is a stunning winter landscape in which the dark waters of a river in the foreground contrast with a snowy scene. The horizontal perspective lines of the river are bounded by triangular snowy banks, with a single tree in the left middle distance. There is an implied triangle of snow covered water reeds set in the dark waters of the river. The sky has horizontal bands of blue-grey cloud which are reflected in the mid-distance water. The visual impact is stunning. Whilst the scene looks unreal and rather "photographic", it was one of my favorites in the exhibition.

Days of despair - John Powell

A total contrast to the previous picture, this photograph appears to show a tense situation in someones private life, in a gritty realistic way. The scene is an interior decorated in a post-war style. In the right foreground is an older woman wearing a floral pinafore staring fixedly to the right of the lens as if she is angry about something. We see her from the waist up, as if we were standing right by her side. In the soft focus background is a man with his hands in his pockets with a rather resigned air. It is not clear whether this is a real scene or a staged scene. The narrative is as clear however as if we were seeing actors on a stage or in a film. Indeed the use of black and white is rather reminiscent of a 60's art-house film.

We can make it - John Powell

Another photograph of gritty realism by the same photographer. This time the subject is a military-style assault course. Again there is a figure in the right foreground clambering out of a water filled trench who has muddy rivulets running over his head and face. In the soft focus background we can see the tops of the heads of four others struggling through the trench under a low barbed wire barrier. Again the use of black and white is rather reminiscent of an old war film. The layout of the frame is remarkably similar to the previous photograph but it is the expression of determination and effort on the face of the man in the foreground which makes the picture in my view.

Serving Tsampa by Petr Vydra

A black and white photograph of a boy serving liquid out of a bucket to three older men in a third world country. On the right hand side, we see the profile of a man sitting on the floor holding his mug to receive a ladleful. The back of his head and shoulders are lit from a doorway on the right hand side and a little reflected light is catching the features of his face. The boy is standing, bent over the bucket near the center of the frame. His face and side are catching the light from the door. In the background on the left hand side two men are sitting already drinking the liquid. The room is totally bare, and this could be a room in a buddhist monastery or simply a village scene.

Unlike John Powells photographs above, the men's faces express no emotion. If anything they have a stoical quality. The viewers eye is drawn through the picture in an s-shape following the faces and bodies of the men from front right across and back into the frame. The lighting of the figures create a succession of vertical dark and light bands across the frame, so that there is strong contrast between each of the individual figures.

Silver Fields by Irene Froy

Unfortunately, I could find no copy of this specific photograph that I could link to. Irene Froy's gallery on her website has similar photographs of fields and beaches with etherial lighting. This one is a black and white picture of a landscape taken from a high viewpoint. We are looking down from a distance over an undulating field of grass or crops which is back lit. The sunlight is catching the tops of the crops. There is a solitary tree and its shadow just left of centre as a resting spot for the eye. In contrast to the Winter's Day photograph above, there seems to be greater realism in this photograph. It is possible to imagine finding a place that looks like this. This was the only photograph that I picked out which had been selected as Highly Commended by the EPS judges.

Conclusion

The standard of photography in the exhibition was generally excellent. There were many more photographs that I thought were worthy of note.

However, I was less impressed by some of the prize-winning photographs. In particular a photograph of the corner of a side-table with cup on it against a plain wall seemed uninteresting visually and emotionally.

Higher and lower sensitivity

There have been several occasions during my recent travels where low light levels meant that I have needed to increase Iso levels.

Before this course, I generally tried to keep a shutter speed of 1/100th second or thereabouts for hand-held photos, increasing the Iso to achieve this. This guide was suggested by an instructor on a photography course that I went on in 2008. This sometimes means increasing Iso up to the 3200 limit of my camera. I know that grain can be a problem at high Iso and often in the past, I have excluded photos I have taken for this reason. Iso level has been one of the settings that I generally check before taking a photo, although I forget this occasionally.

Image 1: The queue for the next performance at the Edinburgh Fringe

Nikon 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 200 f8 for 1/8th second

It had just started raining and people had put their umbrella's up. I sensed the slow shutter speed when pressing the shutter button. I quickly took another photo at a higher Iso and wider aperture.

Version 2 at higher shutter speed

Nikon 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 640 f6.3 for 1/60th second

The first version is slightly soft when viewed on screen at 1:1 magnification. The second version is noticeably sharper but it has more prominent grain.

Version 1 enlarged

Version 2 enlarged

Image 2: Wild mushrooms

Nikon 18-70mm at 22mm: Iso 200 f7.1 for 1/40th second

There were many fungi alongside the Hadrian's Wall Path in August. I liked this grouping of three clumps as they looked fresh and were relatively undamaged.

I realized that the shutter speed was too low for hand-holding. When I recomposed the photograph onto a portrait format to include more of the tree in the background, I also increased the Iso to 400, equivalent to 1 stop.

Version 2 at a higher shutter speed

Nikon 18-70mm at 22mm: Iso 400 f7.1 for 1/60th second

The first photograph is indeed slightly soft at 1:1 magnification. The second version is sharper and there is no sign of graininess. Indeed the contrast has improved slightly in the second version. (I have noticed before that photographs that are blurred often have lower contrast.)

Version 1 enlarged

Version 2 enlarged

Image 3: Juggler (final version)

Nikon 18-70mm at 40mm: Iso 320 at f14 for 1/2oth second

This juggler was standing on his own in a rather dark and narrow back street in overcast weather. I hoped that the flaming torches spinning in the air might have an interesting visual effect. I was walking with my wife between shows and I did not have a lot of time. I took a sequence of 6 photographs in 40 seconds, and this was the best of the six, after some post processing adjustments of darks and lights.

My camera was set at Iso 100 and f20 when I snapped off the first shot resulting in a shutter speed of 1/8th second. Viewed on the LCD screen, the juggler and background are heavily blurred and dark. The torch flames created a trail of light, but it was not readily possible to tell that he was juggling flaming torches.

First version

Nikon 18-70mm at 40mm: Iso 100 f20 for 1/8th second

I quickly increased the Iso to 320 and opened up the lens to f14. I was aiming for a slowish shutter speed of about 1/15th second in this case to capture some movement of the torches.

With these settings, I took another five photographs. The shutter speed and tone of the photo however seemed to be changing erratically. Three of the photographs were 1/20th (including the final version above) whereas the other two were at 1/4th and 1/8th seconds. I now realize that I had inadvertently knocked the exposure meter switch from matrix to spot metering. No wonder with the burning torches in the central area of the picture that the exposures were going up and down.

With more time, I think it might have been an idea to switch to manual exposure settings to have more control. The picture was unfortunately not as interesting as I had imagined, but it was still potentially a useful situation to learn from.

Image 4: Drochil Castle - another view of ruined vault

Nikon 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 3200 f8 at 1/30th

Even though it was a bright morning outside, the light was dim inside this corridor of the ruined castle. For the first photograph (not shown), even at Iso 800, the shutter speed was only 1/6th of a second. There was fortunately a nook in the wall where I could place the camera on a solid base to cope with the slow shutter speed. I thought I would take the same subject at Iso 1600 and 3200 to see to what extent graininess degraded the photograph.

In fact, there was little to distinguish the three photographs when viewed on screen. Only at 1:1magnification were there noticeable differences in noise. For the purposes of this blog, I have therefore included only the highest Iso image.

The difference in grain is visible in enlargements of the dark doorway on the left hand side of the corridor, but the impact on the photograph as a whole is relatively minor. One possible explanation for this muted effect could be that I have set my camera to apply noise reduction for high iso photos (800 and above). However, at other times high Iso photographs have been quite badly affected by grain.

The notes mention that grain can typically be found in smooth areas and dark areas of a photograph. It is accordingly possible that the relatively rough surfaces of the castle interior might cover up the visual impact of noise.

Image 5: Edinburgh skyline at twilight (exposure adjustment plus 1 stop)

Nikon 18-70mm at 18mm: Is0 400 f6.3 for 1/30th second

I observed that the level of noise in photographs can increase significantly as light levels reduce. This was particularly noticeable in a sequence of three photographs that I took in Edinburgh for the "Exposure measurement" exercise. In the above photograph, the sky has a smooth texture with virtually no grain. Even though the Iso levels were the same, the level of noise is progressively higher as the available light was reduced. This was most signifiant where the exposure adjustment was minus 1 stop. The latter photograph is shown below.

Image 5: with exposure adjustment minus 1 stop

Nikon 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 400 f6.3 at 1/160th

Image 6: Butterfly on lavender one of first series

Nikon 70-210mm at 210mm: Iso 400 f16 for 1/125th second

This is an example of a scene where Iso was increased in order to gain a little extra depth of field. I was trying to photograph butterflies that were feeding on lavender. The butterflies rested only momentarily and I was unsuccessful using a tripod.

In order to reduce the risk of camera shake, I found that I needed to use Iso 400 in order to achieve a shutter speed over 1/100th second at f16. I have found by experience that depth of field is quite shallow at apertures wider than f16 when the lens is at its maximum extension. My objective was to obtain sharpness from front to back of the butterflies even though their wings were open at an angle rather than flat.

When I looked closely at the first sequence of images like this one, only a part of the butterfly was in focus and there was also some general softness. I therefore increased the Iso to 640 which allowed a smaller aperture as well as a little extra speed:-

Image 6: Butterfly on lavender one of second series

Nikon 70-210 mm at 210mm: Iso 640 Iso 20 for 1/180th second

This was the best of the photographs that I took. The wings are reasonably sharp but there is still some softness around the head and antennae.

Conclusion

I am reasonably aware of Iso sensitivity settings and use the adjustment frequently to deal with marginal lighting conditions. It has nevertheless been useful to practice this technique in various situations.

World Press Photo 10 - exhibition at Scottish Assembly, Edinburgh

I visited this exhibition whilst in Edinburgh last month. In total contrast to the visual pleasures of the Edward Weston photographs, many of these photographs show dreadful scenes. As expressed by the judges of the competition "all jury members shared a stark feeling of how little of the worlds sorrow we were actually able to absorb, faced with 101,960 competing images. It was if the intensity of the drama had a paralyzing visual effect, because it was so often repeated."

I chose to avoid the most shocking photographs and selected a few of the photographs which drew my attention for their composition. (Note that I have created names for these photos myself for the purposes of this blog as no titles are given in the exhibition.)

Glaciologists, Greenland by Nick Cobbing UK

This is a photograph using colour accent in a very effective manner. In this photograph, a melt water "river" starts at the bottom right of the frame and winds away into the opposite top corner across a snow covered glacier. The water is very translucent so that details of the glacier underwater are clearly visible. The water is medium blue, and some distance away are two very small bright red canoes. These contain the glaciologists measuring the melt rates of the glacier. This photograph was presumably taken from an aircraft on wide angle. The intense red of the kayaks contrasts very strongly with the lighter blue water drawing the viewers eye to these tiny figures in the landscape.

Starlings over Rome by Paolo Patrizi

The subject is similar to "Starling Wave" by Danny Green that was a prize winner in the Nature Photographer of the Year 2009 exhibition. Also in black and white, the visual effect in this case is even more abstract. No ground is visible to anchor the scene. There is just a complex of spirals and fractal forms emanating from a central area rather like a negative of the Milky Way.

Bedding left out to dry by the homeless by Pierre-Olivier Deschamps

The photograph shows some pillars in the pavement of the Champs Elysees in Paris, three of which have been draped with sleeping bags or blankets of someone living on the streets. I believe that the picture stands out visually because of the repetition of the shapes of the three pillars and as a result of the treatment of colour:

- Each piece of bedding has been draped into a similar shape, but at first it seems impossible to understand what are these objects and why are they so neatly arranged.

- The blanket on the middle pillar is a mid-orange colour, but virtually everything else in the frame is in shades of grey.

There are clues to what is happening in the doorway in the background. There is some cardboard and a plastic bag, but no-one is visible. This is a picture where the viewer is presented with a mystery to unravel, and where the clues are shown in the frame if one looks hard enough.

Body of alleged drug dealer by Guillermo Arias

I think that this photograph attracted my attention from a distance because of the chiaroscuro lighting. Looking more closely, it gradually becomes clear that the white sheet over the central chair is covering a body. More grimly, there is a splatter of blood on the wall behind.

Many of the press photographs of violent events in the exhibition grabbed attention because of the shock of seeing such explicit scenes, more than their visual qualities. This, on the contrary, is one where the visual qualities of the photograph lead the viewer to look more closely and subsequently grasp the nature of the violent event being portrayed.

It also interested me that empty chairs are a relatively common subject in photography exhibitions and competitions. Sometimes it is only their physical structure that is significant as in the following photograph that I took a few years ago:-

In other examples, the purpose seems more symbolic for example the interior photographs by Susan Geen FRPS that were included in an exhibition of photographs by Atrium Photography in Guildford a few months ago. Her photographs are interior settings of chairs and screens draped stylishly with discarded clothes left by absent occupants. The photographs are printed quite small so that it is necessary to stand close to see them properly. Together the effect is rather voyeuristic as if seeing something intimate about the people who are not present.

Conclusions

Press photography shows us some realities of the world that I normally would not wish to see or to accept. (To be fair, there are several photographs that show realities that are extraordinary and marvelous.) Few of the subjects would be considered attractive visually, but it seems to me that the photographic skills learned on this course used primarily to present the world in an attractive light are equally effective in recording such terrible events and situations. A still photograph can be as powerful as video as it allows a more profound emotional effect as there is some silence and stillness.

Measuring exposure - part 2

The second part of the exercise is to take bracketed exposures of five or six subjects, looking at the results to identify which of the different exposures could have merit as alternatives to the photograph originally envisaged. As in part 1, I took these photographs during August whilst in Edinburgh and the areas around Peebles and Hadrians Wall.

For the purpose of this blog, I have generally only discussed the alternatives that showed some potential, and I have not included the outright rejects.

Image 1: Princess Street after rain

Nikon 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 100 f8 for 1/320th second - Original with no exposure adjustment

Version 2 - exposure adjustment minus 0.5 stops

Version 3 - exposure adjustment plus 0.5 stops

The sun had come out in the late afternoon after a rain shower. I thought that there could be an interesting photograph in the way that the light reflected off the road surface and the facades of the buildings.

This is a high contrast scene, with bright and dark areas more than mid-tones. The dark areas predominate however. The buildings on the left hand side of the frame, and the corresponding shadow reflection on the road surface seem larger than the bright areas of sky and road surface on the right.

In the original exposure with zero exposure adjustment, the detail in the building facades looks reasonably natural, but detail is being lost in the texture of the road surface and the clouds. I prefer the version 2 where the exposure has been reduced by half a stop. The detail of the building facades is still visible, but the road surface and clouds are less blown out. (The building facades became too dark when the exposure was reduced by a full stop.)

Increasing the exposure compensation by 0.5 stops as in version 3 is to my mind less satisfying visually. The buildings are brighter and more prominent in the frame but these do not have particular visual interest. Furthermore, the silhouettes of people and buildings in the distance become less apparent in version 3.

Version 2 also gains over the others as it was at this moment that a group of pedestrians crossed the road in the middle distance, making a nice silhouette.

Image 2: Ramparts of Edinburgh Castle

Nikon 18-70mm at 35mm: Iso 160 f8 for 1/500th second (Original with no exposure adjustment)

Version 2 Exposure adjustment plus 0.5 stops

Version 3 exposure adjustment plus 1 stop

I was attracted to this view because the morning sun was brightening the grass between the two ramparts and it was also catching the edges of the buildings. I took five bracketed shots at half stop intervals centred around the camera meter's exposure measurement.

The scene is reasonably high contrast, and looking at the histogram, the original exposure was quite evenly balanced. There are just small spots in the shadows which are blown out. Reducing the exposure by a half or a full stop reduced the ramparts to a dark silhouette except for the sides of the buildings and buttress lit by the sun.

I preferred the two higher exposure photos version 2 and version 3 shown above. With 1 stop over-exposed, the stone structures seem to attract more attention, but the contrast against the green grass and the sidelit buildings is reduced. I therefore would choose version 2. In this photo, the ramparts are still reasonably dark and foreboding. Also, the contrast of light and dark is retained.

(Note: The photos of the castle were adjusted to correct some distortion of vertical perspective)

Image 3: Rooftops at twilight

Nikon 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 400 f6.3 for 1/6th second (Original no exposure correction)

Version 2: exposure adjustment plus 0.5 stops

Version 3: exposure adjustment plus 1 stop

Walking up a side street to the Golden Mile at twilight, I noticed how the rooftops of the curved street created an interesting shape of sky edged by the jagged rooftops. The scene is another with very high contrast, and I bracketed the camera meter's measurement at half stop and full stop intervals on both sides. (I placed my camera on the floor on a bean bag to take these photos as I had no tripod with me).

I have not included the two photographs with less exposure as these had no particular benefits that I could see.

The two photographs with increased exposure (versions 2 and 3) reveal some of the detail of the frontage of some of the buildings as well as parts of some vehicles and people in the street. Previously, I thought that such detail enhanced the visual interest of the photographs. I preferred Version 2, as I did not like the confused detail in the right hand bottom corner ofVersion 3.

However, on looking at these photographs again before writing this up, I have decided that I like the simplicity of the original photo. In this version the absence of detail in the frontage of the buildings draws attention to the skyline, and the curve of twilight in between. There is a calmness and stillness in this version, whereas the lighter versions are"busy" and the skyline and sky are downplayed as visual elements in the frame.

(Note: The photos of the skyline were adjusted to correct some distortion of vertical perspective)

Image 4: Ruined vault Drochil Castle, near Peebles

Nikon 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 400 f9 for 1/5th second (exposure adjustment minus 0.5 stops)

Version 2 - exposure adjustment minus 1 stop

Version 3 - exposure adjustment plus 0.5 stops

Drochil Castle is a partly completed medieval castle that was next to the very good B&B that we stayed at close to Peebles.

The ruins are surrounded by trees and hence there is little light inside, even on a sunny day. The camera's exposure meter was affected significantly if there was a small area of sky visible between the trees or through a gap in the walls. In order to successfully bracket photos whilst hand holding the camera, it was important to make sure that the extent of sky or light in the frame was kept the same. (I guess I should have turned to manual settings instead of using the compensation adjustment on Aperture Priority.)

My original intention was to photograph the "corridor" with the lens set at wide angle to amplify the perspective lines. There were nettles and various other plants in the ruins which I had not paid much attention to. I took a sequence of 5 bracketed photos of this scene, and have included three of the resulting photographs.

On reviewing the photographs when I returned home, it was the two underexposed photos that I preferred (versions 1 and 2). In these two, the plant in the right foreground forms a noticeable graphical element in the photograph. The plant stands out against the shadowy wall behind and its triangular outline matches the diagonals of the roof of the vault in a pleasing way.

Where the exposure was normal or brighter (e.g. version 3 with + 0.5 stop exposure adjustment shown above), this plant blends in with the wall behind it, and the pattern of diagonal lines disappears.

Image 5: Bath House, Chesters Fort

In included these photographs to remind me of the practical problems of controlling exposure.

Nikon 18-70mm at 70mm: Iso 400 f8 for 1/50th second (no exposure adjustment)

At the end of our first days walk we went to see the ruins of the Roman fort at Chesters. There was a heavy rainstorm whilst we were there, following by scudding clouds and sunny intervals. I wanted to take some pictures of the excavated bath house where we had sheltered.

The stone walls were backlit by the sun, and the wet surfaces were shining brightly. There were two large trees where I was standing, which shaded the foreground. I should not have included the shaded area of wall in the foreground as the background was completely overexposed. In order to achieve some balance between foreground and background I needed to reduce the exposure by 1.5 stops.

Version 2 - exposure adjustment minus 1.5 stops

The dark wall in the foreground was clearly a mistake and hence I recomposed the photograph horizontally.

Version 3 - horizontal frame with minus 1 stop exposure adjustment

By reducing the extent of the dark wall in the foreground, the camera exposure measurement was less distorted. I tried a minus 1 adjustment hoping that the bright top edges of the walls would simplify the multiplicity of walls in the background. Luckily, this worked reasonably well, but in the bright sunlight the contrast was extremely high. The dark faces of the stone walls are therefore less clear.

Version 4 - exposure adjustment minus 0.5 stops

A moment later the sun was partly shaded by some cloud and the contrast level dropped dramatically. To the eye, the top edges of the wall were still bright and distinctive, so I tried a further photograph with a smaller exposure adjustment. The stone faces of the walls are now more distinct, the tops of the wall are less defined.

On balance I prefer version 3. I like the brightness of the wet stone on the top of the wall in the foreground, and the higher contrast in the background is also slightly more dramatic.

Conclusion

In situations of difficult light, I occasionally take a photographs at a couple of exposure settings, but I have never taken a range of bracketed exposures like this. It was clear to me having done this exercise that exposure levels can significantly change the visual importance of different parts of a scene. This can make one of the elements in the frame stand out a bit better, e.g. the plant in Drochil Castle. It can also change the atmosphere of the photograph e.g. by reducing details as in the twilight photograph of rooftops.

Measuring exposure - part 1

In August we spent a week in Edinburgh for the first week of the Fringe Festival, followed by a few days near Peebles and five days on a walking tour along the central part of Hadrians Wall. In addition to taking the opportunity to visit three photography exhibitions taking place in Edinburgh, I was also taking photographs for the first exercises of the Light section of this course.

Having thought about the instructions for the measuring exposure exercise, I believed that I should look for situations where a deliberate adjustment of exposure was necessary to obtain the intended exposure.

I have cropped, cleaned up dust spots and sharpened these photographs, but I have not adjusted the original exposure or contrast settings. However, in two cases, I have made adjustments to copies of the originals where I wanted to make a comparison.

Image 1: View of the Pennines from Hadrians Wall Path

Nikon 18-70mm lens at 25mm: Iso 200 f8 at 1/750th second (Exposure minus 1 stop)

This is a very high contrast scene with bright clouds and sky, but dark patches of trees and distant mountains, especially in areas shaded by clouds. I took a sequence of three photographs of this view, the first with zero exposure adjustment, the second -1/2 stop and this one -1 stop. There was originally a field and trees in the foreground filling the bottom third of the frame.

In the first two photographs, the field in the foreground was mid-tone, but the clouds were severely blown out and looked unreal. In the third photograph with a -1 stop adjustment, the foreground field and trees were too dark, but the clouds looked just right. I felt that the clouds and sky were significantly more interesting than the foreground field and trees, and I therefore cropped away almost all the dark area of trees and fields in the foreground leaving just thin line along the bottom of the frame.

I generally keep my camera set to "pattern" which is the equivalent of matrix type exposure metering. In this case, I assume that the camera's meter was giving more weight to a mid-tone exposure of the land and less weight to the sky. As a result, the bright sky was severely overexposed until I adjusted the exposure to hold the detail in the clouds.

Image 2: Neidpath Castle, Peebles

Nikon 18-70mm at 22mm: Iso 640 f8 for 1/90th second (Exposure minus 1.5 stops)

I saw this view one evening from the road into Peebles as the sun was still catching the top section of the castle. This is another high contrast scene with a dark conifer and shady foreground, but with bright sunlight falling on the castle and trees in the background.

Without thinking too carefully, my intention was to take a bracketed sequence of photos from -1 up to +1 stops exposure. However, the camera screen and histogram showed me that at these settings the castle was totally overexposed. In order to keep some detail in the stone walls of the castle, I needed to reduce the exposure to - 1.5 and -2 stops. Even at these settings the sky was totally white and featureless and I have cropped out almost all the sky in the above picture.

As usual, the camera was set to "matrix" metering and I suspect that the exposure was mainly influenced by the very dark foreground trees, rather than the brighter middle ground and bright sky, which originally filled the top quarter of the frame. I wanted to keep the dark tree in the foreground as this conveyed the thick forest around the castle which hides it from view.

Image 3: A section of Forth Bridge

Nikon 18-70mm at 46mm: Iso 125 f7.1 for 1/400th second (No exposure adjustment)

The photograph was taken from the harbour at South Queensferry between the two Forth Bridges. There was virtually no wind or waves which meant that the reflections of the pillars of the railway bridge were unusually clear. This is a high key scene with the light coloured sky above reflected in the water in the foreground. As a result, the camera's exposure measurement has underexposed the photograph making the colours more subdued than they should be.

I should have anticipated this and increased the exposure with half stop or full stop adjustment before taking the photo.

To gauge the effect, I have included a copy of the original photograph in which I have increased the exposure by one stop:

Image 3 copy with 1 stop increase in exposure

After adjustment, the brightness of the day is more natural.

Image 4: South Queensferry harbour at low tide

Nikon 18-70mm at 70mm: Iso 125 f7.1 for 1/350th second (no exposure adjustment)

This scene has a dark foreground and mid-ground, with a band of lighter colours towards the top of the frame. Because of these predominant dark colours, I thought that the matrix exposure meter would tend to over-expose the photograph. I therefore expected that I would need to make a negative exposure adjustment. However, the first photograph with zero exposure adjustment already looked quite dark and the histogram showed that shadows were starting to loose detail. I did not therefore make any further adjustment.

Subsequently examining the photograph in Lightroom, I can see that the shadows under the boats have lost detail, whereas the white decking has only small spots of overexposure. This suggested that the photograph would have been improved if I had increased the exposure. Again, I have prepared a copy of the photograph in which I have increased the exposure by one stop. Whilst more of the areas of white decking have become totally white, these are flat plain surfaces without visual texture and I do not feel that anything of importance has been lost. The mud however is brighter and more detail is revealed in the shadows under the boats. On balance, I prefer the photograph with increased exposure.

Image 4 with 1 stop increase in exposure

In this case, I have been unable to work out why the matrix metering chose such a low exposure for a relatively dark scene.

Image 5 North Bridge Edinburgh

Nikon 18-70mm at 18mm: Iso 400 f6.3 at 1/10th (exposure minus 1 stop)

I took this photograph at twilight, pointing away from the setting sun. The windows of some of the buildings are reflecting the brightness of the sky where the sun had set, enlivening their otherwise rather somber appearance.

I had increased the Iso to 400 as the light levels were low. I had set the exposure to minus 1 stop for the previous photograph and had forgotten to change it. I expected the image to be blurred as the shutter speed was too slow for a hand held shot. However, it turned out that the photograph is not too blurred.

The tarmac and buildings are relatively dark in tone, with a smaller area of sky. The matrix metering would therefore be likely to make the tarmac and buildings too light. The reduction of 1 stop records an appropriate level of dusky gloominess so that the small highlights of the windows and street and vehicle lights stand out.

Conclusion

Whilst I was aware of some of the situations where the camera's meter can misread a scene from my days of using film, I often overlook checking this before pressing the shutter with my digital camera. It has been useful to revisit and understand better this process.

I have started to check the histogram on the camera screen, and I am surprised how often I find something unexpected.

Another point that I learned was the power of image processing software to selectively adjust lights, darks etc. In order to create adjusted versions of the photographs that I used for comparison in my notes, I used the "exposure" slider in Lightroom which applies a universal adjustment to the whole picture. Normally, I use the more selective sliders such as "brightness", "fill" to produce the final version of my photographs. Had I used these, it is relatively simple to restore detail to both shadows and highlights in the harbour photograph for example.