What Is Exposure Compensation in Photography?

Your camera can be fooled; learn how to correct your aperture setting

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Most DSLR cameras provide exposure compensation, allowing you to adjust the exposure measured by the camera's light meter. But what does that mean, and how do we apply it in practical photography terms?

What Is It?

If you look on your DSLR, you will find a button or menu item with a little + and - on it. This is your exposure compensation button.

Pressing the button will bring up a line graph labeled with numbers from -2 to +2 (or occasionally -3 to +3), marked at increments of 1/3. These are your EV (exposure value) numbers. By using these numbers, you are telling the camera to allow more light in (positive exposure compensation) or less light in (negative exposure compensation).

Some DSLRs default to 1/2 stop increments for exposure compensation, and you may have to change it to 1/3 using the menu on your camera.

Let's say your camera's light meter has given you a reading of 1/125 (shutter speed) at f/5.6 (aperture). If you dial in an exposure compensation of +1EV, the meter will open up the aperture by one stop to f/4. This means you are effectively dialing in an over-exposure and creating a brighter image. The situation would be reversed if you dialed in a negative EV number.

Why Use Exposure Compensation?

Most people will be wondering why they want to use exposure compensation. The answer is simple: There are certain occasions where your camera's light meter can be fooled.

One of the most common examples is when an abundance of light exists around your subject. For example, if a building is surrounded by snow. Your DSLR will likely try to expose this bright light by closing down the aperture and using a faster shutter speed. This will result in your main subject being under-exposed.

You will ensure your subject is correctly exposed by dialing in positive exposure compensation. Additionally, by being able to do this in 1/3 increments, you can hopefully avoid the rest of the image becoming over-exposed. Again, this situation can be reversed when a lack of light is available.

Exposure Bracketing

We sometimes use exposure bracketing for a critical, one-chance-only shot with tricky lighting conditions. Bracketing means the photographer takes one shot at the camera's recommended meter reading, one at negative exposure compensation, and one at positive exposure compensation.

Many DSLRs also feature an Automatic Exposure Bracketing function (AEB), automatically taking these three shots with one click of the shutter. It should be noted that these are usually at -1/3EV, no EV, and +1/3EV, although some cameras allow you to specify the negative and positive exposure compensation amounts.

If you use exposure bracketing, turn off this feature when moving to the next shot. It is easy to forget to do this. You may under or overexpose the second and third shots in the following sequence.

Essentially, exposure compensation can be likened to the effect of changing the ISO of your camera. Since increasing the ISO also increases the noise in your images, exposure compensation almost always represents the better option!

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