Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Over (or Under) Expose with Purpose...or on Accident - Day 26


You can't be a photographer - amateur or otherwise - without hearing about exposure:
proper exposure, overexposure, underexposure. All the "how-to" books and classes will agree that 'proper' exposure is key to a well formed photograph.

I say bologna...boloney...baloney
...however you'd like to spell it.



Overexposure
Overexposure can give a whimsical and even clean feel to a photo.

This is a sooc shot. I accidentally intentionally overexposed it. And I am soooo happy I did!
I love that stark and clean retro diner feel to it.
overexp


Thanks to that overexposed shot, my end result was a series of 50's retro inspired prints:
   




Underexposure
 On the opposite spectrum, underexposure lends itself very well to a mysterious feel and can effectively bring the viewers' focus to a specific area.

The following shot was taken at dusk and was nowhere near this dark, but with underexposure those blacks are deep and help to create that mysterious, almost eerie feel.
This particular shot makes me have that "light at the end of the tunnel" feeling, and not surprisingly, reminds me of Christ's Light in our dark, dark world.
underexp


31 Days

11 comments:

  1. Your 50's car shots are amazing! love this lesson! Thanks!

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  2. Love this series, but this is seriously making me want to go out and buy a DSLR, so I can do some of this stuff! :) I have no control over the exposure or the focus on my simple little camera, and I'm starting to realize what I'm missing.

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  3. rules are meant to be broken when taking shots!

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  4. Katie!!! :-D Are you getting sick of me sayin' "love this!!!!" yet???

    Totally agree that while proper exposure has it's place, over and under exposure sure do, too!! I have a few shots that were overexposed truly on accident and I was bummed until I got it on the computer and fell in LOVE! That's why I hardly EVER delete straight off the camera... I may miss a treasure! And I can think of several underexposed shots that are favs, but that was back before I knew what "proper exposure" was and how to achieve it manually! lol


    p.s. and I'd just say bah humbug. I don't like balone-y. hehe!

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  5. You already know how much I love that first shot. So much that I bugged you to post it in your shop when I didn't see it in the collection at first :) And it is still my favorite of the bunch! LOVE IT!

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  6. that last shot is incredible. i'm always reminding myself that sometimes you get the best results when you stop obsessing over technical correctness.

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  7. Nice! I'm often torn between properly exposed, over-exposed and under-exposed images. I guess it depends on what I want to evoke with it.

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  8. Well thank you very much for the validation!! I have this 'problem' occasionally when trying out creative shots, so I'll need to take another look at them next time with a different eye thanks to your lesson :-)

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  9. Wowie! That second shot is so cool! I should definitely play around with exposure.

    PS...is your inbox tired of me yet. HA!!

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