Chapter Three, "The Twelve," describe the author's fundamental exposure situations. Over long years of experience, this is how he assesses a particular scene to break it down quickly. This is the key chapter of the book. While there are perhaps thousands of varieties, they are merely subsets of one of the twelve when you look through the camera.
This chapter goes through each one and examines it from the point of view of tones and range of light. The chapter is highlighted with histograms so that you can get a feel for what you see in your camera and how you should compensate for the shot.
Chapter Four, "Style," is about what you look for once you have the exposure under control. There is no true one exact exposure — it all depends on what you are trying to say with your image. You are an artist, and you have to stand by your vision.
Some of the influences examined here are mood, personalization, tone, the ability to envision, working with the Zone System, Black and White consideration, flare, low key, and shadows.
Chapter Five, "Post-Processing," is something that, while it has to be done, does not have to be embraced. According to the author, he would rather get it right in the camera then have to fix it. But in the world of digital Raw files, this is impractical. On the other hand, if you shoot with the idea that you can fix it in the darkroom, you will become sloppy and your software will become a crutch.
In this chapter, you're shown how to manipulate exposure after the shutter is released, how to control brightness and lighting, how to manipulate selective exposure, High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, exposure blending, and how to blend your exposures by hand.
Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure provides a good balance of technique with technical explanation. While "Perfect Exposure" is a value judgment, there are certain qualities that must be mastered so that you can be within the ballpark and to this end, the author does extremely well.
Article comments