Exposure in street photography

asamuel

This is a newbie question.

Exposure Values can be gained three ways, light meter, in camera light meter and the mental calculations around the sunny f/16 rule. OK.

I have discovered that light meters lie, so I have to embrace some persceptive skills and the sunny f/16 rule.

But this takes a lot of time if you are turning corners and dipping in and out of buildings.

So are you peoples so on the ball that you can do this, or do you use other alternatives, like bracketing or reading off the mid tones if you see stark contrasts?

I hope I am clear in what I ask, how do you make life easy for yourself if you are on the move? Fankyou very much.

saurora

Excellent question, I've been wondering about this myself. I am curious to see the replies by those who shoot alot. I have a feeling it comes down to having developed a "sixth sense" about exposure after shooting for a long time. When you can't get out and shoot on a regular basis (like me), that is a difficult gift to acquire! I feel like a beginner every time I step out the door with a camera.........

wxwax

Andy has done a lot of street shooting, as has Harry. So I'm interested to hear their thoughts, if they catch this thread.

What I try to do, with mixed success... shoot in aperture priority, spot meter my subject, and adjust exposure on the fly via exposure compensation. I let the other values fall where they may, which sometimes leads to blown out stuff. And I always shoot in RAW.

BTW, you didn't mention histogram as a way of checking your exposure. I find it invaluable. But obviously it can only tell you if you succeeded, it's not helpful in a quick reaction situation.

Andy

asamuel wrote:

I hope I am clear in what I ask, how do you make life easy for yourself if you are on the move? Fankyou very much.

Hi asamuel

Here's what I do: I shoot in Av (aperture priority) mode and evaluative metetering mostly when street shooting. And I will pay attention to the light and shadows. Always. I make very quicks and easy EC adjustments based on turning a corner, or falling in the shadow of a tall building. It becomes a feel thing for me, and after doing it for so long now, it's practically automatic.

Also, not sure if you've seen this, you may be interested:

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1077234

All the best,

pathfinder

I'm sure Andy has a lot more practical experience in street shooting than most of us here, but most street shooting is out-door shooting, which frequently means shooting by sunlight, directly or in-directly. Artificial light will play a role, but usually more for after the sun is low in the sky. Thus, during the daytime, sunny 16 works pretty well, even in the concrete canyons.

I wrote a thread about sunny 16 here - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=30232 - Pay attention to the exposures suggested for shade and overcast days as well.

Street shooters were never as concerned about exact exposure accuracy as getting the moment; they were shooting B&W Tri-X film and had a 2 stop level of forgiveness in processing. Digital sensors are not that quite forgiving to overexposure in particular.

f8 and be, there was their motto.

I shoot in Av mode, keep an eye on the shutter speed the camera selects for my aperture choice, and adjust aperture or ISO as needed.

I shoot RAW almost exclusively and look at the histogram after a couple shots to give further input to exposure choices. Michael Reichman admits to shooting in Program mode for street shooting, but I prefer Av, as I want to control my depth of field. Shooting AV, means I MUST be aware of shutter speed that is being set by the camera, so that the shutter speed is not set below 1/60th or so. Av can and will sets shutter speeds of 1/2 sec if it gets too dim outside. Then you need to change the aperture and ISO to raise the shutter speed back to a more appropriate speed. If you don't want to monitor shutter speed settings, Program mode may be a better choice for you.

I see Andy beat me to itlol3