Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Creatively correct exposure: reference guide

Peterson, in his book Understanding Exposure, talks about creatively correct exposure.  With this term he is referring to the fact that any number of exposures may be technically correct but not all of them are creatively correct.  He provides some guidelines for the beginner to try and help them achieve creatively correct exposures more quickly.  I found this to be extremely useful and am including it below for reference.  I strongly suggest buying and reading the book to make more sense of the information below.

The following types of photograph rely on aperture to be creatively correct.
  1. Storytelling picture: small aperture (f/16, f/22, f/32)
  2. Singular-theme (isolate target): large aperture (f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6)
  3. Who cares (subject is similar distance to background): (f/8, f/11)
  4. Macro: Aperture is the critical element, set as required
The following types of photography rely on shutter speed to be creatively correct.
  1. Freeze action: fast shutter speed (1/250s, 1/500s, 1/1000s)
  2. Panning: slow shutter speed (1/60s, 1/30s, 1/15s)
  3. Imply motion: super-slow shutter speed (1/4s, 1/2s, 1s)

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