Digital Photography Lighting

Lighting is very important in digital photography. Most of the digital cameras have a feature called Metering. This calculates the amount of light available in the scene and then calculates the best fit. Generally, digital cameras have “Show info” menu, using which you can know the light exposure level. It’s always better to go through the user manual and see how to do it as it may vary for different models and make.

If you use lighting effects filter, you can actually brighten up or dim the lights according to the image you are going to take.

Center of the image is generally the default focus point. According to your choice, it is possible to change the focus point and can position it. The amount of light that the sensor receives is called exposure and this mainly depends on the sensitivity of the film. There is another feature called exposure lock, which will allow you to choose and lock to a particular setting. Majority of the digital cameras have an exposure lock button while for some digital cameras you will need to press the shutter button half-way down. Depending upon the image or scene you are going to capture, flash can be turned on or off.

Two types of light meters are available. They are incident light meters and spot meters. If you are going to use incident light meters, then you will need to set the same ISO in both the light meter and the camera. This is because incident light meters are held in the center of interest area. For people who frequently use long telephoto lenses can go in for spot meters as they help in measuring a small portion of the image.

Three types of metering modes are prevailing in digital cameras. Matrix metering offers the best exposure as the image is divided into various matrix zones, similar to the “rule of thirds.” Center weighted average metering method is often used by digital cameras that do not have metering mode selection. As the name suggests, it averages the exposure and gives extra weight to the center of the image. Next is the spot metering. In this mode, only a small area or spot of the image is metered, while exposure to other areas is ignored. Metering modes can be changed depending upon the type of image that you are going to capture.

The amount of light falling on the sensor is determined by the size of the opening of the lens, which is called as aperture.