Beecher's Handouts /

Lighting Contrast / 6.4 - See Like Your Camera

Here are some ways to train yourself to see with camera vision.

Compare

In my classes, I photograph a side-lighted soda can with a digital camera.

My students can then compare what they see with their eyes, with the photography vision of the image on a monitor.

You can do the same with the previous Play with a Light exercise.

Measure the Brightness Range

Find a scene that has brightly illuminated areas, and areas with dark shadows.

Using the shutter-priority exposure mode (S or Tv), set your shutter to about 1/500th of a second.

Point your camera at different parts of the scene, and write down the f/stop that your camera's light meter selects.

You might end up with a range of apertures like this one:

f/4

f/5.6

f/8

f/11

f/16

f/22

Generally, if you have a more than a two-stop difference between the bright and dark areas, you may be disappointed in the resulting photograph.

In the scene, there's a five stop range of brightness:

f/4

f/5.6

f/8

f/11

f/16

f/22

stop

That's too much contrast for photographic materials to reproduce.

When you encounter a scene with too much contrast, use the techniques on the following pages.

Visual Notes

Be sure to place examples of camera vision into your visual notes notebook.