Lighter Than Average 1
55mm, f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 800
Exposure Compensation: +2
Searching for 'high-key image' on google image search gives results which are overwhelmingly of female models and babies, portraying elegance, delicacy, and purity. Further research gave examples of companies assigning these attributes to their products, such as Apple's marketing materials for the iphone and ipad range. I strove for a similar result with this photograph of Selfridges in Birmingham. I purposely overexposed by two stops above the values recommended by the light meter, in order to give a paler and more clinical feel to the elegant silver shape of the building, the light-coloured pavement and wall, and the overcast sky. The scene, devoid of people or clutter reminded me of those concept images you see of future new developments. I believe the overwhelming 'whiteness' in the image, enhanced by the overexposure, and the modern curves of the building gives an almost sci-fi look.
Lighter Than Average 2
55mm, f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 800
Exposure Compensation: +0.67
A situation where I've needed to overexpose a scene many times in the past is with a back-lit subject. In this image the wide expanse of bright sky caused the light-meter to choose exposure values which threw the details of the church and the people in the foreground into shadow. In order to bring out these details I knew that I'd need to overexpose. To gather comparison images I set the bracket settings on my camera to 0.7. I chose this value as I wanted to retain a natural look to the scene, and not make it appear too washed out, This meant that the camera would, in quick succession, take an image with the settings suggested by the light meter, then one underexposed by 0.7 of a stop, then one overexposed by 0.7 of a stop. Here is the image with the settings suggested by the light meter:
55mm, f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 800
Exposure Compensation: 0
Lighter Than Average 3
Exposure Compensation: +0.67
For this image I was looking for a scene with as much white as possible, in order to demonstrate and deal with a difficult situation for the light meter. The camera assumes that the average image will have some dark areas, and some light areas. With this in mind it averages out the scene, trying to achieve 18% grey. This works well in most situations, but in images dominated by white, such as a snow scene, it causes an underexposure, turning the white into grey. The opposite happens in scenes dominated by black. In the absence of a snow scene, I chose the 'Hall of Memory' in Birmingham. Although not pure white, it's a very light shade, and was also back-lit at the time. The above image is with +0.67 exposure compensation applied. With hindsight, it probably needed another half-stop of compensation added, but this is easily rectified in Photoshop. To compare, the following image is with the settings suggested by the light meter:
19mm, f/3.5, 1/1000, ISO 200
Exposure Compensation: 0
Darker Than Average
45mm, f/5.3, 1/60, ISO 200
Exposure Compensation: -2
Finding somewhere to take an image with gloomy or even sinister connotations was surprisingly difficult in the middle of the day, but I did find this underpass with strong orange lighting, which seemed far removed from the bright, even lighting on that overcast day. I decided to underexpose this image by two stops to dull down the brightness of the lighting and create a darker, more foreboding environment. When I had decided this 'stage' in my mind, I then waited a few minutes for the 'cast' to appear, in this instance a solitary figure in dark clothing walking away from the camera. This gives the impression that this person is being watched or followed. Other aspects of the scene add to this grimy, unsettling feel; the litter on the floor, the old stickers on the back of the traffic sign, and the bland, blocky concrete of the underpass.
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