Measuring Exposure, Part Two - Scene Four

Winter Night Shelter - St. Martin

Best Exposure

18mm, f/3.5, 1/1000, ISO 1600

Exposure Compensation: +0.67

This series of images, as in scene four, where taken inside the church of St.Martin in the Bull Ring. I noticed a row of inflated air-beds with wooden dividers, and signage within the church informed that homeless people were offered a bed for the night over the winter. I thought this was a great concept to photograph, and in my mind I could see the sunlight streaming through the window onto the airbed; a visual embodiment of a potentially life-saving gesture. This exposure, over-compensated by two-thirds bathes the bed in the most light, most accurately representing the scene I imagined.

18mm, f/3.5, 1/2500, ISO 1600

Exposure Compensation: -0.67

This image is underexposed by two-thirds of a stop, and the subject has been almost completely lost in shadow, as such I would consider this particular version unusable.

18mm, f/3.5, 1/1600, ISO 1600

Exposure Compensation: -0.33

This is a little better, but still there is not enough attention being drawn to the main subject.

18mm, f/3.5, 1/1250, ISO 1600

Exposure Compensation: 0

Again incrementally better, but at this recommended setting there is no clear subject, and I think viewer's of the image would be unsure of what they are supposed to be looking at.

18mm, f/3.5, 1/1000, ISO 1600

Exposure Compensation: +0.33

The bed itself now begins to appear more obvious, and I'd select this as the only other acceptable exposure in the series, although the illumination of the bed by the sunlight is enhanced better with two-thirds of a stop compensation.

Overall Response

This is the first series of images that features unusable exposures. Although 'correct' in terms of averaging-out the brightness in the scene, if you have something different in mind you need to be able to override the camera's suggestions. By bracketing my shots I was able to achieve the effect I wanted, and would probably further over-expose on my chosen image in post-production.