Saturday, 3/27/10 - Balance

Most cameras these days,
even inexpensive point-and-shoot models,
have light meters built into them.

The light meter allows the camera
to decide the "best" exposure for the scene.



I have been developing a
light meter in my head.

Now, I comtemplate the scene,
mentally calculate the exposure,
and manually set the
camera's exposure values.

This is easy on sunny afternoons
and much more difficult on shots like
this one where we need to balance the
exposure to include the streetlights
in the foreground and the
clouds in the background.

Sometimes it is impossible to use
existing light to create a pleasant balance
and fill-flash must be used.

In this image
I liked the effect of the
palm in silhouette
and used only available light.

Balance,
in photography -
as in life -
is important.