Exposure Compensation

[dicklaxt]

Exposure Compensation is effective when the colors fill the frame

This was a statement in a Canon Tutorial not a question I came up, what does it mean?

I know what EC is but this statement confuses me which isn't hard to do.:)

dick

[Jon]

Could you please provide it in context? Without seeing it in context, I'd suspect that they're saying "if the frame is pretty well filled with one, or a few, colours using EC can help keep them looking 'real', especially if they're either very dark or very light ones".

[dicklaxt]

Take a look here.3 examples of flowers followed by the statement

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/enjoydslr/part2/2Ba.html


dick

[Jon]

It's just like I said then. Use EC to keep the colours/tones looking "real".

[dicklaxt]

Looks to me like the color is filling the frame on all six examples,what the heck am I missing?

dick

[Jon]

If it wasn't filling the frame, you might not need to use EC. Or at least not the same amount. Notice that for each of the 3 examples they show an uncorrected exposure and a second exposure with an indicated amount of EC. If the flowers had been less of the frame, the amount of EC you'd use would be different from what they show. Or take the woman on the black couch. If you zoomed in on her face, you wouldn't have needed EC, or as much EC, to expose her face properly, since it, not the black couch, would have occupied more of the frame.

[dicklaxt]

Duh I sure must be thick or there are some terms being used that do not literally tranlate per Webster,when I see the word fill the frame then thats what I look for and when I compare te examples there is absolutely no physical difference in the two as far as filling the frame,no larger or smaller,now they look different ye and the color i brighter or more bold but to me that i not filling the frame just because it has changed its brightnes or ricne in color,,,,,,,,,,do yo see where I'm coming from,,,,,,,,,being the amature I can only go by what i know in definition of the English Language,now if something else is meant then that should be explained because of the confusion factor it causes when they don't.

dick

[Jon]

They are saying that because in the scenes presented the subject fills the frame you need to use EC to get "correct" tonal representation, where if the flowers were a smaller part of the scene you wouldn't. Notice that the composition of the "before" and "after" shots hasn't changed. What has changed, because the subject fills the frame and the subject doesn't correspond to a neutral grey tonal value is the EC setting needed. Your exposure meter is calibrated to treat a scene as if it averages out to a middle grey. When you have a subject that is predominantly some other tone (never mind red, green, or orange, we're talking about how it would look in a black and white photo; your exposure meter is colour blind), you need to use EC to get the right exposure. Go back and look at the snow scene or the woman on the black couch. In both those, the "normal" exposure gave you a grey scene, not the white, or black, that it should have. By playing with the EC slider you could adjust the exposure so white shows up as white, and black shows up as black.

If you don't understand what they're saying, try experimenting with EC. Put a paper towel on a dark floor, or on some grass outside, then take a picture with plenty of floor/grass around the paper towel. Move in closer and take another picture with the paper towel filling your screen. Then compare the two. For best results, don't use flash. Then, see how much EC you need to use to repeat the second shot and have the paper towel show up matching the tone it has in the first one (with lots of floor/grass around it).

[dicklaxt]

I guess what they are saying is when the image has the correct do's and don'ts then the color fills the frame uniformly,,,,,,,,,,,,,,if thats so, why didn't they say that?
:D:D:D

[Jon]

Because that's not what they're saying. Go try the experiment I suggested. It should become clearer. They're saying that if you fill the frame with one uniform coloured/toned subject, you may need EC to get it to reproduce correctly.