Understanding Exposure-Bryan Peterson

Brad999 wrote in post #5086967
tdodd, you have proven one thing...This book is well written and like a good commercial, it did its job...

Look how much you can recall...Its like you studied it 4 or 5 times...

Btw, I'm sure many people know what that is about turning up a recording level, but I have no clue...

I'm afraid you're wrong. I speed read the first hundred pages and then dipped into the rest, as the book bored me rigid. I tried really hard to give the book a chance but in the end I could not see what the fuss was about. I learned nothing from the book that I did not already know, or felt that I needed to know. What was of more interest was how much was missing from the book, rather than what was included.

The only other time I have referred to it is when people have queried a point made in the book - because it is obtuse and confusing - and I have stepped in to try to assist them.

I was given my first 35mm film SLR in the late 1970s - a Pentax S1a (with a Weston light meter), and I bought a Pentax Super A in the early 1980s. Even with the Super A I didn't meter at the "wrong" aperture and then change all my settings around to get the DOF I wanted afterwards. I metered using the setting I was intending to use - far simpler. I bought my first digital camera in June 2005, my first digital SLR in July 1996 and my second in September 1997. I've shot a wedding, at which I made a few mistakes and learned a few lessons, and I've sold a few photos too. I don't claim to be an expert, but I do feel my relative experience puts me in a better position to judge the book than a newbie who doesn't know any better. I maintain it is a poor recommendation for the digital newbie.

Regarding recording levels, I guess in this digital age many people may have no experience of "recording levels" when copying/recording music - like in the good old days of analogue tape. Nonetheless, I suspect even fewer people have much experience of worker bees filling up buckets with water from a tap. Which analogy is the more preposterous?

tdodd - I agree I think the film ideas are hard to get away from for some people.
I was speaking with a film photog a while ago and he kept telling me to set the ISO on 100 and don't change it

Right.

I was polite and I explained that there are times when you cannot use flash (certain wedding ceremonies, certain basketball games where it may be frowned upon, etc.).

Heck even if I can use the flash I still want to do some hybrid shutter dragging using a high ISO so it does not tax my flash batteries as much (in case of emergency).

binliner wrote in post #5086990
What more do you expect from a book called 'understanding exposure' ?

Btw, I'm sure many people know what that is about turning up a recording level, but I have no clue...

Well for starters, if we're supposed to be "understanding exposure", don't you think it would be a cracking idea to cover histograms? What better way to understand your exposure? Now, if you want to "understand metering" that is something else.

sorry, you seem to have quoted something that I didn't say?!

I agree, as I said in my post, that it doesn't sufficiently cover digital techniques but as a beginner I learnt something from it... not everything, granted, but enough to make it work spending £10 on

binliner wrote in post #5087350
sorry, you seem to have quoted something that I didn't say?!

I agree, as I said in my post, that it doesn't sufficiently cover digital techniques but as a beginner I learnt something from it... not everything, granted, but enough to make it work spending £10 on

Sorry about my misquote. I wanted to add a bit to one of my responses and cut and pasted the quote into the wrong response. I've corrected my mistake.

Regarding the book, I agree it teaches some useful stuff, but my complaint is with the omissions rather than the inclusions. Surely there must be a more suitable book available in this day and age. I don't know of one because I am content to pick up my knowledge through the resources of this forum and other forums and free web sites, plus practice and experience, of course. I can't think of a perfect analogy for Peterson's book but it's sort of like teaching tennis to a newbie and covering the ground strokes, volleys, serving, smashing and lobbing, but completely ignoring top spin and slice. I consider histograms to be as fundamental to understanding exposure as top spin and back spin are to standard tennis strokes. It just makes no sense to me to be continually recommending a book that leaves such a fundamental part of the subject completely ignored.

It must be kept in mind that the current 'Understanding Exposure' is a revised edition. The original was completely about film with no mention of digital. And while some digital was added, not everything digital was - that would have simply been a completely new book.

burnxkr wrote in post #5076847
Ordered this book on Amazon this week and read the first 10 pages or so and it has changed the way I use my camera overnight. I shot all day in Manual today using the light meter and adjusting aperture/shutter speed/ISO to get some great exposures.
I think that the penny has dropped and had better color and contrast than I have ever had before. If you haven't read this book then I strongly urge you to do so.
Experimented tonight with my flash too and the same principles appear to apply there too.
Crap I love this stuff. People say that ever time you take the camera out its a learning experience and if the lessons are as successful as today bring em on.

I bought it maybe a year ago, and I still read it.

I still think it is a good book for absolute beginners. It won't take long for the average person to outgrow the book and have said so whenever I do recommend it to someone. It also should include additional items like histograms.

What I actually disliked about the book is his rambling writing style. You may have noticed most of the posts on this forum about the book are looking for clarification about his different rules. The rules work, on purpose or by dumb luck, but they are written in such a way that you don't actually understand what he is trying to teach. By the time you figure it out you are way past using the book.

eddarr wrote in post #5090526
What I actually disliked about the book is his rambling writing style. You may have noticed most of the posts on this forum about the book are looking for clarification about his different rules. The rules work, on purpose or by dumb luck, but they are written in such a way that you don't actually understand what he is trying to teach. By the time you figure it out you are way past using the book.

That's a good way of putting it, in my opinion.

Your missing the point of this book. It wasn't written for you. Nobody that has been playing with cameras since the 1970's should be buying or reading this book in the 1980's, 1990's or 2000's.

You need to move on. You should already understand exposure by now...

For anyone new to photography, trying to decide if they should buy this book...you can either go with 99% of the newbies that give it a stellar recommendation and say that YES, it helped them OR you can go with the 1% who already knew the information before they read it, and have concluded that it didn't help them...you decide.

I actually read the book two times as I thought I must have missed something the first time through. The book is obviously well written, but the material is VERY basic. I think you can pretty much sum up the chapters on aperature and shutter speed in a few sentences. With that said, I did pick up a few pointers from the book.

If you really think a book that teaches "understanding exposure" but fails to cover histograms is covering the topic adequately then you will not be interested in these (free!) links about the "21st century light meter"....

http://www.luminous-landscape.com …standing-histograms.shtml

http://digital-photography-school.com …understanding-histograms/

http://www.cambridgein​colour.com/tutorials/h​istograms1.htm

http://www.cambridgein​colour.com/tutorials/h​istograms2.htm

On the other hand, if you do want to verify that you got your exposure correct, employing whichever metering/exposure technique you wish (or Bryan Peterson advocates), you will find histograms invaluable in confirming that you nailed the exposure perfectly so that you can go home with the photo in the bag.

The camera manufacturers did not include histograms just to add gimmicks to the features list. Histograms are an important tool to help you get the most from your camera and to bag the best shot you can. You will also find, if you use editing software, that histograms feature quite significantly in the workspaces of many packages. In the film days there was no such thing as a histogram. In the digital age they are central to a lot of the tweaking that goes on - levels and curves adjustments are all about the data in the histogram. (examples attached)

By all means use the book to learn the basics. I'm sure it will help you get your exposures approximately right. However, if you want to get your exposures absolutely perfect, I strongly recommend you teach yourself how to use histograms as well. There's no need to pay for those lessons.

While we're discussing the topic "understanding exposure", surely the discussion would not be complete without considering "Expose To The Right" technique for digital captures to raw files (more on raw here - http://www.luminous-landscape.com …-series/u-raw-files.shtml). Once again, Bryan's book does not cover the subject. Get your free lesson here....

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorial​s/expose-right.shtml

.... and that leads on to interesting discussions such as this one....

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=25240, for example.

Here are examples of the interface from DPP and Lightroom, with one of my photos loaded. Note that the histogram is present in both workspaces. IMHO the exposure is about as perfect as it could be. This was achieved by using the "Sunny 16" rule as a starting point for my exposure and then using the histogram (and blinking highlights indicator) to fine tune the exposure to capture the maximum tonal detail in the image without blowing the highlights in the snow, jackets etc..

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Thanks for the links, but as a newbie, its way too much right now. I just bought my camera and I want to just take the book, read it and get some half decent exposures.

Once I get that down, I will start learning how to chimp a histogram to further refine them...after that, its post processing...and then onto flash and portrait lighting...

Lots to learn, but can't learn all this technical stuff right off the bat. I'd fire the camera in the closet as I have already become far too overwhelmed at all the stuff I need to know...

I put your links in my favorites for another day, as I know once I get to that point, and I'm ready for them, they will be invaluable...

If the purpose of the book is for new photographers, then there is such a thing as overwhelming people too quickly. Maybe some basic histogram stuff, but no need to the full history and theory just yet.

Then again, the more I think about it the more I think he's not really teaching how to set exposure on the first place. He's more teaching a backhanded way of having the camera do it for you.

This thread actually has me thinking of selling my copy. People seem to love it so I might get a good price while the gettin's good.

I agree it is entirely possible to overwhelm the newbie. However, Bryan's book is ~150 pages long. I provided a few links about histograms but really only one or two is all you need. How many "pages" of information is contained in each of those links - maybe 8. It's a small amount of extra information for potentially a large gain in understanding exposure and getting the most from your camera.

If the book was rewritten to lose some of the repetitive waffle and integrate this valuable information in a nurturing style it would be a better book. Maybe that book has already been written by somebody else. Maybe BP should rewrite his own book.

Whenever anyone asks about problems with exposure there are normally three parts to the response....

1. Specific advice about the exact problem reported;
2. Check your histogram when shooting;
3. Buy "Understanding Exposure".

I really do think newbies (and all of us, in fact) would be doing themselves a favour by learning to use their histograms. It will give you feedback, in the field, about whether you did get the exposure right. It's about the closest thing you'll get to having a "teacher" check/mark your work when you're out and about, practicing your new skills.

A newbie may not understand the value of the histogram. As a moderately experienced photographer I would like to suggest that it is well worth understanding and using it.