FORGET metering modes, do this instead for perfect exposure!
Metering modes can be confusing, but luckily, as a landscape photographer, you don't need to think about them. Just do this instead... In this video, I show you how to get a perfect exposure each time, while taking some landscape photos in beautiful and EPIC Iceland!
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0:00 - Intro
0:45 - Metering modes
2:16 - Exposure compensation and A/S
3:13 - Zebra
3:56 - Zebra and Histogram
4:39 - Why metering doesn't matter
5:22 - Other kinds of photography
6:02 - Getting the photo in Aperture Priority
9:43 - Why use Manual Mode?
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In the first 10 seconds of this video, I predicted that you would use the clipping indicator (zebras) to control exposure. Technically, you are obviously correct about ETTR. However, There are times when you want to overexpose (high key) for your interpretation of the scene and conversely, underexpose to block out the shadows (maybe for a more dramatic monochrome). Of course, if you shoot raw files, you have more latitude to introduce such effects in post. In the end, you have to choose camera settings intelligently to obtain your image that you envisage before you press the shutter release. May I add that especially with landscape photography, the use of graduated ND filters are often a help in controlling exposure. However, thanks for another video.
That’s a great tip to switch to manual to establish the required shutter speed for variable light conditions. I use a similar trick to establish if my polarised light filter is correctly orientated when it might overwise not be possible. When rotating the polarised filter in manual mode the histogram will shift left as the polarised filter gets to the right position.
Hi Mads, this is a very basic rule you have provided in this video. It will help many starters including me. Perhaps I found a problem in photographing coloured flowers in the spring using this method. Checking what Sony cameras are doing to get a good histogram and therefore exposure is interesting. Sony just adds all color channel up and shows this as histogram. That is in most cases just fine. Perhaps with strong coloured flowers I had trouble. Histogram looks great but the red(red first, then green and then blue) channels get overexposed and therefore loosing the color contrast in the object. This can be seen in the review histogram after taking the picture. The reason is simple by just adding all channel values one can not account for over saturated color channels, because may be only one channel is too strong and another is weak therefore not showing up in the histogram and in the zebra (not sure). All the other trick you are showing in this video always blow me away. Thank so much.
Great video, as always. Another tip (learnt from Joel Grimes) is to use iso bracketing for water. You can fix the shutter speed to what you want for the water smoothing, but then take 3 pics using the iso to expose for highlights and shadows (e.g 50, 100, 200). Every frame then has the same timing for the water, but different exposures.
Great tip.
Quite simply wonderful Mads. Your explanations and insights are brilliant. Fabulous captures I can only dream of. Love it 🙏👏👏👏
Another great tutorial video Mads. The information that you give in your video's is very useful. You captured some fantastic image's as usual. Look forward to the next one.
Thank you for this. I’ve recently switched from Nikon to Sony, I love the Sony but one thing Nikon got better was metering. I will practice this from now on for landscape.
Mads, thanks for yet another lesson !!!
Good point, Mads!
Great information and tips.
Great info Mads! Thanks for taking me along!
Super video Mads ! Always follow your work and enjoy it ! You always explain it very good and make it easy to understand. Thanks for everything Mads !!!
Incredible images, Mads! 😍
This is very helpful. Thank you.
some great technical advice this week Mads along with your beautiful images. Good to see you back in the place where you have created so many memorable videos
great for every time
Our you can shoot 3 or 5 bracketed shots and do an HDR merge. To elij8nate that oversaturated look of many HDR photos, reduce the vibrancy and saturati i n so that you get the dynamic range, don't clip the shadows or highlights... this usually includes a change in shutter speeds for each bracketed photo. This can be an issue with windy compositions or seascapes where there are mocements between bracketed images and your brackets don't line up in the merge.
Perhaps your best technical post yet ! ( at least for me since when shooting in manual I never understood what to do with exposure compensation 😂) and perhaps as well some of my favorite Vestrahorn shots I’ve seen👏👏Some day I’ll get there ! Take care see you soon !!!
Oh man, you are incredible. Thanks for sharing and helps us grow
Thanks for sharing. With the advancement in camera and other photographic equipment I deviated from using Ex-Comp just because I used a Vari ND filter. When shooting for higher contrast scene I was able to put the camera on timer and have my forefinger rotating the filter slowly as the shot is made, I then stack the photos for an HDR effect. BTW, the camera of course is tripod mounted.
Thanks Mads for sharing your exposure process. As a process oriented person this is like gold to me. I especially enjoyed your explaination about shifting from aperture priority mode to manual and why. I will generally shoot in aperture mode as well, but rarely shoot water other than reflections. This video was very helpfull. Again thanks so much.
Worthwhile info. Some really great light at the second location. Carry on. 👍🥂
Hi Mads.......thanks for another great and informative video. I meet up with a group for Saturday sunrise, 99% of the time at a I always shoot manual. I like your thoughts on blending and it's something I'll definitely try. 📷😁
I alway learn something from you Mads 👌
Thanks Mads. I see that I need to use my exposure compensation wheel more often for fine tuning. I tend to use iso or shutter speed when in aperture priority.
It may be worth noting for that last exposure... An ND filter may be required. You note why you crank the shutter speed down (wave motion) and why you drop your ISO (low noise) but only point out changing aperture to "what you need." If it's bright out, the Aperture may need to go either so high that diffraction kills contrast and sharpness OR it's simply so bright that the aperture can't go high enough. I've seen a lot of people get confused about how to motion blur in this situation, especially with a lens that stops at F16. It's usually just that they don't know ND filters exist. I know that's like a bigger topic that introduces complexity you probably wanted to avoid for this particular video, though. Great video overall though. I think a lot of people don't really sit down with the auto metering modes and work through them. Especially all the people putting street photography videos up. I always see them shooting into and out of city shadows metering that wrong way then just cranking sliders in Lightroom to try and recover 🤷
You are completely correct, I forgot to mention ND filters. I'm sure most landscape photographers know about them, but it's good to have as a footnote if you're shooting in much brighter conditions :)
@@MadsPeterIversen That's true too. Most landscape Photographers do know about them, and those who don't probably don't need the added complexity in a meeting mode video ha.
A very helpful post. Thank you! I love that final composition, although I would prefer the person wasnt there!
If you are not confident or sure, shoot under exposed. Then correct in post. Recovering shadow is a lot easier than saving highlight.
Hi Peter, yeah definitely definitely makes some really good points. I'm very experienced landscape photographer in Australia and I sell a lot of images and what you're saying is true. I still think there is a place for grad filters in certain situations I know you're not a fan but they are sometimes very useful, especially where I live in Australia where the sun is really really harsh especially in summer. The other reason I switched to a GFX camera was the dynamic range and this camera actually suits Australian conditions because I can simply expose for the highlights, and I can recover shadows really well with the GFX camera, and yep you've got a bump the F stop up to around F16 or F18 togenerally to get everything in focus... But it works really well. It is also knowing the dynamic range of your camera. Some cameras are better at dynamic range and recovering shadows. It's always easier to recover shadows than it is to try and tone down a highlight. In fact, that's almost impossible. But you are right the metering modes for landscape. Photography isn't as important as it used to be, especially with modern cameras. It is harder to do landscape photography with a crop sensor camera when it comes to Dynamic rage
What about the histogram is showing a jpeg representation and not of a raw file? So the histogram isn't really reliable. If I use the histogram (Sony a7riv) and expose to the right and then put my photo in Lightroom there is a big difference in histograms. Would love some information/video about that topic! Do you use a really flat jpeg profile for example? I have so mant questions haha. amazing photography in the video as always. love it!!
Olympus has good exposure tools. It would be nice if camera companies implemented something like false color in stills mode.
I ran magic lantern on my 6D that had a nicely accurate histogram and zebras. I am loving the zebras on my new to me A7RIII, just as accurate if not more. Not overly keen on the histogram display on it though! Love the video as always epic shots, the seascape shots are stand out for me, my type of shot 100%
Yeah, the histogram in the Sony cameras are not as good as in my old Canon cameras...
Great video Mads, I notice a new L bracket? Also want to know how you are able to attach an L bracket to the peak design clip? I love all of your videos. They have helped me so much. Thank you.
Yes, smallrig for the a7r5, can't attach the peak design clip to that, check out my Ireland video where I talk a bit more about it :)
@@MadsPeterIversen thanks. I’ll check it out. Going to Ireland next April, and looking forward to all the photo opportunities.
tried to buy the e-book but they payhip doesnt work and wont recognise any cards and i dont use paypal......
Hi Peter, thanks for your always interesting videos. A quick question: in manual mode, when you use aperture as your "variable" in order to get the perfect exposure, do you care about not going beyond f13 or so, since "diffraction" starts to appear at these high f-numbers? Maybe it's negligible? (Yes, I'm a fan of Christopher Frost channel...)
I usually stop at f/16, but it depends a bit on the lens :)
Lovely shots as always! Makes me wonder if I'm doing it wrong: Us Canon shooters don't get zebras. Instead I have an RGB histogram on my LCD and I push til it kisses the right edge.
Sounds perfectly right :)
I would slightly disagree that "it doesn't matter". it depends on how you're shooting. if you approach a scene and know that it exceeds the DR of your camera (or your comfort level for darks vs lights) then I would recommend using spot or highlight weighted metering and measure the lightest and darkest, instead of using whatever metering mode the camera is on or just any random metering mode. I guess for bracketing you have to use spot metering to correctly gauge the highlights and shadows anyway and that would be the best way to do it since you can pinpoint those two points to gauge dynamic range (I'm one that if the DR is more than +/-2 stops, I'll bracket -- of course I know fir some scenes with objects that move, it may not be feasible or the end result may be worse than trying to do ETTR).
The big disadvantage for a lot of canon cameras is that they don't use zebra stripes except for movies.
That, and Canon should have had more user control over selecting what information windows can be chosen and their placement in live view.
Fuji too - at least the one I own does.
Yes, a bit ridiculous to have to set up your exposure in video mode so as to see zebras, then switch back to photo mode and match the settings.
@stevepritchard3970 Exactly. Just one more step in the process. I love Canon, but they missed the boat on a few user interface issues, mostly because of patent issues. Leica and Hasselblad have the best user interfaces. Wanna have fun, shoot with a digital back for a Hasselblad. There's no infant gratification.
Olympus shows your highlight alerts in red and your shadow alerts in blue, just like Lightroom does, this is very useful. But I don't know why you set your zebras to 100, I notice when you check the photo with the highlights warning, they don't match.
With Nikon cameras, if you see the Zebra stripes, those areas are being clipped. (Also, early in the video you speak of setting the camera to Shutter priority but you've set the dial to 'P')
You can change the zebra settings in the menu and that's also an option in my camera. Also, no, it's in shutter speed priority, not program mode :)
What I've found is that the camera's meter works around "averages" - which doesn't work for an image that is weighted towards either/or highlights or shadows. So these days I rarely hit the shutter button without using an external meter - which can read the light from its source, instead from the scene I'm shooting.
@@johngyorki2569 At first, I used a Sekonik Speedmaster - but after a while, I decided I could just use a smaller, cheaper, more convenient one like a Sekonic Flashmate that I could just slip in a pocket of my trousers. Just to get my bearings, compared to what the camera was telling me. It's just that it eliminates for the element of risk, where the landscape or whatever has a greater or lower percentage of dark areas, or light areas, than the "average" reading that a camera meter produces. And you don't have to stuff around so much, making adjustments like +3 or -3, or whatever - or checking the shot and finding you have to do it all over again.
Why you use photoshop luminosity masks and not HDR in Lightroom? Does it make a difference?
Hi Peter, what gloves do you use?
Merino liner pro from the Heat Company :)
ok, I've watched it three times, and I still don't understand the need and use of exposure compensation versus setting the camera to be under or over exposed. wht is the value in using exposure compensation? are you setting an exposure at the mid point then using exposure compensation to move it to the right without clipping the highlights? I feel like I'm missing something here. thanks
Exposure compensation is something you can only do in aperture priority, shutter speed priority or program mode, you simply set the exposure you want, which depends on how you want your histogram to look. Due to the A, S or P mode the camera will change one or two of the exposure factors (aperture or shutter speed), It's just an alternative and often faster way than using full manual where you have to set all your settings. You cannot use exposure compensation in full manual because the camera is not allowed to compensate since you in full manual "lock" all settings until you yourself change the settings via the corresponding dials on the camera. Does that make sense? :)
@@MadsPeterIversen so you are using the exposure control to "fine tune" your histogram to where you want your highlights while in A or S mode ? is that it basically?
@@daviddyephotography yes :)
@MadsPeterIversen thankyou so much ! it's the details and they so often get overlooked, Keep on creating. be safe
@@MadsPeterIversen. Not quite true. If I'm shooting water and struggling to get the shutter speed and aperture combination that I want due to low light then I go Manual with auto ISO. You can then use ISO for exposure compensation. You may want base ISO but sometimes needs must.
I use manual manual mode, 99% of the time on my Fuji xt4, so the exposure compensation is pretty useless for me, right?
Mads did you throw that camera in the mud?
What is the problem when tiny parts of my photo are clipped? Black and white belong to the luminance spectrum as well. So what?
Man, the a7rv colors through the screen are dope compared to the a7RIII
I wouldn't trust it too much when I record it with an Osmo pocket 3 in auto mode ;)
And why can't you just take a photo with an exposure bracketing of 3 frames automatically?
You can, it's called AEB, auto exposure braketing :)
Interesting, someone else who uses CR + PS and not LR + PS.