I was 10 years old when I was bit by the photography bug. My father recruited me to process and print his photographs documenting his safety engineering inspections. These were the driest, most boring informational images showing the conditions of buildings, fire exits, factory assembly lines, etc., but to me it was pure magic to see these images appear gradually in the tray under the safelight. I was in charge of my father’s photography (and probably saved him a ton of money) at a time when Ansel Adams’ series of books contained the pinnacle of photographic technique. The Zone System was the most sophisticated approach to the craft of photography—something I would discover six years later in a high school photography class. I would learn this art and craft of photography over the course of the next 20 years.
In 1987, I bought my first computer, an Apple Macintosh SE. Initially, I thought to use it to run my business. Hypercard had just been introduced, and I hired a friend to write an invoicing “stack”—a custom implementation that made generating invoices and estimates “push button” easy. This humble little machine had an amazing ability to manipulate images, including photographs, and by 1989, I was exploring computer imaging with a passion. In 1990, I purchased a Mac IIfx and was pursuing a career in digital imaging, doing photography, retouching, and image compositing for entertainment industry print advertising—movie posters, video box packaging, and album covers.
Today I’ve spent almost exactly the same time in digital imaging as I have in traditional film-based photography. This gives me a unique perspective on the changes in photographic technology and it has taught me that there is value in the old craft of photography as taught by Adams. The computer has radically altered the methods used to capture, process, and print images, but the basic concepts of photography have not changed much in the 175 odd years since Henry Fox Talbot created paper negatives. Photographs remain a record of the light falling on a sensitized surface; in essence, it’s all about capturing light to recreate a vision, a moment frozen in time. The single most crucial element of this recording process is the moment of exposure!
Which brings us to this volume. I have attempted to distill some 40 odd years of photography experience into a collection of words and images to give you some insight into the basic art of photography as it is practiced today. This information leverages my experience with “old school” photography to build a modern system of exposure control for the 21st century. The testing procedures outlined herein are reminiscent of the classic Zone System but address the special considerations necessary for the current technology of digital image capture and take advantage of the latest software and hardware for digital imaging control. My whole reason for writing this is to hopefully preserve some of the knowledge gained over the last 175 years and simply rein-vigorate the concepts of exposure control for a new age of digital precision. The basics of the camera and lens remain the same—only the recording medium has changed.
We will progress through the following general outline:
Digital Imaging Basics
New Digital Zone System
Calibration Procedures
Case Studies
Post Processing
High Dynamic Range Imaging
Emerging Technologies
f16 @ 1/80, ISO 100
Each chapter will cover a different aspect of basic photo imaging as it pertains to mastering exposure for digital photography. This is intended as a practical guide, but we will present some conceptual material as well as step-by-step procedures. There is also a discussion of digital darkroom techniques, but this is not an exhaustive study—rather, it is meant as a framework for exposure decisions in light of post-processing technique. Finally, we will look at some emerging technologies that promise to have a major impact on how we will conceptualize photographic imaging in years to come.
This is not a book about Photoshop, though there is a fair amount of Photoshop in these pages. I assume that the reader is somewhat familiar with the basics of Photoshop and is at least conversant with the latest version (CS5 at the time of publication)—I will present step-by-step techniques in Photoshop, but I will not explain every detail of the interface or preference settings, and so on. I highly recommend that you have a good Photoshop manual on hand when reading this book if you are not confident in your basic Photoshop skills.
f11 @ 1/100, ISO 100, studio flash
This is also not a beginner’s guide to photography. I assume the reader is familiar with f-stops and shutter speeds and has some understanding of E.I., E.V., ISO, and the basic operation of his own camera. I will cover the principles of photography and the practical application of those principles to digital capture and post process but I will not spend time showing how to hold a camera or compose a portrait. This is not an exploration of aesthetics, and you will not find any philosophical discussions about the “art” of photography. We are concerned here with craft and all our efforts will be directed to achieving a technically correct image whether or not that image is beautiful artistically.
The field of digital photography is undergoing extremely rapid development and it is hard to be completely current when new equipment, software, and techniques are introduced almost every month. It will have been almost one year from the time I started writing to the time this book is in circulation. There is likely to be some development that will render a portion of the information contained herein obsolete. To mitigate this natural process I will maintain a website for the book with as much updated information as possible to supplement the material presented here. Please sign up and log in to:
www.varis.com/masteringexposure
f4.8 @ 1/180, ISO 100
Remember that the material I present here is based on my experience in photography. I cannot claim to know everything there is to know about digital photography, and the reader would do well to test everything for himself. Photography is used in so many different applications that there will always be some special situation that requires a different approach due to various real-world constraints. I encourage you to develop an understanding of the fundamental principles and not get stuck in a “follow the recipe” approach—learn and adapt this info to your own specific needs. I welcome all readers to send me your own stories about success or failure with my techniques and any creative adaptations to unusual circumstances or solutions to problems that have presented themselves in the course of your work. Send your comments through the website and together we can build a resource for future developments.
A final note: at various points in the following discourse, I recommend certain hardware and/or software. I do not receive any compensation for these recommendations nor am I “on retainer” for any of the companies involved. These products are simply the ones that I’m familiar with and have had success with. There are many options available and I cannot spend time with every different piece of equipment or software application. Please don’t take these suggestions as the ultimate endorsement. We are living in a time where innovation occurs so rapidly that it is impossible to know all of the options that are available now or in the immediate future. My task is to teach the important concepts for digital photography so that you can evaluate new products and techniques as they become available and decide for yourself whether they have value for you.
f6.7 @ 1/60 & f16 @ 1/100, ISO 100, two merged exposures
f5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 200
