What is Exposure in digital Photography?
I have been reading magazines and they keep on about using different exposures can somebody help me?
—xoxfletc…

Exposure is the amount of light that is “exposed” to the film. This usually only applies to DSLRs that have an exposure settings not the point and shoot cameras
—rusty778

Simply put, exposure is the amount of light which touches your digital camera’s sensor - which then results in a photograph being recorded.

Exposure is a combination of 3 things, regardless of whatever type of camera you use - your shutter speed, your aperture and your ISO setting. These are the 3 things that you control and try to balance to arrive at a specific exposure.

Shutter speed is how long your shutter is open - so the longer it is open, the more light is recorded. If you open it for a few seconds, you might be able to record a person moving across your frame as a blur for example.

Aperture is how wide your lens opens. It is denoted by f-stops. The wider a lens opens, the smaller the f-stop number. So an f-stop of f/2.8 means your lens has ‘opened’ wider than an f-stop of f/22. Think of an aperture of f/2.8 as you opening your eyes really wide, while an aperture of f/22 as you squinting your eyes.

The wider your aperture (smaller f-stop number) then the more light enters your sensor. The smaller your lens opening (larger f-stop number) then the less light enters.

ISO setting, is basically how sensitive your sensor is to the light. The higher your ISO setting, the more sensitive your sensor becomes. But the drawback is, once you increase your ISO setting (usually to anything above ISO 400 for point and shoots) then you start getting ‘grain’ (otherwise known as ‘digital noise’) in your photo’s.

So to arrive at an exposure, you are basically relying on those three things.

For example, your camera is set at ISO 100 and you are photographing your dog running across the park. You would want to use a short shutter speed so that your dog will not appear as a blur in your picture.

But since you are using a short shutter speed (your shutter closes quickly, so not a lot of light will hit the sensor) you will want to use open your lens wider by using a large aperture (smaller f-stop number) - this way, even though your shutter closes quickly, your lens opens wider and hence, still lets in more light.

If you don’t open your lens wider, and still use a short shutter speed, then your photograph might appear dark (under-exposed) since not enough light has hit the sensor.

Of course, you could also do it the other way around - use a longer shutter speed, and a smaller aperture (larger f-stop number) and your photograph won’t appear dark - but then your dog would appear as a blur since you opened up your shutter too long.

Another thing you could do is to increase the ISO setting - since this makes your camera sensor more sensitive to light - you won’t need to use a long shutter speed or a large aperture anymore - but the problem is, grain or digital noise can appear in your photograph.
—WhatPhot…

As mentioned, exposure is the amount of light required to record a image correctly … over and under exposure can be a problem if you find yourself in unusual lighting.

There are two features you need to consider when attempting to make great photos.

First is getting the right amount of light on your sensor. P&S cameras have various settings for different kinds of shots (night portraits dusk/dawn, sunset, landscape, beach/snow, party/indoor, portraits., night landscapes, museum, sports, close up, fireworks, copy, back light, even panporama assist on some cameras)

The second has to do with the white balance (bright sun, cloudy, shade, incandescent, fluorscent and flash) When changing lighting situations, to get the best colour, you need to match the colour balance with the prominant lighting in the scene
—fhotoace

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