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TIME EXPOSURE = SHUTTER SPEED

Exposure (photography)
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"Underexposure" redirects here. For the 2005 film by Oday Rasheed, see Underexposure (2005
film).

A photograph with an exposure time of 1/13 second blurs the motion of flying birds.

A photograph of the sea after sunset with an exposure time of 15 seconds. The swell from the
waves appears as fog.

In photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic
medium (photographic film or image sensor) during the process of taking a photograph.
Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value (EV) and scene
luminance over a specified area.

In photographic jargon, an exposure generally refers to a single shutter cycle. For example: a
long exposure refers to a single, protracted shutter cycle to capture enough low-intensity light,
whereas a multiple exposure involves a series of relatively brief shutter cycles; effectively
layering a series of photographs in one image. For the same film speed, the accumulated
photometric exposure (H) should be similar in both cases.
Contents
[hide]

 1 Photometric and radiometric exposure


 2 Exposure settings
o 2.1 Overexposure and underexposure
o 2.2 Manual exposure
o 2.3 Automatic exposure
o 2.4 Exposure compensation
 3 Exposure time
 4 Reciprocity
 5 Determining exposure
 6 Latitude
o 6.1 Highlights
o 6.2 Blacks
 7 See also
 8 References

[edit] Photometric and radiometric exposure


Photometric or luminous exposure[1] is the accumulated physical quantity of visible light energy
(weighted by the luminosity function) applied to a surface during a given exposure time. It is
defined as:[2]

where

 H is the luminous exposure (usually in lux seconds)


 E is the image-plane illuminance (usually in lux)
 t is the exposure time (seconds)
The radiometric quantity radiant exposure[3] is sometimes used instead; it is the product of
image-plane irradiance and time, the accumulated amount of incident light energy per area.[4] If
the measurement is adjusted to account only for light that reacts with the photo-sensitive surface,
that is, weighted by the appropriate spectral sensitivity, the exposure is still measured in
radiometric units (joules per square meter), rather than photometric units (weighted by the
nominal sensitivity of the human eye).[5] Only in this appropriately weighted case does the H
measure the effective amount of light falling on the film, such that the characteristic curve will
be correct independent of the spectrum of the light.
Many photographic materials are also sensitive to "invisible" light, which can be a nuisance (see
UV filter and IR filter), or a benefit (see infrared photography and full-spectrum photography).
The use of radiometric units is appropriate to characterize such sensitivity to invisible light.

In sensitometric data, such as characteristic curves, the log exposure[2] is conventionally


expressed as log10(H). Photographers more familiar with base-2 logarithmic scales (such as
exposure values) can convert using 3.32 log2(H) ≈ log10(H).

[edit] Exposure settings


"Correct" exposure may be defined as an exposure that achieves the effect the photographer
intended[6]. The purpose of exposure adjustment (in combination with lighting adjustment) is to
control the amount of light from the subject that is allowed to fall on the film, so that it falls into
an appropriate region of the film's characteristic curve and yields a "correct" or acceptable
exposure.

[edit] Overexposure and underexposure

White chair: Deliberate use of overexposure for aesthetic purposes.

A photograph may be described as overexposed when it has a loss of highlight detail, that is,
when the bright parts of an image are effectively all white, known as "blown out highlights" (or
"clipped whites"). A photograph may be described as underexposed when it has a loss of shadow
detail, that is, the dark areas indistinguishable from black, known as "blocked up shadows" (or
sometimes "crushed shadows," "crushed blacks," or "clipped blacks," especially in video).[7][8][9]
As the image to the right shows, these terms are technical ones rather than artistic judgments; an
overexposed or underexposed image may be "correct", in that it provides the effect that the
photographer intended. Intentionally over- or under- exposing (relative to a standard or the
camera's automatic exposure) is casually referred to as "shooting to the right" or "shooting to the
left", respectively, as these shift the histogram of the image to the right or left.

[edit] Manual exposure

In manual mode, the photographer adjusts the lens aperture and/or shutter speed to achieve the
desired exposure. Many photographers choose to control aperture and shutter independently
because opening up the aperture increases exposure, but also decreases the depth of field, and a
slower shutter increases exposure but also increases the opportunity for motion blur.

'Manual' exposure calculations may be based on some method of light metering with a working
knowledge of exposure values, the APEX system and/or the Zone System.

[edit] Automatic exposure

A camera in automatic exposure (AE) mode automatically calculates and adjusts exposure
settings in order to match (as closely as possible) the subject's mid-tone to the mid-tone of the
photograph. For most cameras this means using an on-board TTL exposure meter.

Aperture priority mode gives the photographer manual control of the aperture, whilst the camera
automatically adjusts the shutter speed to achieve the exposure specified by the TTL meter.
Shutter priority mode gives manual shutter control, with automatic aperture compensation. In
each case, the actual exposure level is still determined by the camera's exposure meter.

[edit] Exposure compensation

Main article: exposure compensation

The purpose of an exposure meter is to estimate the subject's mid-tone luminance and indicate
the camera exposure settings required to record this as a mid-tone. In order to do this it has to
make a number of assumptions which, under certain circumstances, will be wrong. If the
exposure setting indicated by an exposure meter is taken as the "reference" exposure, the
photographer may wish to deliberately overexpose or underexpose in order to compensate for
known or anticipated metering inaccuracies.

Cameras with any kind of internal exposure meter usually feature an exposure compensation
setting which is intended to allow the photographer to simply offset the exposure level from the
internal meter's estimate of appropriate exposure. Frequently calibrated in stops,[10] also known as
EV units,[11] a "+1" exposure compensation setting indicates one stop more (twice as much)
exposure and "–1" means one stop less (half as much) exposure.[12][13]

Exposure compensation is particularly useful in combination with auto-exposure mode, as it


allows the photographer to bias the exposure level without resorting to full manual exposure and
losing the flexibility of auto exposure. On low-end video camcorders, exposure compensation
may be the only manual exposure control available.

[edit] Exposure time


Main article: shutter speed
A 2-second exposure of a fireball poi dance.

The exposure for a photograph is determined by the sensitivity of the medium used. For
photographic film, sensitivity is referred to as film speed and is measured on a scale published by
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Faster film requires less exposure and
has a higher ISO rating. Exposure is a combination of the length of time and the level of
illumination received by the photosensitive material. Exposure time is controlled in a camera by
shutter speed and the illumination level by the lens aperture. Slower shutter speeds (exposing the
medium for a longer period of time) and greater lens apertures (admitting more light) produce
greater exposures.

An approximately correct exposure will be obtained on a sunny day using ISO 100 film, an
aperture of f/16 and a shutter speed of 1/100th of a second. This is called the sunny 16 rule: at an
aperture of f/16 on a sunny day, a suitable shutter speed will be one over the film speed (or
closest equivalent).

A scene can be exposed in many ways, depending on the desired effect a photographer wishes to
convey.

[edit] Reciprocity
Main article: reciprocity (photography)
Further information: aperture, exposure range, and f-number

A demonstration of the effect of exposure in night photography. Longer shutter speeds result in
increased exposure.

An important principle of exposure is reciprocity. If one exposes the film or sensor for a longer
period, a reciprocally smaller aperture is required to reduce the amount of light hitting the film to
obtain the same exposure. For example, the photographer may prefer to make his sunny-16 shot
at an aperture of f/5.6 (to obtain a shallow depth of field). As f/5.6 is 3 stops "faster" than f/16,
with each stop meaning double the amount of light, a new shutter speed of (1/125)/(2·2·2) =
1/1000 is needed. Once the photographer has determined the exposure, aperture stops can be
traded for halvings or doublings of speed, within limits.

The true characteristic of most photographic emulsions is not actually linear, (see sensitometry)
but it is close enough over the exposure range of about one second to 1/1000th of a second.
Outside of this range, it becomes necessary to increase the exposure from the calculated value to
account for this characteristic of the emulsion. This characteristic is known as reciprocity failure.
The film manufacturer's data sheets should be consulted to arrive at the correction required as
different emulsions have different characteristics.

Digital camera image sensors can also be subject to a form of reciprocity failure.[14]

[edit] Determining exposure

A fair ride taken with a 2/5 second exposure.

A photograph of the Forth Rail Bridge with an exposure time of 13 seconds. The effect of a long
exposure shot on moving water is to make it seem creamy and opalescent.

The Zone System is another method of determining exposure and development combinations to
achieve a greater tonality range over conventional methods by varying the contrast of the 'film' to
fit the print contrast capability. Digital cameras can achieve similar results (high dynamic range)
by combining several different exposures (varying only the shutter speeds) made in quick
succession.
Today, most cameras automatically determine the correct exposure at the time of taking a
photograph by using a built-in light meter, or multiple point meters interpreted by a built-in
computer, see metering mode.

Negative/Print film tends to bias for exposing for the shadow areas (film dislikes being starved
of light), with digital favouring exposure for highlights. See latitude below.

[edit] Latitude
Latitude is the degree by which one can over, or under expose an image, and still recover an
acceptable level of quality from an exposure. Typically negative film has a better ability to
record a range of brightness than slide/transparency film or digital. Digital should be considered
to be the reverse of print film, with a good latitude in the shadow range, and a narrow one in the
highlight area; in contrast to film's large highlight latitude, and narrow shadow latitude.
Slide/Transparency film has a narrow latitude in both highlight and shadow areas, requiring
greater exposure accuracy.

Negative film's latitude increases somewhat with high ISO material, in contrast digital tends to
narrow on latitude with high ISO settings.

[edit] Highlights

Main article: Clipping (photography)

Example image exhibiting blown-out highlights. Top: original image, bottom: blown-out areas
marked red
Areas of a photo where information is lost due to extreme brightness are described as having
"blown-out highlights" or "flared highlights".

In digital images this information loss is often irreversible, though small problems can be made
less noticeable using photo manipulation software. Recording to RAW format can ameliorate
this problem to some degree, as can using a digital camera with a better sensor.

Film can often have areas of extreme overexposure but still record detail in those areas. This
information is usually somewhat recoverable when printing or transferring to digital.

A loss of highlights in a photograph is usually undesirable, but in some cases can be considered
to "enhance" appeal. Examples include black-and-white photography and portraits with an out-
of-focus background.

[edit] Blacks

Areas of a photo where information is lost due to extreme darkness are described as "crushed
blacks". Digital capture tends to be more tolerant of underexposure, allowing better recovery of
shadow detail, than same-ISO negative print film.

Crushed blacks cause loss of detail, but can be used for artistic effect.

MULTIPLE EXPOSURE

Multiple exposure
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A four hour long exposure on a Nikon D2h camera is made possible using multiple shorter
exposures (using the C.E.M.E.N.T. algorithm).
In photography, a multiple exposure is when two or more individual exposures are made to
create a single photograph. The exposure values may, or may not be identical to each other.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Overview
 2 Double exposure
o 2.1 Analogue
o 2.2 Digital
o 2.3 Examples in art, movies and television
 3 C.E.M.E.N.T.
 4 Long exposures
 5 Scanning film with multiple exposure
 6 See also
 7 External links
 8 References

[edit] Overview

A multiple exposure composite image of a lunar eclipse taken over Hayward, California in 2004.

Ordinarily, cameras have a sensitivity to light that is a function of time. For example, a one
second exposure is an exposure in which the camera image is equally responsive to light over the
exposure time of one second. The criterion for determining that something is a double exposure
is that the sensitivity goes up and then back down. The simplest example of a multiple exposure
is a double exposure without flash, i.e. two partial exposures are made and then combined into
one complete exposure. Some single exposures, such as "flash and blur" use a combination of
electronic flash and ambient exposure. This effect can be approximated by a Dirac delta measure
(flash) and a constant finite rectangular window, in combination. For example, a sensitivity
window comprising a Dirac comb combined with a rectangular pulse, is considered a multiple
exposure, even though the sensitivity never goes to zero during the exposure.

[edit] Double exposure

Apollo 8 launch. The photo is a double exposure, as the Moon was not visible at the time of
launch (NASA).

[edit] Analogue

In film and photography, double exposure is a technique in which a piece of film is exposed
twice, to two different images. The resulting photographic image shows the second image
superimposed over the first. The technique can be used to create ghostly images or to add people
and objects to a scene that were not originally there. It is frequently used in photographic hoaxes.
It also is sometimes used as an artistic visual effect, especially when filming singers or
musicians.

It is considered easiest to have a manual winding camera for double exposures. On automatic
winding cameras, as soon as a picture is taken the film is typically wound to the next frame.
Some more advanced automatic winding cameras have the option for multiple exposures but it
must be set before making each exposure. Manual winding cameras with a multiple exposure
feature can be set to double-expose after making the first exposure.

Since shooting multiple exposures will expose the same frame multiple times, negative exposure
compensation must first be set to avoid overexposure. For example, to expose the frame twice
with correct exposure, a −1 EV compensation have to be done, and −2 EV for exposing four
times. This may not be necessary when photographing a lit subject in two (or more) different
positions against a perfectly dark background, as the background area will be essentially
unexposed.
Medium to low light is ideal for double exposures. A tripod may not be necessary if combining
different scenes in one shot. In some conditions, for example, recording the whole progress of a
lunar eclipse in multiple exposures, a stable tripod is essential.

More than two exposures can be combined, with care not to overexpose the film.

Double exposure on film

[edit] Digital

Digital photographs can be superimposed by using a software photo editor such as Adobe
Photoshop or GIMP, by altering the opacity of the two images and line them up over each other,
or set the layers to multiply mode, which 'adds' the colors together rather than making the colors
of either image pale and translucent.

[edit] Examples in art, movies and television

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challenged and removed. (October 2009)

A multiple exposure photo of two pelicans in flight.

 On the Ed Sullivan Show, this effect was sometimes used with singers and rock groups.
An image of the stage set was superimposed on the performer(s).
 In the movie Mary Poppins, when Julie Andrews is singing "Feed the Birds" to the
children, there's an instrumental section of the song. During this section, an image of St.
Paul's Cathedral is superimposed on Julie Andrews' face.

 On the 1960s situation comedy The Dick Van Dyke Show, there's a special Christmas
episode called "The Alan Brady Show Presents". On that episode, the double exposure
effect is used on Larry Mathews (who played Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore's
cute young son, Ritchie). He's singing the Christmas song "Little Drummer Boy", and at
one point, an image of the stage set (a stained glass window) is superimposed on his face.

 On a current commercial for Fruit of the Loom underwear, this effect is used. In this
commercial, the "Fruit of the Loom" men are a pop music group (with the "Apple" as the
lead singer), and they're performing a ballad about a little boy who loves his "Fruit of the
Loom" underwear.

 At the beginning of an episode of the popular '70's action series Wonder Woman, the
double exposure effect is used on Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman). An outer-space style
background (i.e. black sky, stars and lights) is superimposed on an image of her face and
shoulders.

 From 1970 through 1985 Fine Artist, Ian Hornak created a series of landscape paintings
conceptually incorporating multiple exposure photography.

[edit] C.E.M.E.N.T.

Multiple exposure picture of a jogger cooling off in the Dundas Square splash fountains This
image was captured with a Nikon D2H camera, and aided with the use of the CEMENT
algorithm.

With electronic imaging, long duration sensitivity is not practical, so multiple exposures are
usually made using CEMENT (Computer Enhanced Multiple Exposure Numerical Technique).
This simulates the effect of multiple exposures numerically, by using a computer, or
computation.[citation needed]

The use of CEMENT as a medium of artistic expression dates back to the 1970s and early 1980s
with the invention of the wearable computer as a tool for visual artists.[citation needed]
[edit] Long exposures
With traditional film cameras, a long exposure is a single exposure, whereas with electronic
cameras a long exposure is best attained by integrating together many exposures. This averaging
also permits there to be a time-windowing function, such as a Gaussian, that weights time
periods near the center of the exposure time more strongly. Another possibility for synthesizing
long exposure from multiple-exposure is to use an exponential decay in which the current frame
has the strongest weight, and previous frames are faded out with a sliding exponential window.
The original exposure name was called the fud line after Fud macmarie.

ANGLE VIEW

Angle of View
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Angle of View is the amount of a scene a photograph captures and can be measured vertically,
horizontally or diagonally. Also known as angle of coverage or field of view, angle of view
changes given the type of lens a photographer uses to take a picture.

While wide-angle lens tend to capture more of a scene than any other lenses, longer lenses
generally get about two degrees of a scene within their angle of view.

The further away an image that a photographer is attempting to capture within their angle of
view, the longer and more narrow the lens should be. For instance, a picture of the stars or far-off
marine life would be taken with a longer, narrower lens than one that has an image with an angle
of view that is twenty feet away. Similarly, if a photographer wants to include more or less light
within an angle of view, they can use a petal or a hooded lens respectively.

Whether you are a novice or expert photographer, changing the angle of view of a scene can add
a fresh, unique spin to a traditional picture. Rather than shooting a photo straight on, as is the
traditional method, a lowered or slanted angle of view may give your pictures an unconventional
flare.

Megapixel
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Megapixel, one million pixels, refers to the number of dots in a digital cameras and other digital
displays. The megapixel measurement reflects the ratio of individual pixels in a screen as it is
divided by one million. In simple terms, a megapixel tells a photographer the camera’s capacity
to detail an image.
For example, a camera that renders a 2020 x 1440 (2020 x 1440 =
2,908,800) read will have 2.9 megapixels. Digital cameras tend to
produce images at 2048 x 1536 pixels, which renders a 3.1
megapixel measurement. The higher the megapixel number, the
greater the resolution of the digital image. Images with higher
resolutions appear clearer, sharper and more vivid.

Images that consist of a single megapixel divide up pixel color the


following way: 500, 000 pixels are green while both red and blue
consist of 250, 000 pixels each.

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