Exposrure compensation

[George Slusher]

Exposure compensation in manual mode doesn't change anything about the image, but it might be useful as a "guideline." Say you're shooting pictures in a snowy environment. If you "match the needle"--i.e., set the manual exposure so that the blinking icon is at "0," the images will be too dark and the snow will look grey. That's because the camera is set to make a grey (about 18% grey) target look correct. When it sees a lot of white, it will tend to underexpose. You can deal with that in manual mode two ways. First, you can leave exposure compensation at 0 and ensure that the blinking icon is at about +2. Second, you can set exposure compensation to +2 and set the blinking icon at 0. The results would be the same, but one method might be more convenient for you. Setting the exposure compensation might be a good way to "remember" to push up the exposure. On the other hand, if you move to another scene, you should remember to reset the exposure compensation.

[ShutterbugJohan]

One cool thing with the Nikon's* exposure compensation (I wish Canon would do it, too), is that if you set the EC for , say, -2 stops, and then switch to manual mode, the light meter will be biased to underexpose by 2 stops, so if you set the exposure to what the meter dictates, the photo will be underexposed.


*My friend's Nikon D40 does this; I don't know about other Nikons, although I'd assume they are the same.

[airfang]

One cool thing with the Nikon's* exposure compensation (I wish Canon would do it, too), is that if you set the EC for , say, -2 stops, and then switch to manual mode, the light meter will be biased to underexpose by 2 stops, so if you set the exposure to what the meter dictates, the photo will be underexposed.


*My friend's Nikon D40 does this; I don't know about other Nikons, although I'd assume they are the same.
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You mean it maintains the exposure setting from mode to mode? That's neat (I forgot to check if my 5D2 does so... probably it doesnt)

[devsalvi]

Thats what caused the confusion in the first place. Before i bought
my Canon 40d my friend lend me his nikon d200.


i set the EC to -2 at fixed aperture and iso and chcked shutter speed was required to get the properly exposed picture. The marker at 0 on the EV graph. Then i set it to +2 for the same subject with same aperture and iso and checked what shutter speed was required to get a properly exposed picture and it turned out to be exactly the same. So i gues for canon atleast 40d, the EC does not play part in manual mode. Please correct if I am wrong.


Cheers!


Dev