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Understanding the Exposure Triangle to Improve Images

Posted: January 05, 2021
[caption id="attachment_64006" align="alignright" width="335"] Image: Digital Photography School[/caption] Exposure plays a critical role in great images. Leaving your camera set on auto doesn't always produce the quality that you're looking for when shooting photos. Understanding how light interacts with your camera is important to making sure you're choosing the right exposure settings for your camera. There are three main things to take into consideration when choosing those settings, and they're known as the "exposure triangle". Learning the three "corners" of the triangle and how they work together to create perfectly exposed images can take your photography to new heights. Darren Rowse, editor and founder of Digital Photography School, walks us through understanding the exposure triangle.

Learning about Exposure – The Exposure Triangle

Bryan Peterson has written a book entitled Understanding Exposure. I highly recommend you read it if you want to venture off of your digital camera’s Auto mode and start experimenting with its manual settings. In Understanding Exposure, Bryan illustrates the three main elements that need to be considered when setting your exposure. He calls them the “exposure triangle.” Each of the three aspects of the triangle relates to light and how it enters and interacts with your camera. So if you’re ready to become an expert in exposure… …read on!

The three elements of the exposure triangle

The exposure triangle has three corners:
  1. ISO – the measure of a digital camera sensor’s sensitivity to light
  2. Aperture – the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken
  3. Shutter speed – the amount of time that the shutter is open
It is at the intersection of these three elements that an image’s exposure is determined. Now, exposure refers to the overall brightness of an image. So depending on your camera settings, you might end up with an exposure like this, which is too bright: Read the entire article Learning about Exposure – The Exposure Triangle, on Digital Photography School.