You’ve probably heard of gray cards in connection with white balancing. But there’s also another use that, while it may sound strange, is perfectly sensible: getting a firm grip on exposure.

The exposure meters built into digital cameras generally do their work well and make your job as a photographer a lot easier. But in certain complex situations they can get confused. That’s why for precise exposure metering, you can either use aids that help the camera’s built-in light meter, or use external light meters. These, the higher-quality option, measure the light actually contained in the scene.

In our previous article on exposure settings we introduced the two most basic exposure settings—aperture size and shutter speed. They directly affect how much light falls onto the camera’s digital sensor. There are always multiple ways to combine shutter speed and aperture size to get a correct exposure. Which combination you should choose depends on your creative goals. The relationship between time, aperture, and also the third exposure parameter, ISO, is often called the “exposure triangle.”

The “exposure triangle” is a term for the 3 key exposure settings: aperture, exposure time, and ISO (the sensitivity). Two of these (aperture and time) are covered in our article on exposure settings. This time we’ll focus on the third exposure setting: ISO.

I’m sure you’ve heard the word exposure. But you might not be sure that you know what it means. And if you’re unsure, this article is for you. A photo’s success depends on many different things—such as light conditions during the shot. But it also depends on correct camera settings, and especially the three exposure settings: time, aperture, and ISO. You, the photographer, need to choose values that both give you correct exposure (how dark or light the photo is) and help you express what you want to express. These settings affect your expression because they influence how time and space are recorded in the photo.

Today we’ll take a look at how to improve a photo where the subject lacks emphasis. We’ll do it using basic tools in Zoner Photo Studio 17. We hope you’ll download the starting picture and follow along!

Painting and drawing with light are two of the most entertaining roads to producing creative photographs. Together they form an area of photography where groups of people of all ages can work together and have fun together. With a little patience and enough time, you can create works reminiscent of actual paintings.