BRIGHTNESS RANGE

Nice even lighting is sometimes hard to come by unless you are in a controlled environment such as a studio where, you are able to use all the lighting you need to create the desired effects. Nature is a little bit more moody and can throw a few curve balls at you. On a cloudy day you might lose a bit of colour but because of the spread of light courtesy of those pesky clouds, soft shadows and evenly lit subjects are there for the taking.

 A scene or subject has what’s known as a Subject Brightness Range (SBR). This is basically the difference from the brightest part of the scene to the darkest. Your camera can only record so much, (about 5 stops with detail) so if your scene has a large SBR you have to determine what parts you want recorded. If you want detail in your highlights you will have to peg your exposure for that and accept the fact that you will lose a lot of your shadow detail to black. So it’s important to remember this. Whatever you decide is the main subject or scene in an image there is only ONE correct exposure for that. The more evenly lit a image is, you will find that everything around that subject will also fall within the 5 stop limit your camera will capture. One good way to meter for your scene is to decide if you want detail in your shadow or highlights. If its shadow detail then meter off this and close down 2 stops (Your camera will see it as dark and open up automatically). Conversely, if it’s highlight detail then meter off this and open up 2 stops. It is always good to look for ways to reduce SBR, using reflectors, flash and diffusers over lights and yes even our friend the clouds.