File :-(, x, )
Anonymous
Quick question. My digital camera lets me set the exposure from -2 to +2. Which side do I set the exposure for night photos?
EXIF data available. Clickhereto show/hide.
Camera-Specific Properties:Camera SoftwareGdPicture - http://www.gdpicture.comImage-Specific Properties:Image OrientationTop, Left-HandImage Created2006:07:17 10:42:15Image Width600Image Height399
>> Anonymous
Zero. Exposure compensation is applied only if you're not happy with the value your camera chooses.
>> Anonymous
>>63933
Bad answer.

If you increase the exposure, it increases the amount of light the camera lets in. If you want your night pictures more legible and so on, increase it. This is done in three ways:

1. The lens opens up more, to let in more light. This also has the effect of less of the picture being in focus, although if your camera's focus system is working right the subject will be. Just less of the stuff around it.

2. The shutter is open for longer. If it's open too long, anything moving will be blurred because it will record it moving from one point to the other, like a streak.

3. It increases the amount the camera boosts the signal it gets by in processing. This will increase the "noise," the little dots, often colored, you see in many digital images.

If you want the opposite- less light, more in focus, slower shutter speed, less noise, you decrease it.
>> Anonymous
>>63934
I dunno, go read some book on photography, perhaps?

EXPOSURE is measured in secondes or fractions of a second, and means the time for which the shutter stays open. It has nothing to do with signal boost or lens.
EXPOSURE COMPENSATION is measured in EV and is usually somewhere between -2 and +2, like OP said. It is the amount of correction applied to the automatically chosen value of EXPOSURE.
>> Anonymous
>>63935
Correct in pointing out that exposure and exposure compensation are different things; incorrect in the definitions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_%28photography%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_compensation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value