Exposed.

Before I get to spot metering (don't worry, Melissa, I haven't forgotten!), a little bit on exposure. Not for any particular reason, even though spot metering has to do with exposure, this isn't necessary info, it's just that I haven't taken any spot metering pics yet, and have taken these. ;)

The other day, I was photographing a bunch of finished knitting projects for my knitblog and to update my Ravelry projects page. Normally, I keep my D40 set on +0 EV, which means that it doesn't over- or under-expose the images. It just does its best to properly expose them. Usually, this works really well. However, that day it was being cranky. Here's the +0 EV picture, taken in A mode, so I picked the aperture, and the camera picked a shutter speed to match:



Um...not fabulous. It looks a little dark, even though it's supposed to be properly exposed. The exposure histogram (from Picasa) confirms this:



Since the peaks of each curve are near the middle of the histogram, it's pretty well exposed, although there is a little bit of underexposure in the red channel, as evidenced by the small red peak on the left side. (Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? Because I don't. But this is what I've read...so yeah, one day I'll actually understand these histograms. Just not today.)

Here we see the beauty of digital cameras - I could see immediately on the view screen that the picture looked dark (cranky camera!), so I bumped the exposure to +1/3 EV, which means that the camera automatically overexposes the picture by 1/3 of a step. (I don't know what this translates to technically...and the internet doesn't seem to be much help...so if you do know, please share in the comments!) Here's the slightly overexposed image:



Much better! Now, just for kicks, let's bump it up another 1/3 of a step and see what we get:



Yep, at +2/3 EV, it's definitely more overexposed-looking, as anticipated.

I ended up using the +1/3 EV image for the project page, because it looked the best to me.

Changing this setting, called exposure bias or exposure compensation, can be useful in other situations, too. Here's a good article from Digital Photography School: Using Exposure Bias to Improve Picture Detail. I've used it before in similar situations, when the camera was, e.g., exposing for the bright part of an image, but I really wanted to see details on the dark part. I'd set the camera to overexpose, so the dark part would be more visible.

Uh...so, actually, I was wrong, way up there in the beginning...this does tie in to spot metering. Now that I know how to spot meter, I would probably spot meter in a situation like that. Hmm...the question then becomes, when should you spot meter, and when should you use exposure bias...I think it would depend on the subject and composition of your photo...I'll have to investigate further!

In the meantime, while I think and research, go play with the exposure bias on your camera! Even most point-and-shoots have an option for this, in my experience. That's when it can really come in handy, because on an SLR, you can always just go to full manual mode and expose how you want by controlling the aperture and shutter speed. You rarely can do that on a compact camera, but you can change the exposure bias - giving you more control over the picture, which is a good thing. If you try this, let me know how it works out for you! And if you have any questions, ask away. =)

Some pictures!

So...I have literally taken multiple thousands of pictures in the past few weeks...at some point, I'll get them edited and posted...maybe...but in the meantime, here are some of the first. Mostly because they didn't need editing, and are ok SOOC. ;)

From a visit to Kansas, gorgeous flowers from the Saturday morning farmer's market:

(Purple and gold, natch!)

And a supercute Honey Bee (or something like that) latte:

I learned a new trick - spot metering! But the only good demonstrative pics I have are of my bro, and he's not too keen on being on the blog, so one of these days, I'll take some different ones and show it off. It's really pretty easy, and you probably already know how to do it, but I was very excited. To be continued... =)

Hi Mom!

My Mom told me the other day that she was tired of looking at my dirty dishes on this blog. ;) So here's a quick new post!

My "little" brother with his birthday cake. As I say on the Flickr page, "There's a good story behind it...hopefully one day I'll tell it, illustrated, on the blog."

About two more weeks of classes to go...

=)

It's 3am...

...I must have a midterm tomorrow! (Well, later today...)

For Melissa, who requested more of these.

I love Italian coffee. I don't love midterms.

And no those are not dirty dishes in the background. And they are definitely not leftover from breakfast. No way.

Back to studying!

Drive-By Blogging

I have no business blogging this week. But I'm really good at avoidance and denial, and I promised Melissa (who is suddenly blogless? what???), so here goes:

I got a new toy today!


After longing for one since Nin posted about it, then getting to play with my uncle's, I finally gave in and dropped a chunk of my savings from summers at camp on a D-Lux 4. Love. The very first picture:


I could be lamer cooler, but it would be hard. I got up early, booked it to UPS, and drove straight to the office, where I charged the battery then took a pic as soon as I could!

More fun shots from today:

Waiting for seminar to start. (Hi Zach!)


My prof, making faces at my friend who was taking the pictures.


Shan and I went for a little walk around campus (sometimes you just need to get out of the building!) and I made her model for me.


This picture sums up one of the biggest reasons I bought the camera: in a dimly-lit restaurant (yeah Knit Night!), after the sun had set, I got a great picture without using the flash. Love.

Now, back to work! =)

Happy Mardi Gras!

Spanish Town 2009 was a giant success. We caught tons of beads, cups, coins, and, in Jen's case, bunny ears!



The pics are up in a Flickr set, so go check 'em out. I will warn you, though, that the theme was "Bayeaux Bailout" and so some of the floats were a bit, uh, racy...a relatively clean example:




So, if that doesn't offend you, check out the pics! If it does, well, then you're better off not clicking over to the set. It's actually a family-friendly parade (none of the "traditional" bead acquisition techniques, that's part of why I love it so much) but this year the floats were somewhat scandalous. ;)

Many, many thanks to the lovely Carly for hosting us all at her house! Isn't she fab?

It's 3am I must be lonely...

What was an annoying little cough this afternoon and evening has reared its ugly head as Tuberculosis Junior (TJ) tonight.  TJ is simultaneously keeping me from sleeping and from calculating the potentials of confocal spheroids.  (Homework.  Due tomorrow.  Nowhere near finished.  Hurts brain.  Requires focus.  Can't focus and cough at the same time.)  So instead I'm sitting here drinking tea, trying not to cough up anything really gross, and catching up on some blogs.  They've been woefully ignored lately.  I blame the Ravelry Twilight groups.  I used to attack my Google Reader at mealtimes, now I chat with the ladies over there.  They are more fun.  Oh well, whatev.  Anyways.  Blogs.  I thought I'd share some recent favorites with you.

Of Course, I Didn't Have a Camera. by the amazing Dez at Mambocat's Knitting Asylum.  I go to that market every week I'm in town.  It's amazing.  She describes it well, and shares her refreshing outlook.  She also makes beautiful yarn.  I spend a lot of money at her booth, and in her newly-opened store.

I Want Gum! by Kim at Mommy Knows.  I cried I was laughing so hard at this.  NSFW.  (Not safe for work.)  I'm so grateful that digital cameras and blogs didn't exist when I was growing up.

I'm loving the new-ish blog academichic.  Basically, it's a blog by three Ph.D. students about what to wear as a female Ph.D. student.  They even have Fashion 101 modules/challenges and calls for papers!

Eye-tracking studies: more than meets the eye from the Official Google Blog.  I think this is fascinating.  I wish I could track what I look at like they do in the video example.

And that's it for now.  Still with the coughing, though the Vicks is starting to help a little bit.  But TJ has made my tummy hurt, too.  (Whine whine whine.)  So I'm going to curl up in bed and pretend to sleep so I can get up early and tackle the homework...ciao ciao.