If you’re struggling to understand stops and exposure, you need to watch this
Jul 24, 2020
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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What is a stop of light? Essentially, it’s a relative quantity of light. Either half or double of a pre-existing amount. But what does that really mean? And why does it take Rob Hall 8 whole minutes to explain it? Well, that simple concept comes with a lot of implications in photography, and it applies to everything from our ISO, aperture and shutter speed to flash power, flash distance, neutral density filters and more.
Understanding what a stop of light is and what it implies are vital for creating good and consistent exposures in photography, and it’s one of its most basic principles. If you don’t understand it, it can be difficult to figure out what problems might be occurring when you shoot an image and it isn’t what you expected.
In the video, Rob breaks down stops of light into its most basic – to the point of even removing all colour from the video so you can just concentrate on the brightness. He also illustrates the points using some tried and trusted analogies, but actually demonstrates them, rather than just talking about them, making things much easier to understand.
Rob also alludes to why it’s usually pointless to ask for settings when you see an image posted to social media. There are many different ways to shoot a good exposure of an identical scene, and you’re unlikely to ever find yourself in the exact same lighting situation as the photographer you’re asking. So the settings they used don’t really help you all that much on their own. You need to understand why those particular settings were chosen, too. And once you understand the principles of exposure, you won’t need to ask why.
If you’re still struggling to grasp how stops of light affect your exposure and your photography, it’s well worth a watch. And by the end, you should know everything you need to know about what a stop of light is and what it means for your images.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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6 responses to “If you’re struggling to understand stops and exposure, you need to watch this”
If you have spent the money to buy a camera and not bothered to learn the bare minimum of how photographs are lit then you need to go out and buy some form of book. Light is a physical constant, mirrorless doesn’t use a new kind of photon or anything
At the low end cameras cost hundreds of dollars, don’t you owe yourself some competency in getting use out of your purchase
You don’t buy knowledge when you buy a camera. And most people don’t get that knowledge without actually having a camera first and going out and using it. :)
What are you selling? a book? Ever heard the term RTFM and youtube?
Read The F***ing Manual
hi. If you cannot afford to buy very expensive camera. i advice you this camera. Almost the best option for this price:
https://amzn.to/2Ef4sc
Sorry but the video content is not comprehensible to me, my bad.