Quote:
Originally Posted by BMW E90
Can someone explain to me what it means to expose for the shadow and expose for the highlights?
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You can adjust the exposure in your camera body to make the entire scene brighter. That makes the highlights blown out, but the shadows become properly exposed (you can see the detail in the shadows).
Exposing for the highlights is the opposite... the shadows become darker because you are adjusting the exposure such that the highlights in your scene are not blown out, but properly exposed (you can see the detail in the highlights).
As an example, think of a dark barn with the sun behind it (and a few clouds in the sky). If you expose for the barn in front of you (shadows), then the sky gets blown out, but you can see the dark barn door very well. If you expose for the sky (highlights), then you can see all the detailed clouds, but the barn itself looks black (like a silhouette).
If you want to properly expose for both the highlights (sky) and the shadows (barn), you can do one of two things:
1. Expose for the barn in one photo, and expose for the sky in another photo, then merge the two images in Photoshop.
2. Shoot in high-dynamic-range (HDR) mode ranging multiple exposures, and reconstruct the image using Photoshop or Photomatix Pro.