The ultimate goal of photography is to get a good image. If we delve deeper into the ultimate consequences, it is to get a good narrative, a great story. There have always been many discussions about whether the important thing is the technique or the photography itself.
With the entry of the digital world into photography, the technique changed. Is a reality. We left the dark rooms to enter the computer screens. Where once there was pure chemistry, we find mathematical calculations, the cold and precise science of numbers where there can be several paths to a single solution. That may be another important and interesting topic of discussion to develop, but let’s not go through the hills yet … The topic that we are going to see today focuses on technique, on how to expose to get the best photograph. As you well know, exposure depends on three factors:
The diaphragm.
The shutter speed.
The sensibility.
The famous exhibition triangle that has been explained to us so many times, and that has given us so many headaches, is the essence of photography. If we understand the relationship between the three factors, everything will be much easier and we can focus on what is really important, which is nothing more than getting an impressive image. A good exposure is important to have a good photograph. If we don’t know how to do it, technology comes to help us. You may have seen how professionals produce photos. Their work really looks different from the work of the average person. An example is professional headshots London. They can make simple office poses look stunning, giving the impression to anyone that the object of the photo is a professional in his/her field.
The F16 Rule
The first cameras on the market only allowed shooting in Manual. The first cameras with semi-automatic modes became popular in the 1950s, such as the Agfa Clack Spartan. But the professional machines still had the only Manual mode. If you were a photographer, you had to calculate at all times what exposure to do.
To keep things simple, they came up with the famous f16 rule. Thus, the photographic exhibition ceased to be pure alchemy for amateurs and they could achieve good technical results (which does not mean that they were good photographers, let’s not confuse things). Anyone could do it.
I use Manual mode mostly in the studio, when I can be sure of controlling the light to the millimeter. But when I work outdoors I always use a semi-automatic mode (or semi-manual, depending on how you look at it): Aperture priority. And when I am in a hurry, with a small camera in my bag, during the day to day, I almost always shoot in Program. And I assure you that you will never be able to know (except if we look at the metadata) how I have measured the light in my photographs.
What gives quality to your photographs is not the technique you have used, but the sum of many things. If the technique is above the message, I understand, from my way of seeing this world, that there is a problem. Currently, with the help of the famous histogram, we can instantly know if we have measured the light well or not. And I have always said that the important thing is to master the technique so much that you are able to apply it without thinking to focus on the moment of the shot without any doubt.