Light: Zones, Reciprocals

At this point, I already know that you can control the light using the exposure triangle: Aperture, ISO, and Shutter Speed. This week, we went to a more advanced lesson about controlling light. It was quite advanced actually, thank God I didn't get lost.

WE learned about the middle gray, which is what the camera does to a white or black space. It never really shows white, and/or black, instead in translates it to a middle gray.

Another thing we tackled is the different metering the camera uses. These are (based on my camera which is a Canon 1200D) Evaluative metering -- the default setting, this makes the camera evaluate the whole composition, -- Partial metering, and Center-weighted average.

We also discussed the Zone System, popularized by Ansel Adams. This zones also correlates to the exposure 'meter' on the camera. With '0' as the Zone V(5) and is the middle ground, '-3' as Zone II(2) which is PURE-BLACK (underexposed), and '+3' as Zone VIII(8) or PURE-WHITE (overexposed).

The following photos are taken as an example to show reciprocals, which is, different settings (relative to your base setting), but same exposure. 

Disclaimer: These photos are NOT similar EXCEPT for their exposure.

BASE SETTING: Shutter Speed 1/500, Aperture 4.0, ISO 200

SAME APERTURE: (RELATIVE TO BASE SETTING) Moved Shutter Speed 1 stop darker (1 stop darker=doubled the base shutter speed): Current SS 1/1000, to balance this, I moved the ISO 1 stop brighter: Current ISO ISO-400

SAME ISO: (RELATIVE TO BASE SETTING) Moved the Shutter Speed 1 stop brighter (1 stop brighter=divided the shutter speed to two): Current SS 1/250, to balance this, I moved the Aperture 1 stop darker (so from f/4.0, I moved 1/3 stop(4.5) to 2/3 stop(5.0) to f/5.6) [THIS MEANS I MOVED TWO SPOTS TO GET TO 1 STOP]): Current Aperture f/5.6

SAME SHUTTER SPEED: (RELATIVE TO BASE SETTING) I moved the Aperture 1 stop darker: Current Aperture f/5.6, and to balance this, I moved the ISO 1 stop brighter: Current ISO ISO-400