Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition)

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A friend loaned me the older version of this book, and I was amazed at how much help it provided. Even though the old book was based around film cameras, the fundamentals that were taught and the example pictures were very, very helpful. This book is an almost complete update, with most sections rewritten, several new subsections added with specific information for digital users, and has a slew of new example photographs.

This book is even better than the old edition, and expands on some of the topics that were only briefly touched on in the first book. One in particular that sticks out in my mind is that he explains the "don't care" apertures of F8 and F11 that he uses often. The old book mentioned it in passing, but I don't recall an explanation on why those apertures were useful. There is a short section on just that in this book and suggestions on when to use them.

Full color photos are used throughout the book, and are a great help in understanding the concepts that he talks about. Each picture has a caption with the information used to take the exposure. He shows you the same picture with different settings so you can see the effects the settings have on the exposure.

I find the book pleasant and easy to read. The tone and writing are very agreeable and easy to follow. While some aspects are technical, they are written in a manner that makes them easily understandable.

This is all about how to capture the image, not processing of the image after it is captured. There is brief mention of pushing or pulling film and the effects it can create, but in general, this is about how to get take a proper picture. If you are looking for a book on how to process the picture after you have taken it, this is not the book for you.

I can not recommend this book enough if you are interested in photography. I don't know how useful it would be for professionals, but for the person just starting out or serious amateur, I can't see how you could go wrong with this. While all of the information can be applied to SLR cameras (film or digital), the majority of it can be applied to the point and shoot cameras of either variety as well.

If you are trying to learn more about how to properly use exposure (i.e. aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) this is a fantastic book to begin with. It informs for the film and digital photographer. I have been taking photos for many years, but it has only been over the past couple of years that I became more of a professional. Despite this, I still struggled to understand some of the concepts such as the difference between a good exposure and a "creatively correct exposure" and what options I had.

You learn how to expose for front-lit, back-lit, side-lit scenes, overcast skys, macro photography, motion, stationery objects, how to expose for bright scenes such as snow (grey card & 18% grey) and dark scenes such as night photography...you name it. Then Bryan Peterson tops it off with a sections on metering, special techniques and filters, and an analysis of film vs digital cameras.

Understanding Exposure not only explained the basics in a conversational manner, but is also informed me of how the pros work and how to step up my photography to a higher level.

This book has hands-on exercises that anyone can go through so that the reader has experience of all of the methods explained. Along with this, the book is FULL of color photos that show exactly what the end result could be. Where applicable, there are comparisons of before and after exposure adjustments so the reader may understand WHY they should make such changes.

Where there is a difference between adjustments for digital versus film cameras, Bryan Peterson gives you the specifics of the difference and haw to adjust for it.

It is a book every photographer should have!

UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE offers a solid introduction to principles for creating informed exposures. I've been taking photographs for years, but everything I've learned I picked up from experience. I thought, for the heck of it, I'd buy a book and see if I was missing something. In the end, it was worth the read, I learned a few tips, and found some inspiration to experiment.

The book, however, is not without its quirks.

On the positive side, the author does a curiously good job offering advice on formal decisions. While I don't agree with all of his judgments, I certainly applaud the effort and feel his comments are completely appropriate for the general public. Aesthetics can be tricky.

The book is filled with the authors photographs, ranging from the amazing to the sappy. I enjoyed his descriptions and explanations, telling how he took many of the shots. I just wish he left out his licensing fees. Pointing out how many thousands he made from the various shots is really crass. I already bought your book... you don't need to show-boat. Strangely, a handful of pictures are of his wife, and I found myself wincing at most of them. Particularly given his descriptions. Sadly, we're obviously not looking at the same woman.

Lastly, for all of the author's thoroughness, his explanation and discussion of ISO, in my opinion, is lacking. At the start of the book he explains that ISO is one of the three main parts to taking a correct exposure. Aperture and shutter speed get their own sections, but for ISO the author only offers a condescending "busy bee" metaphor... until 5 pages from the end of the book where he finally gives ISO a page. He explains the ISO value is the light sensitivity, but I don't remember him mentioning anywhere at what -cost- that sensitivity comes. For instance, it should say the faster the film and more light sensitive, the grainier the resulting image. There's a very grainy, low-light example in the book but grain itself isn't addressed.

How could anyone leave that out?

OK, I'm going to have to give this a 3 just so my rating will stand out from all the 5's out there. I was let-down quite a bit by this book. I am a fairly-beginner photographer, perhaps maybe lower-intermediate. And, in all honesty, most everything in this book was kind of "blah" information. My biggest gripe is the following: the book is called "Understanding Exposre"... however, it should be called "Pointers for Exposure". Because, the best pieces of information that the author gives are not really explained (and, hence, they're not to be "understood" by the reader, but to be taken as gospel) but rather they're followed by statements such as "I learned this from my many years of photography, and trust me this works"! And that's a big problem for me-- not because I don't appreciate a great tip about exposure, but more because I was expecting to learn some valuable basics that would arm ME with the tools necessary to deduce, for a given lighting situation, how to best meter the light and determine the exposure. Instead, I've been given a laundry list of things to memorize for a given situation. Which, I guess, is great in the end-- and which is why my "REAL" rating for the book is a 4-- but just be forewarned that you will not really walk away from this book with a great UNDERSTANDING, though you may walk away with some good tips. Just my 2c.

I ordered this book based on the rave reviews it gets here, and elsewhere. I was looking forward to reading it, thinking it was going to help me improve my photography, master difficult lighting etc. So, when it arrived, I eagerly unpacked it, sat down to read and ... err, is that it?

Essentially it is a very basic beginners book. Probably for beginners its fine, but once you've figured out the elements of depth of field, and the idea that metering will not provide the optimum exposure in all cases, there's not much else.

If you're new to photography, take a look. If you've read any other books, or taken a few rolls of film, look elsewhere.

I was a little stingy with my rating, because, to be honest, i was disappointed. If you understand the basics of film speed, shutter speed & aperture (he calls it "the triangle") there is little to gain from this book. If you are a complete beginner, please change that rating to 3 stars.

About the only thing i found slightly interesting in this book was the discussion about depth of field, but this was nothing new to me either.

The GLARING DEFICIENCY in this book is a total failure to discuss anything about the use of flash or artificial light. If you have even heard the phrase "fill flash" you will be disappointed with this book. This book covers natural light ONLY!

Henderson (below) is right.... is that it??

Kudos to Bryan Peterson on the release of this long-awaited update to his 1990 classic, Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs. I've been recommending the original edition of this book to my DIGITAL photography students and on-line forum buddies for several years now, even though the original edition pre-dates the "digital photography" revolution. This new edition includes all the essential information from the earlier edition and brings it completely up-to-date with the inclusion of how this information is relevant to digital photography.

Who should buy this book? This is a book for those interested in photography who want to take their photography to the next level. This book is for the hobbyist who is mostly using the camera's automatic settings, but is interested in using more of the camera's manual and semi-automatic modes to get better results. The author does a superb job of teaching the fundamentals of exposure in a simple and very easy to understand manner. This is usually an intimidating topic, but Mr. Peterson teaches it using every day language and examples. In no time, the reader will understand how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are manipulated to get the right exposure and the desired photographic results.

Beyond this, the author teaches the reader how to "approach" almost every conceivable photographic opportunity using the camera's semi-automatic modes (mostly aperture-priority). So not only does he teach the fundamentals of HOW exposure works, but he teaches WHEN to use one approach over another to achieve desired results. This alone is worth the price of the book!

This book is beautifully written and generously illustrated with over 150 original color images from the author. The images really bring the concepts to life and are a source of inspiration for the reader.

Who should not buy this book? If you are a seasoned photographer who has mastered the subject of exposure and is well versed in the use of aperture-priority, manipulation of depth of field, and metering, this book will be too basic for your learning needs.

Again, kudos to Bryan Peterson on the release of this fine book. I am among the thousands of photographers who are very appreciative to Bryan for changing the way we approach a given photo opportunity and have taken our photography to the "next level."

Sincerely,

jim henderson (the sandman on the forums)

The book is very basic. It teaches you about aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity. If you already know about the three, look elsewhere.
The book basically tells you about the existence of depth-of-field, and stop-action and motion blur shutter - that's all.

As I was finishing it, my only hope was that I got the wrong book, but alas, no mistake.
Even as a beginners book, it had important things left out:
- No clear explanation of what the aperture numbers are. It just tells you bigger number - smaller hole.
- Should have talked about hand-held camera shutter seeds (minimum 1/focal length speed rule comes to mind). The whole book assumes the use of a tripod for its teaching.
- Doesn't mention fill-flash for balancing light, although there is an extensive chapter about types and angels of light.
- Although filled with many beautiful photos, only a couple of instances show comparison shots. The author hasn't made the effort to take good and bad pictures to compare and illustrate his point.
- The author preaches about matrix metering, but emphasizes the fact that he only uses spot-metering. Spot-metering is not explained - it's too complicated and error prone, so use matrix metering. I thought this was what the book was all about!
- The author doesn't make it very clear about "low key" and "high key" images and how the meter wants to put everything in the middle 18% gray. There was an attempt to explain this, but it was so simplified, that is was confusing.
- No mention of the "zone system" for exposure

The internet has much more helpful info for free.

This is a book that every serious photographer should own--both for information and inspiration. I've had a copy of the original version of this book (1990) in my office since it was first published and it's worn to a frazzle. That's why I'm so thrilled that it has not only stayed in print this long, but also that Peterson has updated it.

The first thing you'll notice when you read through this book is that Bryan Peterson is not just good at explaining the intricacies of good exposure in almost every conceivable situation (landscapes, close ups, portraits), but he is a world-class photographer. It's one thing to talk about manipulating depth of field or subject motion in theoretical terms, it's quite another to see the concepts demonstrated in masterful, creative and fun photographs. And the photos are so well chosen and so well done that even if the book was written in a language I didn't understand, I would get the points being made. His editors should be proud of that too.

Getting good exposure is at the heart of making a good photograph. And you would think that with the auto-exposure systems built into both film and digital cameras that getting a good exposure would be a piece of cake. But as Peterson points out (and illustrates so nicely) there is a world of difference between getting a "good" exposure and getting the ideal "creative" exposure. Getting the ideal creative exposure requires careful consideration of how that exposure will affect things like depth of field, freezing or exaggerating motion, the color and quality of light and how your subject is presented.

This book is not just about exposure, of course, but is a great source of information on various types of lighting, close-up photography, portraits, night photography, using a tripod and, most importantly, seeing creatively.

I can't imagine making a serious study of photography and not having this book (and Peterson's classic book on "Seeing Creatively") nearby. Peterson is a gifted, funny and immensely talented teacher and photographer--more than willing to share all of his knowledge. As the author of many how-to books on photography myself, I have used Peterson's books as a constant source of information and ideas and I check my own facts against his regularly--I couldn't pay him a much higher compliment. As a photographer, I find myself looking at his pictures with great admiration and envy. His photographs are great. And by the way, "No!" I don't even know Bryan--except through his great books.

Jeff Wignall
Author, The Joy of Digital Photography
thejoyofdigital@optonline.net

I bought this thinking it would have a lot of in depth information about exposure. However I went through the book within 30 minutes and did not find anything new or quite interesting. It's a very basic book in understanding the importance of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture and how they work together. Not really much past that. I would definitely recommend this to beginner's, but if you want to save a few bucks you can learn all the information provided in this book via online resources, just use your favorite search engine ;)Was also kind of upset that they mentioned anything about digital cameras seeing as how there was maybe 4 pages at the end of the book that talked about irrelevant fluff.

This book is a reasonably good introduction to exposure for the absolute beginner. If you've had an introductory photography class or equivalent experience, much of what is written in this book will be very basic and redundant. (There's actually very little text in this book - you could read the whole thing in a couple hours or less.) Note that Peterson is exclusively a color photographer, so any kind of discussion of black and white tonality and contrast is totally missing. The book covers the basics of aperture, shutter speed, and different lighting conditions (though it lacks specifics on how to shoot in these different lighting conditions), plus a little bit on multiple exposures and polarizing and neutral-density filters.

A more thorough introduction to zone system concepts than this book provides would be useful. For that, I'd recommend reading "The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering" by Bahman Farzad (which errs in the opposite direction, running these concepts into the ground) along with this book. If these two books were combined and a happy medium was found between Peterson's brevity and Farzad's beating to death of simple concepts, you'd actually have one solid introductory book on exposure.

Other drawbacks - Peterson is mainly a stock/magazine photographer and his photographic style is, to my eyes anyway, rather boring, and I found little inspiration in looking at his photos. Also, his writing style is rather goofy, with lots of exclamations over less than profound photographic insights and silly terms for substitute reading methods like "The Sky Brothers" (various kinds of skies when used for exposure) or "Mr Green Jeans" (vegetation used for exposure).

In the end, I picked up a few useful tidbits from this book, but turned around and resold the book right after reading it, as it really wasn't valuable as a reference.

This book is a must for anyone new to photography! Should be included with the owners manual of every new digital camera!

The proof is in the pudding...here are some examples of shots I took after reading his book...I would never have imagined capturing shots like these prior to reading his book...

http://static.flickr.com/36/84610281_f7a933f255.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/40/79454773_2ba97c0107.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/42/115132324_09a2d9f1e5.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/36/79454714_0f8b50d124.jpg

Ever want to take your fancy camera off of Auto mode and explore those other mysterious settings: M, A, S? Ever struggle with understanding how to achieve a proper exposure? Then this is the book for you! Clear, concise and filled with gorgeous photographs by the author, this is the book on exposure I wish I'd had when I first began taking pictures a couple decades ago. Peterson jumps right in teaching the reader about what he terms the "photographic triangle" - how shutter speed, aperture and ISO (film speed) relate to one another and how they can best be used to not only make a correct exposure, but a "creatively" correct exposure. So why would I give this awesome book only 4.5 stars instead of 5? Because while Peterson hammers home the concept of the photographic triangle, the sample photographs contain information about aperture and shutter speed but no mention of what ISO he used. Considering how these settings directly effect one another it was a little disappointing to not have that information made available. Hopefully he will include this information in future editions. Still, don't let that minor quibble steer you away from this highly recommended book.

One minor point worth mentioning: to get the most from this book you MUST have a SLR (single lens reflex) camera - digital or film. Today's popular point and shoot cameras have lenses that make selective depth of field nearly impossible (Peterson has a two page explanation as to why this is). While you can still get great pictures from a point and shoot, your creative options are severly limited if you want to, for example, isolate a subject against a blurry background. As the majority of this book is on not only proper exposure but using it creatively, I think quite a bit of information would be useless to those without an SLR camera.

I ordered this book after a couple of years of being a serious amateur photographer. I can say that many of the lessons regarding exposure that I have learned the hard way over the last couple of years would've come much easier if I had read this book back then.

To the book review -- The book focuses on three concepts and their inter-relationship of the concepts to come together and form an exposure:
1) Aperture
2) Shutter Speed
3) ISO

The author is clearly extremely knowledgeable and has mastery of photography to where he can explain all of these concepts in very easy to understand terms. The book also has a very sincere and down to earth "feel" to it. It's almost like I can hear the author is sitting next to me and explaining the concepts.

The book also helps the reader understand what he calls the "creatively correct" exposure. That is to say, the right combination of ISO, Shutter and Aperture to get the "best" picture.

There are tons of full color examples in the book that illustrate what the author is trying to convey complete with shutter speeds, aperture, lens, film type etc --- very helpful.

Back to me for a bit and how the book helped me after 2 years...In the last few years, I've progressed from using shooting in full automatic to shooting in Aperture Priority and in Shutter Priority. That is to say, semi-manual as I like to call it and I thought that's all I needed. Through it all, I stayed away from full manual mode.

After reading this book, I'm shooting most of my shots in full Manual mode and am considering getting a light meter. It wasn't so much that I didn't know, its that the book reinforced the concepts I've learned along the way to where I've made the leap to full Manual mode.



I still use full auto, aperture priority, and shutter priority but I find myself in full manual more of the time. So even after a few years of shooting -- (1 hour total shooting time by the author's measure), this book was still helpful to me......but I would've gotten here two years sooner if I had read this book back then. Mind you, I have no formal training in photography. I just got into it several years ago for a variety of reasons including avoiding royalty fees for pictures I needed for business presentations.

I must say I didn't read the book cover to cover but used it as a reference -- skipping around until I had gotten it all.

This is what I recommend:

1) If you're a novice photographer and want to learn how to shoot good exposures, this book will help.

2) If you're a semi serious amateur and haven't made the leap to full manual, this book will help you make the leap.

3) If you already know all of this but don't shoot very often, get this book and use it as a reference.

It's the easiest to understand book on exposure I have read to date mainly because it has enough full color examples combined with solid writing to help you learn.

Too many errors, a condescending (almost insulting) writing style, inconsistencies, and a lack of real information make this book hardly worth reading. It would be difficult to know about these problems without reading the book first so I hope this review will give some insight into these issues.

The book is probably aimed at beginners yet those are the ones who can least afford to get bad information. Those who already know about exposure can see the errors for themselves but the beginners will read this and think this is the real goods. It is not.

There are far better books from which to learn about exposure, among them: Ansel Adams "The Negative" and "The Camera" and Alain Briot's "Mastering Landscape Photography".

Peterson's book is highly rated and my guess is the rave reviews are from those new to exposure, who don't know they are being shortchanged.

This book was nowhere near as detailed and in depth as I had hoped. But putting that aside I found it to be a frustrating read. The author makes extensive use of analogies that I found confusing at best, and simply absurd. I found the author consistently patronizing, and his writing style to be extremely long winded. I actually found the 2 pages on exposure setting in my camera's instruction manual to be considerably more informative and easier to understand.

But, if exposure is a complete mystery to you, and the idea of 100 worker bees carrying buckets and trying to catch water from a variable flow faucet makes it easier to understand how a camera works, then by all means this is the book for you. Hence my 2 star rating.

This is a very gentle introduction to exposure. Good for my parents perhaps but not for a geek like myself - little technical explanation or language is used. I knew almost everything from casual web reading. I'm returning mine. As an aside the photographs weren't my style either; the author specializes in high-saturation color photos for stock use whereas I'm currently concentrating on B&W portraits.

Even though I've been informally an amateur photographer for several years, when I decided to make a living out of this profession, I needed some technical foundation in order to achive consistency and futher, inprove my skills. I tried several other books to no avail. However, this book was like fallen from heaven, so to speak. The author writes in a concise yet coherent manner. The examples are very useful and easy to replicate (unlike some other books I've read). Very thorough explanations of each of the techniques shown. The author unassuming and candid tone make this a great book to read, browse and learn from. In fact, if it was physically smaller, it would make a tremendous pocket reference to carry around. In short, if you're an absolute beginner or an intermediate looking to sharpen your skills, this book is what you are probably looking for.

I found this book to be very helpful in understanding the selection of good exposure to achieve artistic effects with my photography. I like Peterson's differentiation between "creative exposure" and "correct exposure," and found his tips for deciding what you wanted to emphasize in a photo helpful.

I also read the Grimm Basic Book of Photography at the same time, and although that book is *much* denser and longer, learned less about composing a photograph and selecting exposure while reading it. Peterson's many colorful comparisons helped me understand his methods and reasons for choosing his exposure.

This book is a quick read, and is the opposite of the Grimm book in terms of depth of discussion of equipment and history (if you want to learn details about different film grains and all of the pieces of equipment you might want to buy for your portrait studio, by all means, get their book instead). However, for a very concise book with great examples on SLR photographic composition, I can't ask for much more.

A final word for digital photographers. This book touches little on specific differences between digital and film photography, but does not ignore digital. Peterson makes a good point that digital retouching can fix a lot of mistakes, but that good composition and exposure saves a lot of time later, whether you're using film or digital. I have to say, though, I'm still looking for the book that will explain in-depth how to properly select white balance for digital SLR.

I wanted a book that would teach me how to set up my camera to take great pictures. This book answered my questions and also taught me how to think about each shot, what to look for and consider when setting up my camera to take a good exposure. Bryan has an easy to understand way of explaining his thoughts behind his methods and also tells you the settings for each shot shown in the book. I read this book in less than 2 days and will now go back through again to make myself a little "cheat sheet" to carry with me for those rare situations. He covers a lot of ground and I found myself absorbing it all very easily. I only wish it came with a pocket guide. Unless you are a seasoned pro, I believe you will gain a lot from this book. I know I have.
Thank you Bryan.
Carlton

I've first edition: This book should be called "how to choose best shutter speed with your automatic camera, depth of field examples...".
Author doesn't explain light measuring... For me, the most important thing when setting exposure.... how to correctly measure incident light, how to work with the spot meter, how useful the sunny 16 rule can be... The author relies only on the automatic metering system in his camera and that's the problem for me. If you don't plan to use manual camera sometime and set exposure by yourself, it can be book for you.

sorry to Mr Bryan...but i'll say don't trust what other saying about the books specialy when they give up 5 stars. I bought this book due what other wrote and now i feel shy to show and tell any one who doing photography that i spend my money on it. I ordy complete almost 10 years since i start learning photography, i read many books about that also i took a course through New york institute of photography, but this book no no no. Mr Bryan with highly respect to him, he must review himself before write another book..again i'll say sorry but this the truth what i feel.

Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" is a book geared toward beginners, as it talks about topics (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) that any advanced photographer would deem "mundane."

However, the book is best used not as a guidebook on how to set the various exposure modes on your advanced SLR camera, nor how to set up a state-of-the-art studio with fancy lights. It discusses how to make *creative* exposures (not just technically correct ones) in natural lighting situations. I do wish the author had presented some clearer explanation on certain technical aspects, e.g., how to preset focus and how to get teh most out of a light meter, hence the 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise, it's a book that helps you think about how to create a photograph, not how to use every feature of your camera.

Most of Peterson's instructions are taught through his own wonderful photos. Each photo is well captioned about the context, his thought process, and his technique. Again, this is not a "read and memorize the f-stop" kind of thing. It's all about provoking ideas, and Peterson includes a lot of exercises (some more useful than others).

I've been an advanced beginner for almost 20 years, and my photography has not improved much. I hope this book can help me get over the hurdle and take better pictures.

I really had high hopes for this book... But it is really basic, it tries to explain ISO shutter speeds and aperature by giving examples of types of pictures. If you are looking for a beginning photo book, there are far better choices such as, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0131896091/qid=1119554867/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/103-9059832-9557401?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I used this book a long time ago, edition 5. It is a far bettter intro to photo book.

i bought this book partially because many ppl recommended it. I have to say it was disappointing. The pictures were fantastic however the information was sparse. There's like 5-6 pages worth of information the rest of the few hundred pgs are fluff. There are other better books that will cover the info in this book and more.

As a serious hobbyist with no formal training, I was a bit concerned about how much I could really learn from this book. My experience comes primarily from reading text books, how to books, and from hands on experience. Prior to reading this book I had a basic understanding of exposure already.

Exposure is a concern for both film and digital cameras alike. A chapter titled "Film vs. Digital" helps to explain some of the differences. There are many inspiring color images showing both how your camera's metering is fooled, and the methods of correcting the exposure. Topics include filter options and exposing for low light, backlit, overcast weather and motion photography.

After reading "Understanding Exposure" from cover to cover I can say without doubt reading this book changed the way I comprehend exposure. Bryan Peterson has a simple and clear method of explaining exposure. I didn't really learn as much as I gained a deeper understanding and a fresh perspective of the subject. I also learned a few tricks along the way.

If you have mastered the subject, this book is not for you. However, if you are a beginner with no understanding of how aperture, shutter speed and ISO work together, get this easy to understand book. If you already have a basic understanding, this book will help fill in the missing pieces.

I learned more in this book about correct exposure than I learned in a hole year of photography school. Bryan peterson is an excellent teacher. He expains the basics in an effective easy to remember way. For anyone who is confused about apeature, shutterspeed, ISO, or metering, this is a must read! I rented this book from the library and loved it so much I decided I had to buy it. The best photography book I've read so far; I plan to read all of his books.

This book is simply outstanding. I've bought quite a number of books from Amazon on a variety of subjects but this particular book forced me to go out and buy a highlighter. The information shared here is easy to understand and, with so many examples and samples, you really feel like you're learning.

The author goes into great detail about how to "see" a great image and how to properly expose that image. whether you're a digital or film shooter this book is a MUSt for anyone looking to really dive into their photography hobby/profession. I just loved it and keep it in my camera back pack as i travel taking pictures and constantly going back to the text.

BUY THIS BOOK! You won't be dissapointed!

This book is a reasonably good introduction to exposure for the neophyte, unless you've had an introductory photography class or equivalent experience, because much of what is written in this book will be very basic and redundant. Note that Peterson is exclusively a color photographer, so any kind of discussion of black and white tonality and contrast is totally missing. The book covers the basics of aperture, shutter speed, and different lighting conditions (though it lacks specifics on how to shoot in these different lighting conditions), plus a little bit on multiple exposures and polarizing and neutral-density filters.

This book is better than the previous edition, and expands on some of the topics that were only briefly touched on in the first book. One in particular that sticks out in my mind is that he explains the "don't care" apertures of F8 and F11 that he uses often. The old book mentioned it in passing, but I don't recall an explanation on why those apertures were useful. There is a short section on just that in this book and suggestions on when to use them.

It is best used not as a guidebook on how to set the various exposure modes on your advanced SLR camera, nor how to set up a state-of-the-art studio with fancy lights. It discusses how to make *creative* exposures (not just technically correct ones) in natural lighting situations. I do wish the author had presented some clearer explanation on certain technical aspects, e.g., how to preset focus and how to get teh most out of a light meter, hence the 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise, it's a book that helps you think about how to create a photograph, not how to use every feature of your camera.

Full color photos are used throughout, and are a great help in understanding the concepts that he talks about. Each picture has a caption with the information used to take the exposure. He shows you the same picture with different settings so you can see the effects the settings have on the exposure.

This is all about how to capture the image, not processing of the image after it is captured. There is brief mention of pushing or pulling film and the effects it can create, but in general, this is about how to get take a proper picture. If you are looking for a book on how to process the picture after you have taken it, this is not the book for you.

When you buy a book titled "Understanding Exposure" you would expect most of the book to talk just about that!!

This is a decent book as far as pictures and general 101 photography info - especially if you are a "35mm type" - but it does a pathetic job talking about "exposure" (i.e. metering a scene, using a light meter, zone systems, etc.).

This is is NOT what it purports to be...

Very disappointing.

Despite my history, I still buy books I don't read and this title sounded like another of the same. I almost didn't buy it but I read some of the customer reviews and decided to take a chance. I am glad I did.

In addition to his photographic and writing skills, Peterson brings something I've not found in other books and articles on these more technical aspects of photography. He stays spot-on in telling you how things are without unnecessary excursions into why.

That sounds shallow, but technical presentations can be--usually are?--bogged down in detail. An illustration of Peterson's skill at this is in his sidebar, "Macro Accessories and the Advantage of Fixed-Lens Digital", where he explains that f/11 on a fixed-lens digital is equivalent to f/64 on a 35mm SLR and then explores the benefits of that without yielding to the temptation to present the optics involved.

When I first thumbed through the book, the huge number of large color photos put me off. I didn't want a book for the coffee table. Turns out, they are functional. After reading the first forty-plus pages, I was eagerly reading the shooting data at the end of photo captions, something I have never done. I understood the data enough to learn even more by analyzing the photo in light of the shot parameters. Some of the most instructive of Peterson's beautiful illustrations have multiple shots of the same subject either with the same lens and different settings or with different lenses. These and their accompanying descriptions rapidly increase my understanding of the concepts, and it is painless.

Despite the complexity of the concepts, I didn't have to make myself read this book. I returned to it as I would to a novel that had grabbed me.

If you are hoping to move up from a point-and-shoot digital camera that lacks exposure controls to one that has exposure controls so that you can advance your skills and be more creative, then this is the book for you.

Bryan Peterson does an excellent job describing the basics of exposure, starting off with good analogies to help the reader understand the three keys to exposure: shutter speed, film speed, and aperture. Next he discusses simple exposure scenes and rules such as "sunny f/16". He then moves on to talk about increasingly complex scenarios and helps you to develop the skills to get all of the details right in your exposures so that you get the exposure you wanted on film when you clicked the shutter, not the one you just hoped you got.

Wow! This book is amazing! I am fairly new to photography and have been looking for a book that will answer the fundamental questions with regards to exposure but couldn't find one. Until now, I have never taken the time to write a review on Amazon but if I can coax even one person into buying this book, I will be helping that person make a great investment in their photographs.

The book as a huge assortment of top-notch color photographs which are explained in-depth by the author. He actually takes the time to say, "I used this exposure and this shutter speed and here's where I metered the scene and here's why". I learned so much just from the captions for the pictures - not to mention the amount I learned from the text itself.

Please, if you're interested at all about photography, this book is a MUST have. You will learn more from this 160 page book than most 400+ page books on photography!

I really did learn a few concepts from this book, but I was disappointed overall. I was hoping for much more guidance based on the reviews this book has received on Amazon. If I had looked at the book in a store, I wouldn't have bought it. Also, the book assumes you have a camera that offers certain features.

The book offers numerous examples with pictures and technical seetings of the camera when the picture was taken. The book teaches how to use the manual mode of the camera.

I own Canon S2 IS which offers completely manual mode, if desired. I have spent significant amount of time using the teachings of the book to shoot some pictures in manual mode. Resulting pictures are better than camera's automatic modes sometimes and worse sometimes. However, the time taken for manual mode is alway more than the auto mode.

Is your primary subject energetic fast moving children? Then, in my opinion, your best bet is one of your camer's automatic modes. If you are shooting landscapes or flowers, and if you are not in a big hurry, you should try manual mode of your camera and learn some good techniques offerred by this book.

We who once dragged film SLR setups throughout this hemisphere (including Central America and Machu Picchu) after high school classes with ancient hand held light meters and exposure tables, we who struggled to develop in jungle heat night and day beyond the recommended temps, we who find point and shoots as creepy as automatic transmissions, for us this book is our saving portal to the digital dimension of the SLR format we know and love and feel most at home.

Now that the latest DSLR surpasses ten mega-pixels, we safely ride behind the crest of the latest wave, finding great bargains in beautiful tools such as the Nikon D40, at an irresistible price which leaves money to get essentials like a longer lens, lens filters, the semi-soft case, and the dream of the surprisingly costly Speed-light. The old tripod still applies, as well as a surprising number of creative technical tricks, as well described in this book.

One asset of the D40 is the wiggle room for bracketing and other fun stuff, including changing ISO without waiting for a film roll to run out (as there IS no film). This present book fully covers all such old tricks, and is written by a very talented, knowledgeable and prolific professional photographer of landscape and portrait. The author is a true artist with the camera, and also a very good writer. He like me prefers natural or ambient light, and shows us how best to use it in the new technology.

Okay, as mentioned in other reviews, he tends to use apian simile to illustrate technical points, but I find that more compelling and illuminating than distracting. He also loves his wife and is not afraid to show it, as she frequently appears in his startlingly beautiful photographs, and not just for the sake of saving on a model's release. To paraphrase James Joyce's famous evangelical parody: No greater love has man than this, than to lay out his wife for his friends, and for us his readers and students as well.

I am grateful to Mr. Peterson for sharing so generously his art and his techniques in a clear and lucid manner, which reawakens within me all that I ever knew, and then some, much more. He rekindles within me that love of photography I thought died long ago, as eyes and mind dim, and as I got hit by the rising cost of film and lab fees. I was ready to hang up the camera forever and close in peace my camera eyes. Mr. Peterson challenges me to remember and to open my eyes once again.

The title seems to indicate this extensive book deals with "nothing more" than exposure and how it works, as if he would send us forth with light meter in hand to "get a feel" for how light works under different circumstances. This book teaches so much more in nearly every aspect of taking a picture, including composition, depth of field, shutter speed and ISO. Peterson thus expands his definition of EXPOSURE to include all of these and more. Please read the ENTIRE title: "Understanding Exposure: HOW TO SHOOT GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS . . ." (emphasis added) and you understand the richness and comprehensive nature of this well-packed book. It is as if this talented and trained commercial photographer with experience in every aspect of photography wants to tell us all he knows, and so we find on nearly every page a side-box full of other information which might not have to do with exposure per se, but is in itself very informative.

In short I strongly recommend this book for anyone returning after the first shock of the new technology, as a way to understand how to incorporate our old instincts within this brave new digital world, and I can also recommend it for the new photographer who is graduating beyond the point and shoot digital camera and wants to gain greater creative control.

This book liberates all photographers to their creative vision, and opens new avenues to beauty, truth and art with light, nature, civilization and people. This can be a path to Zen and the Art of Photography, the Semiotics of Photography. And it can be a very wise guide to this new frontier.

I wish I had gotten the lens with an aperture ring, as I always preferred to set the depth of field rather than shutter speed on my trusty old AL-1, and this book awakens hunger for that old method. I'll study my D40 manual to find the tricks and techniques which allow me to forget the camera and just take the best possible shot. One thing about DSLR, you don't have to shoot a roll to keep a shot, but can shoot till the SD card fills up, with no expense in deleting and re-shooting!

This book is well worth the cost and should be read carefully and gratefully by anyone with any sort of SLR camera to learn to master every aspect of exposing those megapixels to well balanced and beautiful light.

I picked up this book after getting a new digital rebel xti in hopes of breaking out of the full auto mode. Heck I paid a lot of money for those extra features so I should know how to use them, right? Anyways, I am up to page 58 and I have learned so much already! I am out of the full auto mode and I don't plan on returning!! If you are lucky to browse through the book at a bookstore before buying, do so! You will see after reading only a few short pages what the rest of us are talking about here. The author does a great job!! All those buzz words like f-stop, aperture, etc. are explained in simple terms and make so much more sense to me now. Thanks to all the other reviewers for leaving their comments and leading me to this book. You really help out the rest of us!
In short, look at all the other reviews; they are right on the money. Get the book and you will not be sorry you did. Then come back an leave your comments. I'm sure you will agree with the majority of us here, this book is excellent!!!

I've started getting into photography about a year ago and according to some pros' advices, they'd asked me to enjoy photography with passion instead of getting too technical with all the aperture, shutter speed, ISO and what nots. So I've done that, enjoying snapping away with all my might and of course, trying to train my eyes to see creatively so to speak. Now it has come to a point when I needed to get technical to learn how to operate my camera in order to take better pictures. I've been so confused with all my readings online and could never get my numbers right (of speed, aperture and it had came to a point when I had a mental block when I saw the word f-stop!) Then this book came to my rescue! What a great birthday gift, thanks to my friends! This is an easy-to-read book, and very easy to understand. Peterson explained things with good examples and analogies which helped me a lot in remembering how my camera works and how I could use that to help me get better results. A must read for beginners!

Although this book may at first be intimidating for someone who has never handled a SLR Camera, it is actually a thorough beginner's book. It is not overly "technical", although any book on exposure will be full of numbers when talking of aperture, shutter speeds, ISO settings, etc. Once you begin to get a grasp of these concepts, the reading is easy and enlightening. (no pun intended)

For those with a little experience, this book will clear up many of the exposure mysteries that you may have faced. I think it is a "must read" for beginner to intermediate shutterbugs.

The other rave reviews here tell you what the book provides - I simply want to add that I have this book and his "Learning to See Creatively" and you just won't find better photography books for learning, and for referring back to. I've also taken some online courses with Bryan at Betterphoto.com (great innovative website!), and his love for his craft and for teaching it are evident in all his lessons and critiques. You'd be well served by this book for years to come.

This book is excellent. I give it 4 stars because it didn't cover ISO THAT well for my understanding. Granted, it's a lot simpler than aperture and shutter speed, but I finished not really being sure when to use which ISO. Other than that the book is a must have. Highly recommended. The quality is incredible like others have said. I'm going to try Exposure and Lighting for Digital Photographers Only by Meadhra and Lowrie next.

This is an easy read that provides you with the basics and shows you how to use them in a creative fashion. Peterson discusses the three aspects to exposure (ISO speed, aperture, and shutter speed). People criticized him for discussing these concepts at length. However, they are the fundamentals to "understanding exposure", nothing more!

He tells you how to use these basic concepts to obtain more creative shots. He also provides the information used to take his amazing and colorful photographs as proof of his concepts.


Initially, I incorrectly assumed Mr. Peterson did a lot of post-processing to obtain that bright color. Therefore, I gave him four stars. However, in an email conversation, he informed me the bright colors are from the film he used which saturates the color. So, I will not obtain these rich photos from my digital camera. Instead, I would have to use post-processing to obtain that color.

He covers some very useful topics at the end (filters, creative shots, multiple-exposures, etc.). I wish he would've provided more information on these topics instead of one page each.

Nevertheless, the book is a very good buy, if you take the time to READ and not merely skim through the book looking for bits of information, you will enhance your understanding of exposure. Yet, they will still not look like his. However, if you believe this is remedial information and nothing new was learned, you then should write your own book!

P.S. Plus, it looks great on your coffee table and people will think you know something about photography.

I am not a professional but an enthusiastic amateur. I have been taking pictures for some time but relied a lot on the camera's automatic controls to do the thinking for me. I didn't believe that I needed to learn or understand how a camera worked. Is it any wonder that I did not achieve the results I looked for on a consistent basis? I wanted to understand exposure better and this book helped me.

This book spends a lot of time on the three things that make up exposure: the ISO rating, shutter speed, and aperture. Sure, it gets dreary learning those things but if you want good pictures it's essential to learn the underlying pieces of it. And the author does a good job in connecting the dots.

What helped me most with this book, though, is the understanding that for any picture there are a number of correct exposures. That is, you can get a correct exposure a number of ways by changing any of the three parts of an exposure. The trick is to find the creatively correct exposure. The exposure that represents your vision and intent for the picture.

Another great help to me was the explanation of how the light meter gets fooled by certain environments (e.g. snow, shadow, etc.) and how to deal with it. My landscape pictures have improved a great deal. I find myself in Manual mode much more often these days.

This book won't make you a great photographer but it will help you with tools you can really use. I think this book is ideal for an enthusiastic amateur or lower level of expertise. A seasoned professional will undoubtedly already know these things.

Understanding Exposure is exactly what I was looking for. I shoot hundreds of high school sports related photos each week as a fan and father. While I understand more than many of my fiends and my photos are generally pretty well done I have never been comfortable with shooting full manual (Canon Digital Rebel and now 30D). As the light changes during the games I have had difficulties. This book puts the trio of Shutter Speed, Aperature and ISO in easily understandable terms and shows results in pictures that include what settings were used and why. I now get depth of field and shooting "wide open" or what macro shots look like and how to get them. Ultimately this book was worth a great deal more that the $15 I spent. In fact I find myself reviewing sections in more of a how-to refresher before I shoot. Now I may miss the shot, but my exposure settings will be in the right ballpark.

This book does an excellent job of discussing the various techniques a photographer can make use of to creatively control exposure. This book teaches you how to make a creative interpretation when capturing the image. This is in contrast to Photoshop and image-editing books that focus on how to edit the image post-capture to produce a creative interpretation.

This is a well-written book, with plenty of color examples. It's not written in a complex manner at all, making it an excellent reference after you finish reading it from cover to cover.

The techniques highlighted in this book will generally require you to adjust aperture and or shutter speed on your camera. For this reason, SLR and dSLR users will benefit the most. Point and shoot cameras sometimes lack the manual controls to creatively alter the exposure as outlined in this book. Of great interest to me was Mr. Peterson's chapter on metering. He provides simple rules that will assist you in metering the correct portion of the image for the result you want. Here again, it would be better if you had a fully adjustable camera to be able to experiment to the extent that Mr. Peterson encourages.

The only criticism I had was that the chapter on filters left me wanting a bit more. Then again, not many digital cameras except dSLRs offer filter mounting capability.

I'd recommend this book for anyone from the beginner to the advanced amateur.

Finally the book I have been looking for! I have read many photo books, most of which didn't offer pratical guidelines that were understandable. This book provided more advice and more useful information than any before. I would suggest it for the beginner and above.

This book does not offer you formulas or ready pills to swallow without understanding what you do but makes you understand the logic what you are trying to do. I believe it is probably one of the best book to learn and understand the photography.

If you need to understand Aperture, Speed, ISO and Light meter as well as depth of field in a straight forward way, then this book is it. This book also has full color photos throughout, and they are absolutely beautiful. I have read various materials explaining those terms and this one is clearly the best.

I am a prothusiast photographer. I have done some professional work and a lot of personal work. The best photographs I have taken are deliberate pictures where I have focused on perfect exposure. Exposure is broken down into two aspects, iris and shutter. For many, particularly novices, it is difficult to know to understand how to leverage the power of proper exposure. Understanding Exposure, the book by Bryan Peterson, dispels the mystery of shutter speed and iris. This book puts you in control over your camera. With the principles taught in this book, you can quickly go from photo luckout artist to photographer.

Bryan teaches everything you need to know in order to take pictures on your terms. One of the most exciting aspects of Understanding Exposure is Bryan's photo samples. The book is full of pictures taken by Bryon himself. He lists his aperture and shutter settings for each photograph next to the images. This in itself is a wealth of knowledge.

If you hope to consistently take excellent pictures, you must understand how exposure works. Bryan Peterson's book, Understanding Exposure, is the perfect way to go from photo novice to prothusiast, or to increase your knowledge of photography even if you are a professional.

-Craig Nybo, author of Total Human: The Complete Strength Training System

I had thought I was making the most out of my camera, but after reading this book MANY times over, my craft has improved tenfold.

Sometimes things are hidden in plain sight, and the merit of this book is to point at them so clearly, you wonder why it didn't occur to you sooner.

Unless you're a seasoned pro of course, buy this book and read it cover to cover and you'll be asking for more.

After spending a few hours last night with this book, my camera and my camera manual, I have taken a giant leap forward in understanding photography and my camera. I moved the dial off auto and actually took a manual picture in low light with no flash, and it came out properly lit and in focus. WOW! I knew I needed some kind of book when I had no idea what most of the settings on my camera meant. I was debating whether to get this book or one of the more encyclopedic ones, and I'm so glad I got this one. It provides plenty of explanation on the essential topics without being overly verbose. I can't wait to spend a weekend with my camera and the new things I've learned just from the first few pages of the book.

Understanding Exposure is one of those great photography books that makes you leap up, grab your camera and start taking pictures in a new way.

With breathtaking photographs and down-to-earth explanations, Peterson really helps you understand how light enters your camera (digital or otherwise), how you can control it, and what that all means for your pictures. He covers aperture, shutter speed and ISO, from how they each affect light to how they all work together to affect exposure.

Superb read.

This book is a must-buy if you're an amatuer looking for quick and easy tips on how to expose common situations correctly. Nevertheless, it does not teach you the underlying principles that have to do with exposure leaving you quite helpless when faced with any situation that shifts from the norm therein explained. The books title is somewhat decieving, because in the end you don't really understand exposure as much as you adequately reproduce all its easy-to-learn rules. "Understanding exposure" would really require other more technical and in-depth books.

I purchased this book last year just prior to a trip to Ireland, I read it on the plane ride over, then referred to it numerous times over the course of my stay there. My understanding and use of my DSLR camera improved dramatically, and my pictures (not all of them) are testament to that.
I just a re-read it while flying to Thailand for vacation as a tune-up on the basics--my best photo's reflect the effects of the principles taught in this book.
Bryan Peterson's writing style is clear and concise, his manner is open and approachable, it's like a having a kindly mentor guiding you down the path to understanding rather than an expert droning on about the technical aspects of photography. I'm giving my daughter a DSLR for Christmas, and though she's taken photography classes, I'm purchasing this book to give with the camera.
Very good and highly recommended.

As a budding amateur photographer, I have struggled with trying to understand the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and film speed (or speed setting on a digital camera). This book provided an instant revelation. Plain language and easy to understand examples made me confident and comfortable with setting up my digital SLR. I now shoot in manual mode nearly all the time with great results. I would recommend this book to any novice-to-intermediate amateur looking to take their skills to the next level.

This is the best book I have yet read on photography! It is written in such a way that is easy to understand yet highly informative!
Bryan Petterson describes the relationship between ISO, Apperture and Shutter Speed beautiful! And as I am not yet finished with this book, and have so much better a grasp of the principles involved, I can't wait to finish and reread this book! And really be able to USE what I know and learned.
I recommend this book to ANYONE who is an amateur, or who would like the relationships between the "big three" cleared up.

There is no question that a lot of the information in this book you may already know but after reading this book you might not look at what you already know in quite the same way. Bryan really does a great job outlining how, why and when to use Aperture, Shutter or Manual mode. As you read through the book you will want your camera close at hand because you can't help but want to test your ability to create a similar exposure as his example.

The biggest "lesson" I learned reading this book was metering. Metering is the secret to getting consistently exposed pictures and Bryan gives you great tips on how to do this consistently. Bryan believes that you should get the exposure correct in camera, a philosophy I share, with little post production work to be done in Photoshop. Not that Photoshop isn't a fantastic tool but getting the "creatively correct" exposure in camera with proper technic is what he preaches. Life should be spent behind the camera not in front of the computer.

Last but not least was the overview of filters. Which ones to use and when. More good stuff here that you can certainly apply to your everyday photography.

In summary, it's really a fantastic book. I read it and used it like it was a "Photography Class in a book". I read a chapter with my camera along side to see if I can take a "creatively correct exposure".

I received "Learning to See Creatively" as a gift.
It helped me so much that I decided to buy this other
book from Peterson. This book is just
as helpful. These books are for the beginner to SLR
or digitial SLR. Probably not as helpful for intermediate
or advanced photographer.

This book, though a little on the expensive side, provides excellent examples and explications of the tools and techniques of photography. If you are brand new to the field of creative photography, or you are looking to improve your creativity by really understanding the technical aspects of your camera, this is an excellent book. Bear in mind, however, it is a little difficult to absorb in a singular reading, as it may take a while to digest the material. Specifically, the allegory the author employs to explain the relationship of aperture, film speed, and shutter speed is the best I have encountered.

An excellent book, and certainly worth the money.

For both beginner and early-intermediate photographers, this book explains the mechanical operations of the camera and tells the reader HOW those operations affect the outcome of their pictures.

With practical advice and hands-on practice lessons, Bryan really helps his readers take the next step in true photography.

I am a serious amateur photographer. Before i buy this book, i occasionally produce a great photos, but after i bought it, now i know why i able to produce a great photo and most of time don't.
if you're a beginner or serious amateur and looking for how you can expand your techniques on critical issues exposures, like aperture, shutter speed,and metering, this is your number 1 book. but, you won't find any explanation about flash photography, because the author isn't big fan of flash, which i think although i treat my flash only for rescue light source in the dark scene, but it will be more complete if this issue are explained

Mi scuso con i lettori ma questa vuole essere una parentesi "italiana" alla recensione di questo volume.
Ho letto di recensioni negative e di lamentele sul fatto che questo libro è adatto solo ai novizi.
Bhe io debbo fare una considerazione: chi fa fotografia da più anni, credo debba essere messo nella cerchia di chi ha già dimestichezza sia tecnica che creativa; è chiaro che questa tipologia di libri è diretta soprattutto a quelle persone che si avvicinano a questa passione, hobby, professione.
Personalmente ho iniziato l'arte della fotografia con una nikon 995 ed ora sono passato ad una d70, ed il libro si sposa bene anche con il digitale.
Sto imparando ad osservare i miei scatti con molta più naturalezza e precisione di quanto facevo prima, con la consapevolezza di capire quali parametri impostare per avere una bella foto.
Non esiste la perfezione ma questo libro mi ha aiutato parecchio.

This book has gotten hundreds of glowing reviews on Amazon. Fair enough. There's lots of good information here. But I found the author's writing style distracting and annoying. Learning that an f/8 to f/11 aperture is the best choice when focal distance doesn't matter was helpful; having him refer to them three or four dozen times as "'who cares?' apertures" is not. Ditto his other signature phrases repeated (and italicized) throughout: "Brother Backlit Sky," "Brother Reflecting Sky," "Mr. Green Jeans," etc.

The over-indulgent editing doesn't stop there. He provides generally informative background and technical info for many of the photos, but the narratives are tired: "Although I was tempted to leave, I decided to be patient and was soon rewarded," "I wasted no time turning my attention to this wonderful abstract photo opportunity," "If you're like me, you welcome spring with great enthusiasm," blah blah.

And I definitely could have done without the "my beautiful wife"-in-a-pink-string-bikini two-page image and/or the wife lingerie & cleavage shot.

If you're someone who appreciates good writing in addition to good information, I think there are better choices out there for your first book on photography. Freeman's very intelligently written The Photographer's Eye (also enthusiastically reviewed on Amazon) is one to consider.

I have found this book informative, but not educational. It is not a beginners book, if I hadn't read Digital SLR Cameras & Photography For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) first I would have been lost.

I rated the book 3 out of 5 stars, because as a novice I found much of the text a little too advanced for my limited grasp of exposure settings. I think this book is really designed for light hobbyists ready to take the next step, not for true beginners. So I may not be the target demographic for the book.

It's not all bad though, even a novice can gain from this book. The book is set up in a way that there is a picture on each page displaying the concept that is being discussed. Now often the main discussion wasn't of much use to me but the pictures are incredibly valuable for 2 reasons:

1. Every shot has the type of lens, f-stop, and shutter speed that was used. This helps you begin to understand the different relationships even if your not fully grasping the concepts.
2. This information becomes very value though when two photographs of the same object/landscape are shown side-by-side with only small changes in one of the three variables (lens, f-stop, shutter speed). Even with my very limited understanding I found these side-by-side comparisons very valuable in understanding the effects aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings can have on the end result of a photo.

***

Bottom lining it, if you're looking to take the next step this is probably a useful book. If you're a novice, I would avoid this book unless you understand that you will need to re-read this book several times to really benefit from it.

I'm not throwing this book away, I'm just waiting to gain enough experience that it can really start to make sense.

I got my copy of Understanding Exposure last night and though I'm only halfway through it, I felt the need to tell how great it is. With vivid photographs, detailed explanation, and a way of making the highly technical easy to understand, Bryan Peterson has created a book that every SLR beginner should buy and read.

Peterson focuses a lot of time in the beginning of the book on what he calls the "photographic triangle." Put simply, it's the relationship between your settings for aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. With an expert's touch for bringing things down to layman's terms, he makes this relationship far easier to understand than the countless web sites I've read while trying to gear up from being a point-and-shoot photographer to an SLR photographer.

For instance, I've easily read ten web sites' detailed explanation on ISO settings for a digital SLR. Not one of them gave me a firm grasp of how the ISO fit into the whole scheme of things. From the web sites, I took away that the lower the ISO, the better to avoid graininess and that ISO wasn't as important with digital SLR as it was with film cameras. Great, so why the heck is it a setting on my camera?!

Well, Peterson explains why by comparing ISO to "worker bees." In his explanation, if you have an ISO of 100, then you have 100 worker bees working on gathering the light that enters the camera. If you have an ISO of 200, then you have 200 worker bees. And so on and so forth. I would go further and fully explain his analogy, but suffice to say that Peterson does such an expert job that I would not be able to do it justice without reprinting it.

And beyond the explanation of the photographic triangle and how important it is to taking great photos, Peterson takes the reader into the realm of taking creative photos. As he points out in the book, there are often times 6-7 "correct" aperture/shutter speed/ISO combinations for any given photo. Decrease the aperture? Slow down the shutter speed and you'll still have a "correct" exposure. But, which of the 6-7 is going to give you the best photo? That's where Peterson takes over with photographic evidence of different photos of the same subject, all with "correct" settings. His example of a ferris wheel really hits the point home.

For those who are afraid of the "M" setting on their SLR camera, Peterson takes away all fear and, as promised in the first part of the book, imparts a confidence that will make you wonder why you were so scared of Manual mode to begin with. For those who are already shooting Manual, Peterson helps bring full meaning to the photographic triangle. And for those who have been shooting "correct" photos all along, but wonder how to take things to the next level and get photos that will make others "ooh" and "aah," Peterson delivers a detailed and wonderful explanation with plenty of examples.

Lastly, all of Peterson's photo examples include a description of what he was trying to accomplish and the settings he used. He also, in passing, offers great advice in the way of explaining how he metered his light. These aren't just pictures for him to show off; they're studies in how to actually take great photographs.

All of this and I'm only halfway through!!! I'll be sure to update once I finish, but even the first half of this book has done wonders for my confidence with Manual mode and the transition from point-and-shoot to digital SLR.

===== UPDATE =====

It's one day later and I've finished the book. As expected, Peterson delivers in the last half of the book just as he delivered in the first half. He goes on to talk about Lighting and Special Effects and, along the way, introduces "The Sky Brothers" and "Mr. Green Pants". These characters will make it easy for even beginners to remember how/where to set their exposures. Like the photographic triangle and worker bees before, Peterson's use of metaphor is perfect and, most importantly, memorable.

Overall, I'm very impressed not only with Peterson's detailed explanations of seemingly complex topics, but also the way in which he informs the reader while not making things overly technical. This book is more than well worth the price tag!

Bryan Peterson does a fantastic job of explaining what it takes to make a great photograph from a good one. One of the key emphasis of the book is to look for creatively correct exposures and the author illustrates the point very well with a number of photos taken at different settings. The book ends with some great pro advice on metering and filters. The strongest part about this book is that all that the author writes, you can see in various photos for yourself in the book. A very well written book that will make you start thinking like a photographer.

Highly recommended for your collection of photography books.

This book was awesome. I read this book from front to back and it was easy to understand. I take better pictures and have a better understanding of my camera and its' features. I have read photography books before and have either have been more confused or never finished the book. Bryan Peterson's writing is great, easy to understand, and he takes you step by step into the "photography world"

I expected a lot of this book, that was recommended by every photographer on every forum I visit.
Maybe that's why I was a little disappointed at first reading : I already knew about f-stops, diafragma, shutter speed and their relation to each other, and I expected to get some more advanced knowledge on this subject.
That is not why one should buy this book. It IS a good book, a great book, and it did offer me quite some good new insights in photography, about "seeing photographically", about "storytelling pictures" as the author calls it. He makes his point by showing some great pictures that prove his insights.
For true beginners, this book should be THE eye-opener, a revelation, however. It teaches you all you need to know to get away from the dull "full auto" mode on your camera and make great pictures.
I would certainly recommend it, even though my expectations were not in sync with reality.....

The book is excellent, well narrated and written. Very clear, excellent illustration. As good as it gets.

The few small things to make it perfect:

ISO setting provided for the photos in addition to apperture and speed. Since book is about understanding exposure, it would be nice to see the ISO settings too - all the details.

Would like to see a little bit more details about light measurements, and not at the last chapter, but at the beginning. I was reading the book and couldn't understand why the author was getting the light reading from the sky and then recompose the shot, until in the last chapter where he finally explains. Would be nice to know from the beginning :)

This book is very good at explaining how to use your SLR (film or digital) camera in manual, Av, and Tv modes; and why you should use these modes instead of the automatic modes to take better pictures. It is illustrated with hundereds of good color pictures that show examples how different exposure settings affect the outcome of pictures. I have read several books on photograpy, but this one is the best because it gets to the point, re-enforces the text with visual examples, and can be read and understood in a few hours.

As another reviewer stated, this book does not offer real depth in understanding exposure. It offers guidelines and ideas on how to make a good exposure. I'm pretty new to photography, and I picked up a few pointers. If you are experienced, definitely get another book. If you don't have much experience, look for a book on general photographic techniques. I'll be looking for one.

Physically, the book was well made, with high quality photographs.

A friend recommended i read this book, so i purchased it and spent the next afternoon reading through it. The book was awesome, it very clearly explained a lot of the terms i previously didn't understand and helped me to better understand why pictures weren't turning out like I had hoped. It was a great beginner book to learn how to get the right exposure from the camera instead of having to digitally edit the photos later. I highly recommend the book for the beginner or for anyone who wants to improve their photography (oh and the book is written for anyone, digital or film.

I was left with somewhat of confusion on certain topics in the author's fist book but after reading this one everything fell into place. That could be mainly because I have quite a few years more experience now and a digital camera on top of that to practice more without waisting film and instant viewing. I really liked the parts in the book explaining where to take your metering for certain photos from! It's short and to the point with many examples, maybe too many leaving out room to explain a little more on some issues. This is why only 4 stars.

I have paid thousands of dollars and spent hundreds of hours in photography classes at the Art College in the city near my home. The college is amazing and i adore the teaches. I learned a lot going to this school but i never truly understood exposure until 3 days ago when i read this book. The entire world of photography feels brand new and exciting even though i have been taking pictures for over 30 years! And if i ever see Bryan Peterson, i swear i will kiss his feet because he has changed my life. If you love photography but you've been frustrated with exposure or your not sure how to use your camera off Program Mode - This book WILL change your photos -for the better - forever.

Like many of you I am working towards making unbelievable photography and maybe someday changing careers. I have read many books cover to cover and my photography has shown great improvement in a short time period. Understand Exposure is by far the best book that I have read so far. A beginner can get this book but with a little understanding of your camera and basic camera terminology this book could make almost anyone dangerous on a shoot. The author, Bryan Peterson, jumps right in to explaining and getting you out of auto modes. Luckily I was already shooting manually and had heard some of his techniques prior but with each new lesson he seems to reiterate his earlier teachings. Within the first 20 pages you are learning what may have taken you a few weeks to months to learn when you seriously started shooting. I would say buy it. I just want to also say I am not someone the author asked to write a review. I am merely a photographer serious about improving my craft and this book should be a must have on the shelf for anyone wanting to truly learn about properly exposing your photos. Take it for what it is, this is not a composition book or a how to use your camera book ... this is pretty much a "I want to pick up my camera, throw it in manual, frame a shot and come out with the "perfect" exposure every time". That is worth a lot when you may have one short period to get the great properly exposed shot. If you buy it ... enjoy it and I will see you in some photo competitions and if you don't ... good luck ... it can be done without a doubt but this book just makes it easier.

I have been trying to occasionally learn about ISO, ASA and shutter speed for about five years. It always seems that the people I ask about these things know a bit about each of them, but then fake it when a question stumps them such as: how do these variables interact and affect each other, especially during variable light conditions?

I have now had "Understanding Exposure:..." for a week, and for the first time in my life I truly do understand these variables, and how they affect the photo when the shutter is finally pressed.

Bryan's book is beautifully designed. It flows one through the concepts he presents in a logical and clear order. At one point, he instructs the reader to pick up the camera, then walks them through using/changing the exposure parameters to take his/her very first (including mine!) fully-manual photo. This exercise alone was very enlightening, and is typical of the kind of practical information contained in this great book.

Additionally, his book contains many photographic examples, wonderful original photos (including photos of his beautiful wife and children), and humorous and encouraging writing. It is a joy to read, and after having done so, you will have a surprisingly strong grasp on the concepts and practical use of exposure methods. BRAVO!

One of my biggest problems in trying to find intro books is that none of them seemed very intro. I mean, people aren't born knowing what an f stop is. Perhaps I was merely looking in the wrong place, but this book explained to me how to use the manual setting on my camera in all sorts of situations, and how to figure out which settings are the best in various situations. What shuttle speed, aperture, light meter and ISO are, how they relate to each other, and what they will do in different instances. Some of the chapters titles made me wince with the cheese but overall this was a wonderful intro book. You may have to read it a couple times with camera and camera manual in hand but I don't think there's any book out there that will beam the knowledge directly into your head.

I think that this book is the most exellent piece of paper i have read about photography. Ok i know that the book is not usefull for profesional photographers that they know what they do all time about the right exposure. But is this book for profesionals? I don't think so. For the rest of us (the serious amateurs users) the author keeps things simple but also goes in depth in the right points. He use only the camera's light meter for right exposure and for me this is the major advandage of the book. His tips and tricks are really useful and they had helped me to improve my photos.

thalis

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thalis

I really learned loads from this well written book. Bryan Peterson wrote the book in a manner that I (the beginner) could easily understand and digest. He also set in a few exercises that really helped me get over some question "humps'. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to get a better understanding of what settings to apply to thier camera to get the optimum results.

A good overview of photography and proper techniques for achieving artistic exposures. I would recommend this book as required reading for all beginning photo students, and a good read for those needing a refresher course.

It dose weigh more towards film photography, and less towards digital, but the film techniques do well for digital also. It did not address questions I have about digital. It seems that my digital camera does things that the author says digital cameras do not do.

I bought this book as a complement to my new Digital Rebel XT. It is quite excellent in providing information on standard photography- things that apply to both film and digital cameras. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more and wanting to use all of the manual features available on a good SLR camera.

If you're new to digital photography and you want to go beyond using the auto mode, this book is very helpful and easy to understand. I have purchased several books on the subject and this is the book where it finally clicked. I went back to my other books after reading this one and I understood what they were trying to say. A nice pocket companion guide after reading this book is Derrick Story's Digital Photography Pocket Guide.

If you are a beginner in photography and wants to go a step further, this is a very good book. It explains all there is about, exposure (aperture, speed, ISO,...).
Simple, light and with lots of examples.

This is one of the most outstanding books on photographic technique that I have read. Examples are extreemly well explained. What you think is impossible to do, Mr. Peterson shows you how. This book is a must for any beginning or intermediate photographer. And, his wife is very good looking!

I have read many books, articles and reviews on photography. Bryan's book is the best. It is not full of the tech-no jargon you see books (by some pretty famous photographers) who I believe get caught up in the "technical language" resulting in books that are difficult to follow and impossible to utilize in the field.
Bryan, explains, shows examples and you can go outside your front door and try some of his techniques. The results are amazing. Buy this book with the realization you will carry it with you in your bag for reference.

Walt Paholak

This book is an enjoyable, quick read. It contains many color plates, accompanied by text, that clearly demonstrate photographic choices such as (esp) depth-of-field, and shutter-speed.

The book frequently presents sets of photographs of identical scenes, taken with automatic and manual camera settings, which are used to explicate the shortcomings of generic one-size-fits-all point-and-shoot (P&S) camera automation that can frustrate artistic intent or expectations. More usefully, the book describes rules-of-thumb approaches using commonly available camera features that can compensate.

Among the book's strengths is motivating why and when to depart from P&S automation. As such, it may be especially useful to folks (like me) who are transitioning from a digital P&S to a more capable camera.

The book content avoids technical details, and offers good tips for an intermediate photographer, most accompanied by useful broad-brush techniques and memorable analogies that I have found helpful in my subsequent picture-taking. The book's focus is on taking "correct-by-design" pictures, with a bias against subsequent manipulation (digital or film), but does skim over such possibilities.

On a negative note, I was somewhat disappointed that the technical specifications on several interesting pictures lacked complete EXIF-type information (usu: lens, ISO, lens/focal length, camera). Among other omissions, this lack makes it difficult to tell when a given photographc was taken with a true full-frame 35mm camera (APS) vs the common digital APS-C format, or something else, entirely.

As an additional nit, the book suffers from its generality: I'd like to have seen more specifics on working through the flaws of a specific, less-capable (digital) camera+lens, as opposed to the approach taken which broadly distinguishes between film vs. digital but avoids details (presumably to avoid offending camera manufacturers).

Finally, as a digital photographer, I definitely would appreciate more information on histogram/values interpretation, better guidelines on what is/isn't recoverable by post-processing, and in general, a slightly less purist approach to the world of fixing up pictures up after the fact.

For folks new to the world of photography, I'd highly recommend this book. For folks with more experience, I'd suggest looking elsewhere (and let me know where!). For Amazon, how about a slightly more sophisticated system that allows reviewers to better express a newbie/intermediate/expert rating?

This is the book that finally helped me make the jump from auto and "P" mode to fully manual on my digital camera. I had tried many times, but this book explained the rationale and purpose behind various exposure settings so I saw the value of going manual. I have referred back to the book quite a few times to reinforce things. I would suggest it to anyone at the beginning or intermediate levels who want to improve their photography.

This book is great for the beginner or the amateur who needs a refresher course or just needs to gain an understanding of exposure. In my opinion, this is the first book that you should read when getting started in photography. A fundamental understanding of aperture, shutter speed and ISO as well as light metering are essential concepts on which everything you learn about photography is built. Without this book, you will struggle to gain control over your exposures. This book is equally as important for both the film and digital photographer.

As far as the content goes, the explanations, instructions and excercises all correspond with beautiful color pictures that depict what it is that is trying to be explained or taught. You will not be disappointed here.

Bryan Peterson is a world renowned photographer. However, his book was understandable and written in a way for the novice or hobbyest to comprehend. He further impressed me when he took the time to respond to some questions that I had after reading his book. He is truly dedicated to his profession and teaching others.

This is a must read.

I took a full year photography course in high school. I never realized how much I learned in that course until I started reading these "highly rated" photography books. I'm by no means a professional. I would classify myself as a serious amateur. If I knew absolutely nothing about shutter speed, ISO, and f stops, this book would present me with a really good foundation on those subjects. However, I had already learned a good amount of information on shutter speed, ISO, and f stops and I was hoping that this book would cover more advanced techniques in lighting, and that it would give more examples on "tricky" or advanced "exposures".

If you just bought a digital camera or if you shoot film, and you have absolutely no idea what shutter speed, ISO, and f stops are and how they relate to one another, then I think you will benefit from this book. If you already know what shutter speed, ISO, and f stops are then I don't think you'll learn a great deal from this book.

The book however is great for reference and the pictures are worth the price of the book anyway. I didn't say I disliked the book, I was just hoping for more. I think the title should be Understanding Exposure for the new photographer.

If you need to know how to properly expose a photo, either with film or digital, the knowledge you need is in this book. Bryan Peterson explains everything in detail, from apatures and shutter speeds, to how to meter a scene. The photos usually illustrate his point perfectly, and they're pleasing to the eye to boot.
So, why not a 5-star rating? Well, Mr. Peterson's writing style leaves a little to be desired. I constantly felt like he was talking down to his readers. He uses childish analagies and includes rather silly stories from his past. If I was in one of his classes and he taught it with the same tone as his books, I'd have to drop out. And seeing how this book was written several years ago, the part on digital is pretty outdated. I also noticed that the captions explaining the equipment and settings used are not always correct. These are minor complaints, though. Just skip over the boring parts of the text and get to the good stuff, and you'll love the book.

I bought this book after reading good reviews about it in a photography forum.

When I got it I just couldn't put it down.

First of all, the photos are AMAZING! Full with live saturated colors. These are photos of the kind that makes me say WOW... and believe me I said wow on every page turn.

I liked a lot the presentation of the material. I found the accompanying photos very helpful in understanding the text in every topic.

What is nice is that the texts are short and the accompanying picture(s) are indeed worth a 1000 words.

The photos and text complement nicely and reading this book made me want to leave everything else that I wanted to do, grab my camera and try to practice the wealth of material.

As an amateur photographer this was a great 1st book on photography to read.

I also bought all the other books from Bryan Peterson and those were just as fun, just as useful and just as amazing.

this book is better than a class. read it and you will understand the sacred mysteries of iso, aperture, and exposure, with plenty of real-world examples and an easy-to-understand style that's just technical enough without being dry. tip: before going on to the next chapter, complete your "homework" assignments. only downside is it's a bit big to take into the field with you.

If, like me, you have bought endless books that claim to reveal the `Secrets of Digital Photography' only to find that, apart from the pretty pictures, the most that they reveal is that we used to use something called `Film', but, due to the wonders of modern technology we can now take pictures without it, or that they wax lyrical on subjects such as `How to connect your camera to your PC' or how many photo programmes are available to make your pictures right after you have `cocked them up' in camera, you will realise with what relief I started to read `UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE' by Bryan Peterson.

Here was a guy who was prepared to tackle my ignorance head on and reveal to me the true `Secrets Of Digital Photography', I can honestly say, hand on heart that I now understand the relationship of Aperture to Shutter Speed to ISO, or what he calls the `Photographic Triangle' and I at last understand what that thing was that the wedding photographer stuck up your nose at your cousins wedding as he measured the amount of available light.

If you want to know about how light works, Bryan tells you in this book, if you want to know how to make `Creative Exposures' it's all here, if you never knew how to get that `Out of focus background' on a pin sharp foreground there are 7 pictures of his Dad with background coming more into focus with each shot and full chapter and verse on each exposure.

Since reading the book I have 'Boldly gone' etc, trying my hand (with a fair amount of success) at 4 second night exposures, Macro photography, as well as portrait etc, I am conciously aware of the 'Rule of Thirds' and rarely use my camera on 'Auto' as I have more control over what my camera does if I use 'Manual'.

As a retired teacher and `Photographic Dabbler' turned serious photographer perhaps the thing that strikes a chord most with me is the fact that Peterson demonstrates immediately that not only is he a Pro Photographer but he is equally at home in the classroom and uses terminology that is calculated to stay in you memory and get you to your goal quicker, for instance he likens the ISO numbers to light gathering Bees, (You have to read the book) but I know that I will never forget the simile (if that's what it is) just as I never forgot that `Gorillas Don't Always Eat Bananas' was a good way to remember the first five Sharp keys in music.

Of course you have to want to learn this stuff, but if you are looking at Photography Books the likelihood is that you want to know it, if so you are in luck.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, I am not an expert in photography, that's why I bought the book, but I am no longer a dummy in photography and that is all due to Bryan Peterson.

I enjoyed the book and learned a lot however I was disapointed on the digital -The book seemed to be written for the film camera user and then it appears that he went back and added some comments for the digital user.

I purchased this book based on several other recommendations. This book is well written, easy reading and explains all aspects of exposure. Bryan Peterson the author explains what aperture is and when and why you would want to use it, as well as shutter speed and when or why to use that as well as a great section dealing with lighting issues. He also provides some simple exercises to help you understand the concept. The book is also not biased toward either digital or film based photography, and also not biased towed an SLR or a point and shoot. The author does a great job of explaining some of the differences between the two (for me since I have both digital SLR and point and shoot, it was an, ah ha, that's why). I highly recommend this book.

The best of five books I've purchased.
I have learned more in the first 25 pages of this inexpensive
book even after reading EVERY page of the others.
Another note:
This book actualy has great pictures in it.
The others were jammed full of stock.
Accurate large COLOR, yes, one of the other books is in black and white.
A rare 5 star from me.
Buy this book if you want to take the next step

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone in need to improve his/her understanding of camera techniques. This book is awesome! Peterson does a really down-to-earth way of discribing aperture/shutter speed...etc...and the correct and best use of those in a very simple to understand way. The book is a joy to read. He gives great tips and tricks and even assingments you can do if you like to really see what he's talking about. I just got this book last week and am already a firm believer that with the help of it you can improve your knowledge and end result of your exposures/pictures. A+

I am an amature enthusiast - I've been shooting pictures for, oh about 5 years. This book is highly enjoyable, a little dry at the start. He explains the very basics, I guess that's good if you are just going into photography and don't know about stops, ISO, shutter speed, etc.

He talks about the sensor of the camer and how it's at the center at everything - that and other hints on how to take pictures make this book very enlightening. He even tells you exactly what to do on certain days, it's excellent.

One thing he could have talked a little more was composition and how to make a dull looking picture a very good one (composition). The discussion on filters was very useful in understanding how to solve the problem of differently exposed areas in your picture, I'd probably just buy this for that section.

High highly recommended read, buy it!

I got this book hoping to learn more about how to improve the exposure of my photos and the book did that. The author shows explains the relationship between ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed and how they can be used in conjunction with each other to get the exposure you want. To a beginner photographer like me, that was a big help. He also worked to explain that there isn't just one right exposure for each photo, which I had not considered. It's been revised to include more information about digital SLR cameras which is what i have.

I recommend this book to anyone who is a relative beginner in photography and is looking to better understand the factors that impact exposure.

The author is very easy to follow and offers excellent examples which makes it easy for the aspiring photographer to learn the basic concepts to turn their snapshots into photos.

Hello,
Before buying this book, I read many of the reviews about it here on amazon, and decided to give it a try. I was very happy. The book gives you great tips and tricks about exposure, how to understand it, how to think when choosing your aperture/shutter, how to meter for frontlight/backlight/sidelight,... I liked the author's way of giving the information, very inspiring. Hope that helps you decide, you won't be dissapointed. Please make a point: this book is a keeper in your library.

Being a home schooling mom, I am the type of person who knows how to use metaphors to explain things. They can make even the most complex of situations easier to understand and apply. That is what made this book so easy to follow and understand.

Simply written without being elementary, this book is great for beginning photographers and beyond!

The sample photos throughout the book are extremely helfpul in showing several techniques, and the step by step directions for applying those techniques are clear and complete.

Anyone struggling with the "technical" side of photography would not go wrong with this book!

I have just started taking pictures. I have never used the manual mode on my camera before because I didn't understand exposure with shutter speed, ISO, and aperture. This author explains all of this in simple terms to help me understand.
Now I use nothing but the manual mode when taking pictures. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about exposure.

This is one of the very best photography books I have read. First Mr. Peterson explains basic things in a clear, easily understood way and uses effective illustrations to enhance his explanations. Second, He explains one element at a time and then shows you where that element fits into a greater whole. I found that I was already using much of what he covered, but when he explained how the different pieces fits together and how you can vary their relationships to one another to affect the end product; my separate pieces began to lock into place with one another and gave me a more powerful tool to work with. Once I began to grasp the larger view of exposure, I could see the variety of ways that a picture could be viewed and found I now understood what was technically necessary to capture the particular view that I wanted.

Mr. Peterson defined what correct exposure is, and how you can know when you have it. He then explained that the correct exposure could be gained with several different combinations of aperatures and shutter speeds, and that the specific combinations were what allowed us creative exposures. Creative exposures change what the picture emphasizes. Exposures that were easy and pleasant to look at, but focused on motion rather than detail. Exposures that were in focus from the flowers