What is exposure? Photography exposure is basically how bright or dark your image is. We call a photo that is too dark, underexposed. A photo that is too bright is overexposed.

A photo where your subject is not too dark, and not too bright, but it looks natural, is properly exposed. Your subject could be anything from a person to a mountain in the distance.

Depending on your photo’s composition, not everything can be properly exposed. Sometimes your background will be too bright. Sometimes one side of your photo will be too dark.

The important thing we want you to remember with ‘proper exposure’ is that it’s partly up to you as the artist. You may want your photo to be dark or to be bright. That can create some interesting and creative shots.

This is the basic idea of photography exposure. As you go through the course, you'll learn how to control your photo's exposure using in-camera options like aperture, shutter speed and ISO, as well as out-of-camera things like natural and artificial lighting.

What is aperture? Aperture is the first part of the exposure triangle, and the first part of your camera that controls how much light enters and is captured.

Inside your lens is a hole. This hole can go bigger and smaller. This is your aperture, which is sometimes called the ‘iris,’ similar to the iris or pupil of your eye. Now if you make the aperture larger, do you think more light is let in or less light?

That one is easy - more light is let in when the hole is bigger. This means that increasing the size of the aperture will make your image brighter. Decreasing will make it darker.

How do we adjust our aperture?

An f-stop, also known as an f-number, is a method of describing the size of the aperture. This f-stop scale goes from f/1 to f/1.4 to f/2 to f/2.8 to f/4… and beyond.

There are 2 potentially confusing things about the f-stop scale.

First, the smaller the f-number, the larger the aperture. Visa versa, the larger the f-number, the smaller the aperture. So an f/2.8 is larger, and lets in more light than an f/11. Make sense?

This lesson of the Photography Masterclass is a visual guide that will help you understand what the aperture is.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn:

What is shutter speed?

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn:

What is ISO and how it effects exposure?

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn:

The Exposure Triangle

This lesson of the Photography Masterclass is a visual guide that will help you understand what the exposure triangle is.

Learn more about the activities in this course!

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to read the light meter on your camera.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn the different automatic metering modes in a typical digital camera.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what exposure compensation is, and how it affects the look of your photo.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn the different modes on your camera.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what dynamic range is - and how it relates to exposure.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what HDR photography is.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to read exposure with the camera's histogram.

This lesson of the Photography Masterclass is a visual guide that will help you understand what the histogram is.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what an exposure stop is.

This lesson of the Photography Masterclass is a visual guide that will help you understand what a stop of light is.

In this lesson, you'll find a list of articles and helpful resources that will help you deepen your knowledge about the main topics in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what composition is, and what you'll learn in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what the rule of thirds is and how it can improve your photography.

This lesson of the Photography Masterclass is a visual guide that will help you understand what the rule of thirds is.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use the golden ratio to improve your photography composition.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what negative space is and how it can make your photos even better.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn a new composition style - using leading lines in your photos to draw attention to the subject.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn about having balance and symmetry in your photo.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how perspective and angle change more than just the look of your photo.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to choose the right background to improve your photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to create depth in your photos by layering.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to compose your photos using shapes that naturally occur in the environment.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how shooting portraits with different types of lenses can actually change what a person's face looks like.

In this lesson, you'll find a list of articles and helpful resources that will help you deepen your knowledge about the main topics in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what depth of field is, and what you'll learn in this section of the course.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what depth of field is and how aperture affects the depth of field.

This lesson of the Photography Masterclass is a visual guide that will help you understand what depth of field and focus zones are.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn multiple ways to get a blurrier background.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to adjust your focus manually or with automatic focus.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to adjust the auto focus mode on your camera to change how your camera focuses.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to capture fast moving subjects sharply.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to shoot sharp images in low light.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what bokeh is.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use back button focus on your camera to improve your photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to adjust the focus of the viewfinder itself with the diopter.

In this lesson, you'll find a list of articles and helpful resources that will help you deepen your knowledge about the main topics in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn about the camera itself, and what's included in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn the common features of most DSLR and mirrorless cameras.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn about camera scene modes - and when to use them.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn the difference between RAW and compressed JPEG images.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn about your camera's sensor.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll see the difference between camera sensor sizes.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what photo resolution is, and how it relates to quality.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to take multiple photos in a short amount of time with burst (or continuous) modes.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn the main differences between a DSLR and mirrorless camera.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll get resources to help you learn how to use your specific camera.

In this lesson, you'll find a list of articles and helpful resources that will help you deepen your knowledge about the main topics in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what white balance is and what you'll learn in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn what white balance and light temperature are.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to read light temperatures with the kelvin scale.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you can download a handy guide to the kelvin scale.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use your camera's automatic white balance modes to properly photograph different scenes.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you can download a handy guide that shows the popular white balance symbols and when to use them.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn about picture profiles and how it affects your image.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn about the light spectrum and colors.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to improve you photography with creative colors.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to improve your black and white photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn pro tips for how to improve your black and white photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass,  you'll learn how to use the custom white balance setting in your camera to do so.

In this lesson, you'll find a list of articles and helpful resources that will help you deepen your knowledge about the main topics in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn about lighting and how it affects your photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use natural light to light your photos.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use natural light coming in from a window to light your subject.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use artificial lights to improve your photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to take great photos with your on-camera flash.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use an external flash to improve your photography.

This lesson of the Photography Masterclass is a visual guide that will help you understand how to creatively set up an external flash.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use a continuous light kit to light your subject.

This lesson of the Photography Masterclass is a visual guide that will help you understand how to set up a basic 3-point lighting setup - great for portraits.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn creative ways to use light in your photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to improve your sunset photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use artistic flares to improve your photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn reduce glare in glasses.

In this lesson, you'll find a list of articles and helpful resources that will help you deepen your knowledge about the main topics in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn about mobile photography, and what you'll learn in this section.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use a typical smartphone camera.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to properly exposure using the manual controls of your phone's camera.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn tips for improving your smartphone photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to shoot in low light with a smartphone.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn several mobile phone accessories that can improve your photography.

In this lesson of the Photography Masterclass, you'll learn how to use the portrait mode.

In this lesson, you'll find a list of articles and helpful resources that will help you deepen your knowledge about the main topics in this section.