Understanding Exposure in

Landscape Photography
Switching from automatic modes to manual can be a daunting prospect for amateur
photographers keen to push their creative skills forwards. Often attempts to take more control can
result in photos turning out too dark or too bright. Understanding exposure is the key to
transforming opportunities into stunning photographs.

Mastering exposure is crucial for any photographer, but it’s particularly essential in landscape
photography where lighting conditions are not within our control and can change quickly and
dramatically. Let me guide you through the basics of exposure and provide you with the
knowledge to con dently take control of your camera settings.

This PDF is a printable version of my blog post Understanding Exposure.

What is Exposure?
Exposure in photography simply refers to the amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor
or lm. It determines how light or dark an image will appear. Proper exposure ensures that your
photo accurately represents the scene you’re trying to capture, with the right amount of detail in
both the highlights and shadows.

Exposure is controlled by three main components: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. These
elements form what is known as the exposure triangle. Understanding how each of these
components a ects exposure will allow you to make informed decisions when adjusting your
camera settings.

APERTURE
You can think of aperture as the pupil of your camera lens. Just as the pupil in your eye dilates or
contracts to control the amount of light entering your eye, the aperture adjusts to control the light
entering the camera.

A wider aperture (lower f-stop number) lets in more light, which is useful in low-light conditions
but reduces depth of eld, making only a small part of the image sharp. A narrower aperture
(higher f-stop number) lets in less light but increases depth of eld, which is often desirable in
landscape photography to keep everything in focus from foreground to background.

Key characteristics: Controls depth of eld and has a signi cant impact on the parts of your
image which are in sharp focus.

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 SHUTTER SPEED
Shutter speed is how long the camera's sensor is exposed to light. A fast shutter speed (e.g.,
1/1000s) can freeze motion, making it ideal for capturing sharp images of moving subjects, like
wildlife or sport. A slow shutter speed (e.g., 30s) allows more light in and can create a sense of
motion blur, which can be used artistically to show the movement of water or clouds.

Key characteristics: Fast shutter speed for crisp details and moving subjects. Slow shutter speed
to allow blurring of moving elements like water or clouds.

ISO
ISO controls the sensor’s sensitivity to light. In bright conditions, you can use a low ISO to
maintain image quality and reduce noise. In darker conditions, increasing the ISO can help achieve
a proper exposure, but it comes at the cost of potentially introducing grain or noise into the image.
The full stop ISO units are shown in black below for simplicity.

100 125 160 200 250 320 400 500 640 800 1000 1250

1600 2000 2500 3200 4000 5000 6400 8000 10,000 12,800 16,000 20,000

Key characteristics: The higher the ISO the more potential for noise (grain) in the image.

The Exposure Triangle

The exposure triangle is a concept that illustrates the direct relationship between aperture, shutter
speed, and ISO. These three settings work together to control the exposure of a photograph.
Changing one setting will impact the others, and achieving a balanced exposure involves
nding the right combination of all three.

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As ISO increases from e.g., 100 to 200, 400, 800, 1600, the sensitivity of the sensor DOUBLES
each time i.e., it simply becomes twice as sensitive to light.

As the aperture is opened up e.g., from f/11 to f/8 or from f/8 to f5.6, the amount of light passing
through the lens DOUBLES each time.

As the shutter speed is changed from e.g., 1/500s to 1/250s to 1/125s, the amount of light
DOUBLES each time.

These increments are referred to as “stops”.

When photographers talk about "stops" they're referring to adjustments in any of these three
settings to control exposure. A change of one stop, regardless of whether it's in ISO, aperture, or
shutter speed, means a doubling or halving of the amount of light that a ects the image.

In summary, while "f-stop" speci cally refers to aperture settings, "stops" in general photography
terms encompass changes in ISO, shutter speed, and aperture to manage exposure levels.

Modern DSLR cameras have third stop increments, which is great for control, but does make
familiarising yourself with the numbers more daunting. The full stop units are shown in black
below for simplicity.

1.4 1.5 1.8 2 2.2 2.5 2.8 3.2 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.6 6.3 7.1 8 9 10 11 13 14 16 18 20 22

BALANCING THE EXPOSURE TRIANGLE

If we assume we are starting with a correct exposure, then INCREASING any of the values will
result in over exposure, where the resulting image is too bright. This would make an adjustment in
one or both of the other components necessary.

Increase ISO = Reduce shutter speed and/or aperture

Increase Shutter Speed = Reduce ISO and/or aperture
Increase Aperture = Reduce ISO and/or shutter speed

Conversely if you reduce any values you would need to increase one or both of the other two
components to keep the exposure triangle balanced.

Aperture and shutter speed priority modes when used in conjunction with auto ISO will adjust the
other two parts of the triangle. With aperture priority (AV Canon; A Nikon) the shutter speed and
ISO will be automatically adjusted to keep your desired aperture. With shutter speed priority (TV
Canon; S Nikon) the aperture and ISO will be automatically adjusted to keep your desired shutter
speed.

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Key considerations for successful exposure
The amount of light and your subject will be the main considerations for the combination of ISO,
aperture and shutter speed to aim for. Your settings will be vastly di erent shooting seascapes in
winter than shooting wildlife images on safari.

ISO CONSIDERATIONS:
The lower the ISO the cleaner the image.

See the example image below of a noisy image shot at ISO3200. Noise can be cleaned up in
post-processing (sometimes very well), but best practice is to use as low of an ISO as possible.
Also note in the sample image that the stars have begun to "trail", most noticeably at the top, and
a shorter shutter speed is required to eliminate this.

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Use higher ISO with moving subjects in order to “freeze” the action. Higher ISO’s help achieve
faster shutter speeds for sports, wildlife etc.

If you’re not using a tripod, increasing ISO is useful to achieve a faster shutter speed to reduce
camera-shake. Experiment to establish what shutter speed you are able to hand-hold without
camera-shake. Longer lenses exaggerate camera-shake but image stabilisation features in
camera signi cantly help to keep the images crisp, (as long as your subjects are static).

If you are shooting a static landscape then most frequently you will use the lowest ISO to keep
noise to a minimum, especially if you are using a tripod when camera shake is not usually a
consideration.

APERTURE CONSIDERATIONS:
Use narrow apertures for a greater depth of eld, ensuring both foreground and background
elements are in focus. For landscape photography, where front-to-back sharpness is often
desired, apertures like f/9 and f/11 are particularly useful.

However, extremely narrow apertures, such as f/22, can cause di raction, leading to softer
images. Despite this, they can still be creatively used to produce a starburst e ect with bright light
sources. This can be a great technique in woodland where you can position the sun partially
behind a bough, for example, or just as the sun breaks the horizon at sunrise or sunset.

Sensor spots (particles of dust on the camera sensor) become more noticeable when using
apertures between f/11 and f/22, as the rays of light entering the camera are at a more linear
angle and cast stronger shadows on the dust particles. Avoiding these apertures when possible
will save considerable time in post-processing, especially in scenes with plain areas of sky or
snow, for example.

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 In contrast, use wider apertures to achieve a shallower depth of eld. For astrophotography, use
wide apertures like f/2.8 to allow more light onto the sensor quickly, preventing star trails. Wide
apertures are also e ective for creating a sense of depth by rendering backgrounds with a
pleasing soft focus due to the limited depth of eld.

SHUTTER SPEED CONSIDERATIONS:

Choice of shutter speed is probably the most important in terms of the success or failure of an
image. Shutter speed choice can be divided into two decisions, broadly speaking. Technical and
creative. Your subject will in the most part dictate your approach to what shutter speed range to
be aiming for.

Technical limitations: Moving subjects (and also hand holding the camera) will dictate that you
use a fast shutter speed. Most obviously, fast moving subjects such as animals or birds in ight,
will require extremely fast shutter speeds (e.g. 1/1000s - 1/4000s). To a lesser degree in a
landscape scene you may wish to keep foreground elements still, for example, if the wind is
blowing branches, grass or owers which detract from the image (e.g. 1/60s - 1/250s).
Conversely, if you are photographing in low light, you will require a longer (slower) shutter speed in
order to get a correct exposure.

Creative: If you are not constrained to shutter speeds which you are able to achieve handheld
you can start exploring the visual e ects of slower shutter speeds which can be used to convey
movement, such as receding waves at shorelines, showing movement in clouds, for example. In
low light, such as either end of the day, slower shutter speeds are easy to achieve, but in brighter
light you will discover that even with a low ISO and narrow aperture that your shutter speeds will
be too fast to convey movement without the use of neutral density lters.

0.3s - 2 or 3 seconds: Receding waves (depending on the tide and wind)

30 seconds or longer to atten sea for a minimalistic look or to allow clouds to blur (usually ND
lter required)

See in the examples below the visual e ect of some shutter speeds.
• 1/4000s to prevent the eagle from blurring
• 1.6s to capture the receeding wave
• 30s to completley atten the sea.

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 ND FILTERS
Neutral Density (ND) lters are photographic lters that reduce the amount of light entering the
camera lens without a ecting the colour of the image. They are essentially "sunglasses" for your
camera, allowing you to use wider apertures or slower shutter speeds than you would otherwise
be able to in bright lighting conditions. Here are their main bene ts:

• Longer exposure times. ND lters enable longer exposures, which can create motion blur in
moving elements like water, clouds, tra c. This often helps achieve a smooth or ethereal
appearance.
• Wider apertures in bright light. Useful if you need to use a wide aperture in bright light to
achieve background blur, without overexposing the image.

ND lters come in various strengths, typically denoted by their optical density or the factor by
which they reduce light.

This list shows some of the ND lters available.

• ND2 (0.3): Reduces light by 1 stop (50% of the light passes through).
• ND4 (0.6): Reduces light by 2 stops (25% of the light passes through).
• ND8 (0.9): Reduces light by 3 stops (12.5% of the light passes through).
• ND64 (1.8): Reduces light by 6 stops (1.563% of the light passes through).
• ND1000 (3.0): Reduces light by 10 stops (0.1% of the light passes through).

Typically you wouldn’t expect to nd or use an ND2 or ND4 which only reduce the light by 1 or
two stops, because you would adjust aperture or ISO for a small adjustment, but including them
in the list helps visualise the concept and the maths of their e ect.

I use the Kase magnetic lter system which is really simple to use and superb quality. For further
information read my blog post about the Kase lter system.

I have demo kits available for use on my workshops and 1-2-1's.

How do I know when my image is correctly exposed?

HISTOGRAM
A histogram is a graphical representation of the tonal values in an image. It plots the number of
pixels for each tonal value, ranging from black (on the left) to white (on the right). The height of
each bar shows the number of pixels at that particular tone. This helps you assess the exposure
and contrast of your images, allowing you to see if details are lost in the shadows or highlights
and make adjustments accordingly. Ideally there should be a bit of room at either end. You should
avoid bunching the peak of the histogram at one end of the scale. It should be in the middle or
slightly to the right, as long as it’s not clipping. See dynamic range for further info.

In the image to the left image 28/66 none of the

histogram is missing. The entire dynamic range ts
within the boundaries of the histogram.

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 Below In image 27/66 it is clear that the right hand end of the histogram is "clipped", resulting in
overexposure. The nal screenshot shows the clipped part of the highlights as an overlay on the
image (which ashes on and o on the camera). This is known as a highlight, or clipping warning.
If your camera has this option it can be a useful one to enable. Depending on the scene and your
camera, you will nd that some clipping is recoverable in processing. With practice you will get a
feel for what will and won't be recoverable.

With newer mirrorless cameras you’ll have access to the histogram before you even press the
shutter.

EXPOSURE SCALE
Cameras also have an exposure scale, commonly at the bottom or side of the view nder or
screen. It will show a scale with a - on one side, a centre line, often denoted with a zero, and a +
indicating under or overexposure.

It is important to understand how the camera reads “correctly exposed” on this scale in
order to know when it is likely to be accurate. Zero on the meter, half way between the plus
and minus ( - 0 + ) equates to 18% grey, a mid-tone grey. This makes sense if you’re
photographing mid-tones, but that isn’t often the case. In default auto modes your camera
“wants” you to be centred at zero on the meter. Most cameras have several metering modes
(such as matrix (evaluative), spot or centre-weighted) which measure the light in the frame in
di erent ways for di erent scenarios to improve the reliability of the automatic modes. If you are
shooting in modes other than manual, you can add exposure compensation, which add a positive
or negative bias to over or under expose all of your images from the zero point, which is essential
in many cases when your subject is not a mid-grey (snow, dark moody skies etc).

In the screenshot below, you can see the scale indicates a correct exposure with the centre mark
being centred. In fact the camera was facing a painted white wall and the "correct" exposure has
indeed made the preview (shown behind the scale and settings), grey

Regardless of your metering mode the easiest way to check whether your exposure is correct is
to check your histogram.

DYNAMIC RANGE
Dynamic range refers to the range of light intensities a camera sensor is able to capture, from the
darkest shadows to the brightest highlights. It is essentially the amount of tonality that you are
able to record within the bounds of the histogram, i.e. without part of the tonal range being forced
to “clip” or fall o one end of the histogram.

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 Often scenes in nature have considerably darker shadows and brighter highlights than can be
recorded in a single exposure. There are a couple of options available to help extend the dynamic
range of your camera sensor so that you are able to retain shadow details without losing highlight
details. In some circumstances graduated neutral density lters are an easy x but sometimes
bracketing your exposures is more suitable.

HDR/BRACKETING
Exposure bracketing is a technique where multiple shots of the same scene are captured at
di erent shutter speeds. The goal of this is to extend the dynamic range and ensure you retain
shadow and highlight detail. Exposure bracketing is particularly useful in situations with high
contrast, such as landscapes with a bright sky and dark foreground or indoor scenes with bright
windows.

Here’s how exposure bracketing typically works:

• Standard Exposure: The camera takes a shot at the exposure level recommended by its
metering system.
• Underexposed Shot(s): The camera takes one or more shots at exposure levels below the
standard exposure (darker).
• Overexposed Shot(s): The camera takes one or more shots at exposure levels above the
standard exposure (brighter).

A common bracketing sequence might include three shots: one at the standard exposure, one at
-2 stops, and one at +2 stops.

In the example below you can see that the foreground is too dark in the underexposed image on
the left but the sky is much better. The sky is slightly overexposed in the normal exposure in the
middle and the foreground is still slightly underexposed. The overexposed frame on the right is
fairly well exposed for the foreground. With these images combined as an HDR image, it would be
possible to balance the sky and foreground elements quickly and simply. You could probably lift
the dark areas with some success on the underexposed image, but this would compromise image
quality.

The sequence of images would need to be “blended” or combined in editing software such as
Adobe Lightroom. The resulting combined le would have the combined dynamic range of all
three images.

This technique is very popular as it does not require any special equipment, although it is more
successful with a tripod, so the resulting image align more easily when they are combined.
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 GRADUATED ND FILTERS
Graduated ND lters (known as grads) transition from dark on one end to clear on the other end.
They are designed to balance the exposure in scenes with a high dynamic range, where the sky is
much brighter than the foreground. They are usually rectangular and attached to the camera with
a holder. They are available in di erent densities (on the dark portion) and with di erent gradients
of transitions (hard, medium, soft & reverse).

Hard-edged graduated ND’s have a sharp, abrupt transition between the dark and clear areas.
They are e ective with seascapes and other scenes with a clear horizon.

Medium-edged graduated ND’s have a softer transition between the dark and clear areas. They
can often be slightly more subtle than a hard edged grad and often easier to position correctly.
They are also good for slightly more undulating horizons.

Soft-edged graduated ND’s have a much softer transition which can be positioned easily to just
take the edge of a bright sky. Suitable for mountain scenes and more complex horizons.

Reverse graduated ND’s are incredibly useful for sunrise and sunset coastal scenes where the
light at the horizon is brightest. They are darkest in the middle and gradually clear toward the top,
with the bottom half being clear.

The objective is to darken the sky and “balance” the bright and dark part of the image so that the
dynamic range can be captured in one exposure therefor it is necessary to position the grad
carefully so that the darker part of the image doesn’t get darkened further. Choosing the right
density lter and correct transition is key to making positioning the lter easy.

WHEN TO BRACKET AND WHEN TO USE GRADS

This is largely a personal choice, I know many professional landscape photographers who don’t
use grads at all and as well as plenty that do. Personally I think grads have a few signi cant
bene ts, but here are some considerations, so you can decide for yourself.

ADVANTAGES OF GRADS
When shooting seascapes, the shutter speed plays a far more signi cant role in the success or
failure of an image, in particular when surf is being used to create leading lines as part of your
composition. When bracketing these types of image, two out of three bracketed images will be
the “wrong” shutter speed and the three di erent images when blended can result in artefacts.
Thats not to say that this can’t be xed in processing, but using grads to balance the scene gives
you three times the chances of success, a lot less editing.

Predictable results: You get immediate feedback on the e ect of the lter on the image and are
able to make on the spot adjustments to your exposure settings without relying on post-
processing.

E cient: You save time in post-processing.

DISADVANTAGES OF GRADS
Cost and convenience. Requires carrying physical lters, which can be expensive and
cumbersome. High-quality graduated ND lters can be costly.
Fixed transitions and densities. Limited to 1,2 & 3 stops as graduated lters, commonly.

ADVANTAGES OF BRACKETING
Flexibility and dynamic range greater. Complex scenes with extreme dynamic range can be
recorded and blended with relative ease.
No equipment required. Nothing to carry or upfront cost incurred. Bracketing is done via camera
settings.

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 DISADVANTAGES OF BRACKETING
Post Processing required. More processing time and skill will be required.
Motion artefacts. Moving subjects or changing lighting conditions between bracketed shots can
cause ghosting or misalignment issues.
Storage. Takes up more space on memory cards and computer due to shooting multiple
exposures of each scene.

The choice between the bracketing and using lters will depend on the speci c requirements of
the scene, the preference and experience of the photographers work ow and the equipment to
hand. I use both methods on a case by case basis. Generally I lean towards using grads when
suitable. I use the Kase Armour system.

Summary
In summary, mastering the exposure triangle empowers photographers with technical and creative
control, adaptability, and e ciency, leading to higher quality and more expressive photography.

• Creative Control
• Optimal Exposure
• Adaptability in various lighting conditions
• Minimise noise and maximise quality
• Improve e ciency
• Technical Pro ciency
• Better post-processing results
• Enhanced artistic expression
• Versatility across genres
• Con dence and consistency

I would encourage you to experiment with ISO, shutter speed and aperture and really get a feel for
the di erent characteristics and think about how they might transform your creativity and improve
your successes. Once the balance of the exposure triangle becomes second nature, you'll be able
to shoot with less frustration and react to changing weather and light much more easily and enjoy
the creativity more and more.

You can download a printable version of my Exposure Triangle.

This PDF is a printable version of my blog post Understanding Exposure.

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