One of the things that I am learning to do in my photography is to shoot in manual mode. The toughest part of this for me is setting the appropriate exposure length and size. The book Understanding Exposure has helped me GREATLY to improve my skills. After reading it, I knew how to set my camera to better capture the images that I wanted to preserve. You should DEFINITELY pick it up if you are a novice looking to start improving your photography. Here are a few examples of photos where I experienced the “learning curve” of exposure.

I stood in my own shadow and managed to over expose the top of this one and under expose the bottom. Total mistake, but not a terrible waste.

f/7.1, 1/100 sec, ISO-400, 28mm, Speedlite flash, Rebel T2i

 

Balanced exposure on the previous shot fixes this one to become the one I was looking for in the beginning.

f/7.1, 1/100 sec, ISO-400, 36mm, Speedlite flash, Rebel T2i

 

f/7.1, 1/100 sec, ISO-400, 37mm, Speedlite flash, Rebel T2i

To find out how I made this delicious treat, see Tasty Tuesday: Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (WickedKate February 8, 2011).