Prevent an overexposed photo

Overexposure of an image means that the shutter speed was set too slow and the diaphragm was fully open, allowing too much light to enter through the lens. In this situation, two incorrectly set parameters - shutter speed and aperture - coincided.

Because of the large amount of light that was let in for a long time on the sensitive elements of the camera, an overexposed picture was created. It is the same with videos.

Mistakes are often made when estimating the light level of the object. It is most difficult to determine the correct exposure when shooting with a large difference between the lightest and darkest elements of the image. A high level of contrast is one of the causes of an overexposure.

With videos there is not much you can do, accept adjusting contrast and brightness. But with photos the choice of format can change everything.

RAW vs JPEG

These are different formats designed for different tasks. And each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. The most important thing is to understand if you really need the capabilities of RAW or if the simplicity and compatibility of JPEG are more important to you.

The main goal of JPEG is to capture the highest quality image with the least amount of memory. When you shoot in this format you get just a good picture. At the same time, there are fewer opportunities for further editing.

RAW requires subsequent conversion to another format. But it allows you to remove noise and sharpen the image much more easily. When you shoot in RAW, all the information from the camera matrix is stored in the file.

It is possible to find a compromise in any argument. The format is no exception because you can always enable your camera to save both RAW and JPEG at the same time. Of course, that requires more space on your memory card, but it gives you the best of both worlds.

RAW is used by all professional photographers. For them, the processing possibilities and picture quality are a necessity.

How to prevent overexposure

Another perk of RAW is that you can easily fix overexposed photos in this format by using any editing app. But it is much better to prevent overexposure beforehand. And for this we need to take a look at the exposure triangle. It is made up of how ISO, shutter speed, and aperture work together.

If you're shooting in manual mode, it's very easy to create an overexposed image. For example, in terms of ISO, you might have just set it too high. On a sunny day, your ISO should be around 100-200, not 800.

After setting the ISO, the next area you should look at is the aperture. The smaller the aperture, the more light will get into the lens. And the more light that hits the camera's sensor, the more likely the image is overexposed. Try closing the aperture for a better-exposed photo.

Pay attention to your shutter speed. If the image is too bright, you need to increase the shutter speed. Increasing it from 1/200 to 1/600 will help - as long as it doesn't affect other settings.

The best thing about the exposure triangle is that all three settings are interdependent. If you increase the amount of light hitting the lens with one setting, you need to decrease it with another.