What is exposure? Well the answer is "sorta" easy, it's how dark or light the photo is. But how about: "What is correct exposure?" Now it's getting a little tougher. I'd say there is absolutely no such thing as correct exposure. So, what is it that my camera's Automatic exposure mode is giving me? Your camera is working very hard to give you a "reasonable" exposure, one that includes detail in as much of the picture as possible. If the scene contains areas that are much brighter or much darker than average or maybe both kinds of areas, there will be no single exposure that can possibly show detail in all areas of the photo. Someone or some computer will have to decide what exposure is best. Camera manufacturers have created computer programs which reference thousands of sample photos to determine what kind of scene is in front of camera, so that a reasonable decision can be made as to what exposure to use. This program and the data from those thousands of sample photos sits inside your camera and works well, very well. But lets look at the two photos below:
I shot a series of 5 photos for the purpose of merging into an HDR image. Later I began looking at the individual images and picked out two exposures that I liked by themselves. You may very well like one of these images better than the other, but someone else probably prefers the other. The top shot emphasizes the fences in the foreground and allows the end of the alley to almost disappear into the light. The lower one shows more detail in the lighter alley end and looks more "realistic". I like both of these images and there is not now, not ever going to be, a computer that can pick the one I like best.
Both of these images were touched up slightly in Lightroom, but they are essentially different because of a one stop difference in exposure. Much more can be said about exposure and I'll probably be back to say some of it. If you want to improve your exposures, experiment.
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