I have taken this simple picture of this great Greek figure standing in my window. I set recommended settings (ISO to 100, aperture to f/5.6) and I just had to put my shutter speed until the light meter is balanced, so my shutter speed at first was 1/320, the figure was absolutely black. So I adjusted the shutter speed to 1/25 at first, and as You see in the second example, the figure is more visible. But when I switched the shutter speed to 1/13, I was mostly satisfied. Even though the background was overexposed, my figure had its mostly likely true colors and good exposure.
The dark composition went like this: I had this old black curtain and set a black fruit basket, so both objects are black. I set my ISO to 100, aperture to f/8, and adjusted the shutter speed to “15, and my light meter was very happy, but the image wasn’t. It was greyer than I thought, so had to reduce the amount of light coming into the camera. My shutter was set to a bit faster, “3. You can see in the second image, the objects look more realistic and faithful. In the third image, the shutter speed is a bit even faster – “1, and the image looks good to my eye as well.
Lastly, my light-toned Greek figure in whore background. I set my ISO to 100, aperture to f/11, and adjust shutter speed so that my light meter would be centered to 0, so eventually I set it to 1/2.5. The picture was extremely grey. So, I increased the amount of light, to “1 (slower), and the picture came out as You see in 2nd example. I didn’t change the shutter speed anymore because I think it looks as I want it to look like.
Idilija's reflective journal 