1. Exposure and colour strength

This is a set of images with the exposure bracketed from a stop under the camera's metered value to a stop over, in half stop intervals. The aim is to look at the effect on the colour. The central image is the one shot according to the camera's original meter reading; f8 at 1/125sec, ISO 400. Because I was shooting on aperture priority, the camera varied the exposure by altering the speed; +1 = 1/60th, +0.5 = 1/90th, -0.5 = 1/180th and -1 = 1/250th

There is a clear impact on the colour. All are 'usable' but the red varies in depth and richness. My preference lies somewhere between the original and a half stop under-exposed. +1 is beginning to look a bit 'washed out' whereas -1 is bordering on the dull. My learning from this is, when concentrating on colour, to consider bracketing x3 at a half stop over and a half stop under. Since this exercise I have found that, with brighter colours, a half-stop under often produces deeper, richer colours.

These shots were taken on a farm just outside Edinburgh. The farm owner is also a truck driver and his hobby seems to be collecting old wrecks of trucks, tractors, steam-rollers and various other vehicles. He kindly gave me permission to spend a few sessions in his farmyard with my camera and this provided a very good location for most of the exercises in this unit. I was then able to apply the skills I learned to a different theme for my assignment.