Finding Middle Gray

What is Middle Gray?

Simple. If you think of a photograph in terms of the lightest white to the deepest black then middle gray would be in the middle of those two extremes.  Duhhh right?   What is important to know is this – that your camera (your camera’s meter to be more precise) “sees” middle gray.  It wants to average all the light it sees in a scene and give you the most usable setting to get a “correct” exposure.   This is THE premise of all the exposure modes your camera has – averaging the light and determining the correct setting so your picture will not be too light or dark. Today’s cameras do a fine job of it too – and they are becoming more complex every year, but the basic idea is the same.  Finding Middle Gray!

Here’s a new image that has great dynamic range and great details in the high and low ends.

Photo taken with digital camera with methods I teach in Finding Middle Gray

So why does any of this matter to me?

Well, if YOU know how to find middle gray, you will start to have some control over what’s going on.  And at the very least, not get overly light or dark images leaving you with usable photographs.  It will also help you understand why some of your images do not work as they are supposed to when using some of the auto modes on your camera.

Here’s an example.  You are walking in the city taking in the sights and the sun is bright. You see a building that you just love and it’s mostly in the shade but the sun is reflecting very bright in one window pane.  You point your camera to this lovely scene and your camera meter sees mostly shadow and one small extremely bright beam of light.  Your camera tries to average the two together but may have delivered an exposure that looks too dark in the shadows of the  building and a beam of light that looks darker than you saw in real life.   Why?   Because the “average” middle gray that your camera was creating by averaging these two extremes of shadow and light beam “placed” the exposure in favor of the beam of light leaving the shadows in the dark – no pun intended.    The beam of light overpowered the average scale, so to speak, and threw off the balance.  Yes some cameras are getting better with these types of scenes but if you understand what’s going on, you can take control

This image above was taken with a new Olympus EP-1 and a 17mm lens using some newer techniques including Live View and live histograms mentioned in my “And Then Some” post.  The image was converted to black and white and processed for this particular portfolio to have a  slight vignette for a more dramatic result.  It’s part of a series called the black dirt series.

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