If our picture is too light, we’ve overexposed it. Overexposure means we’ve allowed to much exposure to be recorded onto the photographic medium(1).
If our picture is too dark, we’ve underexposed it. Underexposure means we’ve allowed to little exposure to be recorded onto the photographic medium.
Underexposure or overexposure is usually a result of not metering(2) off of the part of our photograph that were interested in. This can be a result of using too broad of a metering pattern(3) or, if we are using a more precise metering pattern, we are not pointing our light meters(4) where we feel it’s important to record visual information.
- Photographic medium = light sensitive material = film or digital sensor
- Metering = using the light meters in our camera, or external light meters, to evaluate the the intensity/brightness of a light source.
- Metering pattern = The area of influence of a light meter.
- Light meter = exposure meter = A device used too measure the intensity/brightness of a light source.