Auto Exposure Lock (sometimes called AEL) is a feature on all Canon EOS camera models, as well as some PowerShot cameras. It's an excellent method of gaining added control over exposure, without losing the speed and convenience of automation.

Using the exposure lock button helped me get the correct exposure on this picture of two students studying for final exams. To understand what this button does it’s helpful to know a bit about how your camera calculates the exposure using aperture, shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity. In Full Automatic mode these are all handled by the camera itself, producing images that are often pretty nice but can sometimes turn out too dark, too bright, or otherwise not exactly how you intended. In Manual mode you are required to set all three parameters yourself, which can sound intimidating at first, but is quite easy once you get the hang of it. However if you shoot in one of the semi-automatic modes like Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, or Program Auto you have a high degree of control while still letting your camera figure out a few things too. I didn’t have much time to get this shot, so using the Exposure Lock button was a quick way for me to get the image I was looking for.

This is where the Exposure Lock button comes in; it freezes whichever exposure parameter was set by your camera until you take a picture. At first this might sound like a silly thing to do but makes a bit more sense when you understand how it can be used. I shot the picture below in Aperture Priority with my aperture set to f/2.8 while my camera selected a shutter speed of 1/500. Unfortunately my camera was looking at the entire scene, not just the subject, and chose a shutter speed that resulted in my subject being far too dark. The tradeoff was that the background was properly exposed, but my camera did not know that I was more concerned with the teddy bear than the scenery outside.

To correct the problem I simply pointed my camera down at a darker spot in the foreground, pressed the Exposure Lock button, and held it down while recomposing my shot to the original framing. How To Connect Hp 3520 Printer To Wireless Network. When I locked the exposure my camera selected a slower shutter speed of 1/30 which resulted in my subject being well lit even though the background elements were a bit too bright. Hp M7470n Driver File System Srvnet. By pointing my camera down, locking the exposure, and then recomposing the result was f/2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/30 second. Far too slow for the background to be properly exposed, but my subject looks just fine. You might look at this photo and wonder where the background went, but remember what happened in the original when the background was visible – the subject was too dark. Boy Scout Troop Program Features Pdf Printer here. By locking the exposure such that my subject was well lit, the background ended up far too bright.

It worked out just how I wanted, because it was the bear that mattered to me, and not the scenery outside the window. I could have also employed another method to get my subject properly exposed such as center-weighted metering or adjusting the Exposure Compensation, but in this case I found the Exposure Lock function to be quick and easy enough to get the job done. It’s a handy tool to have in your back pocket for those times when you need to quickly over or under expose your shot. The Exposure Lock button came in handy here as well, and helped me get both a background and foreground that are well lit. If you’re interested in trying your hand at Exposure Lock, most camera manufacturers make it fairly painless. On Nikon cameras the button says “AE-L/AF-L” and is located about an inch from the right-hand side of the camera (on the back), while Canon’s button is a bit smaller and marked with an asterisk. You can even customize it on some cameras so that exposure is locked until you take a picture or as long as you physically press the button. Sony, Pentax, Olympus, and others have this button too but its exact appearance and location varies depending on the manufacturer and model.