How Zebras Help You Take Better Pictures - 11/26/07

Part of the fun of being a professional photographer is whipping out a light meter. It looks a little mysterious and makes clients feel like they’re getting their money’s worth. But since digital cameras and their instant-feedback LCDs have arrived, my light meter gets left in the bag more and more often. I can usually guesstimate an exposure with general accuracy and use the LCD to verify when my shot is spot on. My LCD can sometimes fool me, however, particularly in bright-light situations, which can cause poorly exposed shots if I don’t double-check with a meter. Many digital photographers have tapped into the power of histograms to verify an appropriate tonal curve for the scene they’re shooting, but this is still too much work for me. Thankfully a friend of mine recently suggested checking the “zebras,” the crosshatched, often blinking pattern that some cameras provide in overexposed or blown-out highlight areas. On my Canon EOS 5D, I simply scroll through the image info after an exposure to check that the areas of brightest highlight—a white shirt collar, bright sky or reflection—are displaying flashing zebras, and only those areas. Any more zebras, and the shot is overexposed; if zebras aren’t flashing anywhere, you know the shot’s too dark. It doesn’t have the same effect on clients as using a light meter, though, so maybe you should start wearing a photo vest.

Photo courtesy of Gary M. Stolz, USFWS, via www.weforanimals.com