A common problem photographing scenes dominated by white subjects is to under expose them causing them to be a shade of gray instead of white. Why does this happen? The camera’s light meter is working to help expose the photo correctly so no matter the amount of light on a subject the meter sees the subject as “middle” gray and ad just s everything to be “middle” gray in the photo. This works for most photos because “middle” gray is the tone of most scenes. However, this consequently causes the under exposure of white dominated photos and over exposure of dark dominated photos because the meter is fooled trying to make everything middle gray.

There is help for this. The EV (Exposure Value) setting can be adjusted to compensate for this. For white dominated scenes adjusting the EV to a + (plus) number will over expose it there by compensating for the under exposure of white dominated scenes. So if your photo looks too dark (under exposed), you need to add more light so use a “plus” EV.

For dark dominated scenes the meter will over expose them working for that middle gray, so adjust the EV to a - (minus) number. Meaning, if your photo looks too light (over exposed), you need to add less light so use a “minus” EV.

One more thing, maybe the most important, is “correct” exposure is subjective, meaning you as a photographer have artistic license to use the EV settings creatively. Experiment with different EV settings to get the effect you want and most importantly have fun doing it