What is Exposure Value and How to Calculate Exposure Value
Last Updated on November 11, 2021 by Peter Wood
For experienced photographers, the term exposure value is not strange. However, most people and beginners are not familiar with it. EV is a concept in photography. There are many explanations of EVs on the internet, but they are usually difficult to understand for ordinary people. Therefore, this article utilizes the language that everyone can understand to provide the information and knowledge about exposure value. If you are ready, let’s start the journey.
Part 1: What is Exposure Value
Exposure value is an approach to combine shutter speed and aperture into a single value. As indicated, it is only involved with exposure, although shutter speed and aperture both carry many side effects, such as motion blur and depth of field.
Briefly speaking, the exposure value indicates the amount of light reaching your camera sensor. Three camera settings affect the exposure value, ISO, shutter speed, and aperture.
The arrange of exposure value in digital cameras and smartphones is from -6 to +17, although there is no limit in either direction in theory.
Part 2: How to Calculate Exposure Value
The formula to calculate exposure value is below:
N is your f-number while t is your shutter speed.
Since EV is related to three aspects, you can change it by modifying ISO, shutter speed, and aperture:
1. ISO will impact the photo quality directly. A low ISO will keep the details and quality but needs lots of light in the scene.
2. If you use a fast shutter speed, it will create freeze motion.
3. Adjust aperture to change the depth of field within a scene. When the aperture is slower, the field is deeper.
Here is a table telling you the exposure value of different shutter speed and apertures:
Part 3: Reasons to Change Exposure Value Settings
A good photo begins with the correct exposure value settings. Even if you discover a great subject at the perfect moment, everything will lose if you use the wrong exposure. Though modern digital cameras are smart than ever before, they are neither suitable nor good at making artistic decisions.
Beyond controlling the amount of light, exposure value also determines the depth of field for a photo. The field depth is how much depth will be in focus within an image. When taking portraits and landscapes, for example, you will need a shallow depth of field.
Exposure value controls how to capture motions with a camera.
In a word, you need to change exposure value settings manually to get the perfect images.
Part 4: How to View the Exposure Value of Your Photos
After you take a photo, the exposure value will save as metadata along with the image file. However, you cannot view the information unless you use the correct photo viewer. From this point, we recommend WidsMob View Pro. Its main features include:
- Manage photos in a variety of modes easily.
- Read and display exposure value and other information.
- Support a wide range of image formats and RAW files.
- Keep the original photo quality automatically.
- Offer advanced functionalities like photo editing.
All in all, it is the best choice to view the exposure value of your photos on a computer.
How to View Exposure Value of Your Photos
Step 1: Import photos
Make sure to install the best photo manager on your computer and launch it. There are two ways to import your photos into the photo manager. Open a file explorer, find the pictures on your hard drive or external device, and drag and drop them into the photo viewer. Or go to File -> Open, and open the photos on the open-file dialog.
Step 2: View exposure value
To view the exposure value of one photo, select it in the library window. Then click View -> Show Info from the top menu bar. Then all metadata will present on the photo include exposure value and more.
In addition to EXIF Info mode, you can also view your photos in full screen, thumbnail and slideshow:
Full-screen mode: Select a photo in the album, click View -> Enter Full Screen. Then you can move forward or backward from the bottom.
Thumbnail mode: Go to an album under the Library area, and your photos will show up in thumbnails. You can control the thumbnail size by moving the slider.
Slideshow mode: Enter the desired album, and select Slideshow from the View menu.
Step 3: Edit photos
If you want to edit a photo, select it from the album and go to the Edit menu on the top ribbon. Here you can rotate, crop, copy and flip the picture with corresponding options.
Step 4: Share images
After editing and browsing the exposure value of your photos, you have two ways to process them. Save the pictures to your hard disk by choosing Save as from the File menu. Enter a filename, add tags, and select a location folder to save the photos. Then set the image format and quality, and click the Save button.
Another way to output your photos is to post them to social media. Click Share on the top ribbon, select the target channel, like Facebook, and follow the onscreen instructions to share it. Moreover, you can also send the photos to your friends via email or message from the Share menu.
Conclusion
You can understand what exposure value is and how to calculate and view the exposure value of photos. Though EV is a professional concept, it is not hard to learn if you read our introduction carefully. Plus, you can set exposure value settings according to your situation. If you open a photo on your computer, you cannot get the EV. WidsMob View Pro, on the other hand, can help you view EV easily. Moreover, it provides extensive features. We hope that our introduction is helpful to you.