How to Choose Perfect Exposure Setting in DSLR camera

How Exposure is Determined:

the exposure meter in your camera works by reading the light that is being reflected back to the sensor. It uses this information to find the range of tones from dark to light. The range of light is measured as exposure value (EV), with low numbers being darker than higher numbers.

For Example, a scene is measured, the darkest area has a reading of EV2, while the lightest is assigned EV12, a total range of ten stops of light. Now, if the sensor in your camera is able to handle ten stops of light values, everything is fine, and you'll have detail throughout the image from dark to light.

If you do not have ten spots, then you want to expose for the critical details in your image. If clouds, snow, or whites are the critical element in your image, you need to expose for that and let the shadows lose detail if needed.

Digital cameras are more sensitive to highlights than to shadows, so the normal method of exposure is to meter for the brightest part of the subject you want detail in. You'll be able to recover shadow detail much easier than highlights with Photoshop CS2 or Photoshop Elements.

Better explanations with examples are in the next posts.