Course overview

Award-winning photographer Michael Freeman teaches you how to choose the right exposure for your photograph on this online photography course.

Michael will teach you step-by-step how to get the right amount of light in every photo, and how to use exposure creatively in your photographs.

Choosing the exposure for a photograph is both alarmingly simple and infinitely complex. Michael will look at how to use metering on your camera, and how to understand the methods to adjust light meters. He'll take you through the "exposure triangle" - the 3 camera settings you need to use to control brightness.

He'll explain the 12 key exposure situations, and how to evaluate which exposure techniques to use and when.

You'll be taking photos and experimenting with exposure as you learn with Michael.

Choose Expert option for personal feedback on your photographs from Michael Freeman.

You'll learn:

finding the right exposure for you and your photography
how to use aperture, shutter and ISO sensitivity
using exposure for your audience
how exposure works
handling different lighting conditions
basic metering

This Perfect Exposure Course will equip you with the skills and confidence to be able to handle any lighting condition, however unusual, both technically and stylistically.

You'll need:

The course book is Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure.

This course is suitable for photographers wanting to learn more about using their camera and taking photographs, through to professionals who want to hone their photographic exposure skills with Michael Freeman.

Your tutor:

Michael Freeman is an award-winning photographer and author. He's shot photos for many of the world's leading brands and also teaches Learning with Experts' Photography Foundation course.

Time to complete this exposure in photography course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 9 hours 15 minutes to complete including:

Video lessons: 1 hour 15 minutes in total
Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
Assignment: at least 1 hour per lesson
Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson

The course includes:

On-demand video lessons - presented by Michael Freeman
lifetime access to the video, notes and interactive class
flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
downloadable lesson notes
practical (optional) photography assignments
access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
small interactive online classroom chat online to students from around the world

Ready to get started?

Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Michael on your photos.

Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.

Lesson summary

How to Measure and Set Exposure

Cameras offer an increasingly sophisticated range of methods for getting the exposure in some way ‘correct’, but though the result is a wonderful choice, there’s also a chaotic array of methods and jargon. My job here is to cut through this nonsense, and my model is, as always, the way professionals like myself think and work. You'll learn what average brightness means, camera metering, aperture and shutter priority and exposure compensation.

The Exposure Triangle

There are three camera settings that each control the brightness of the image you capture—aperture, shutter speed and ISO—and this lets you choose a combination to get any particular exposure, hence the expression exposure triangle. Using it efficiently means knowing clearly what your priorities are for any shot. Apart from controlling the light, the aperture and shutter speed each do another job for the image. Aperture affects depth of field while shutter speed affects motion blur, and you may want less or more of either in any specific shooting situation. ISO raises the sensitivity when you need it, but the result is noise, which has no redeeming qualities, so this just increases the compromises you need to make when light levels are low.

The Twelve Exposure Situations

Regardless of subject, there are just 12 basic lighting situations in photography, and each one needs a particular set of techniques. Become familiar with them and you will quickly be able to assign any scene in front of you to one of these—and know what technique to apply. In this lesson we'll look at range, low and high contrast.

Exposure and Style

In this lesson we'll take everything you've already learned and temper it with judgment and creativity. In exposure, there is no wrong and there is no right. If you embrace this, you can start to experiment with different styles of imagery that go beyond the obvious and average. Like any artist, you then have to rely on your judgment. Style in exposure depends heavily on deciding what the most important tones are in the picture—and then choosing how you want them to appear.

Choose how you want to learn

Expert-level

Develop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition:

Start the course whenever you like
Tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
Certificate of completion and CPD learning hours
Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
Lessons with expert videos & notes
Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom

Peer-level

Get the most from shared knowledge and community study:

Start course whenever you like
Practise what you learn with your peers
Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
Lessons with videos & notes
Course assignments
Group chat & direct message classmates
Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom

meet the expert

Michael Freeman

The world's top author of photography books.

Why choose Learning with Experts?

Start whenever it suits you, and immerse yourself in motivational lesson tutorials with expert guidance.

Enhance your learning and personal growth with lesson assignments. Each course includes an optional assignment at the end of every lesson.

Drop a friendly message or respond to your assignment feedback. Our world-class experts are just a click away, ready to help you!

Stay informed about your own progress and those of your peers, and take joy in celebrating achievements along the way.

Chat and share ideas with passionate communities of learners from around the world.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between PEER and EXPERT options?

At Peer and Expert level, you get access to the same core content and features:

Video lesson tutorials led by your expert tutor
Downloadable lesson notes
Option to practise what you learn with lesson assignments
Group learning within an online interactive classroom of up to 20 classmates
Lifetime access to videos, notes and classroom

If you choose Expert level, you get all of the above plus the following:

Personalised assignment feedback and coaching from your expert tutor
Opportunity to interact with your expert tutor through a private messaging system
Certificate of completion.

What is an online classroom?

Our online classroom has been developed to allow you to learn from our experts in a sociable environment alongside up to 20 other students. After each video tutorial led by your expert, you will be encouraged to practice what you have learned with optional assignments - these can be seen by the other students in your class, who are free to share their own thoughts and questions with you.

You will be encouraged to take part in an ongoing class discussion where you can discuss ideas, post images or work, and comment on each other’s assignments. It’s a great way to learn from other like-minded people who share your passion from all over the world.

This means not only do you benefit from people who are outstanding in their field, but also from a close-knit group of like-minded people whom you can learn alongside. Group learning has shown to greatly improve not just the experience of studying, but also how well you retain the knowledge, and we have built our classroom experience around this fact.

When can I start my course and how long will it take?

You can start your course any time within 12 months after receipt of your purchase confirmation email. Once you start, you’ll have lifetime access — meaning you can revisit the lesson videos and notes whenever you want.

Our courses are designed so that you can study at your own pace, some prefer to binge learn while others like to spread their studying over a longer period of time - it’s completely up to you. To give you a rough time frame, each lesson video is approximately 30-40 minutes long, and we recommend that you spend around an hour on each assignment.

How often can I speak with the Expert?

If you opt for the Expert version of your course, the time you have to interact with your tutor is limited to course length. You will have one week per lesson to chat to your tutor and to have your assignments marked, and during this period you can ask them as many questions as you would like.

To find out the length of each course, head to the product page and look at the Course outline to see how many lessons it contains. e.g. a four lesson course assumes that you will have completed the assignments within four weeks.

Your tutor interaction period will start as soon as you enter the classroom. If you find that you are struggling to complete the assignments in the allocated time or you wish to put this function on hold, just get in contact with one of the team via the support button and we will help you out.

Support and full FAQs

If you need any help with a course, be it one you’ve started already, or one you are looking to purchase, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support email address.

You can also use the orange speech bubble on your page to start a conversation with us.

For privacy or data questions, please contact us here.

Perfect Exposure