What is AEL?

[Sarge]

I hope I have posted this in the right forum topic, but I was wondering if any of you people knew what this button on my Sony A300 is for. It sais AEL. What does this mean. Anything to help with BIF.

Thanks in advance,
Tim (Sarge)

[MarkChap]

I would hazard a guess that it is Exposure Lock, Tim

Set your meter at one area, depress AEL and it will hold those settings then recompose and shoot.

IE - You want a silhouette of a person, meter for the brighter sky, press AEL then focus on the person and take the photo, exposure is set for the bright sky, focus is on the subject.

It will only work on Auto, Aperture Priority. Shutter Priority

[bigdazzler]

Yea mate its your Auto Exposure lock on the A300. You can use it in P, A, or S modes.

Simply point your camera at the part of the scene you want to be exposed correctly, press and hold the AEL button, recompose your shot and shoot. Be aware though that in high contrast scenes like a overcast day with a building in the foreground, if you expose for the sky, the building will be very underexposed and vice vers, if you expose for the building the sky will be blown.

A general rule is always expose for the highlights (as they cant be recovered as effectively as shadows in PP) and let the shadows take care of themselves.(bring them up in PP)

Its much easier to add light to a photograph than it is to take it away ..

[Sarge]

Thanks alot for your help Mark. Was just wondering and didn't have a clue what it was used for.

Cheers Darren! Thankyou both for your helpful explanations! Will go out and practice this ASAP!

Thanks again,
Tim