What is exposure?

Exposure is how much light gets into your eyes or into a camera, it’s like letting some of the world in.

Imagine you're outside on a sunny day, and you squint because the light is too bright. That's like having too much exposure, too much light came in. Now imagine you're inside a dark room, and you can barely see anything. That's like having too little exposure, not enough light got in.

Think of your eyes as a kind of camera. When it’s bright outside, your eyes adjust by shrinking the opening that lets light in, just like a camera does when it takes a picture in the sun. This adjustment is part of what we call exposure.

When you take a photo with a camera, you can control how much light comes in by changing the size of the opening, this is called the aperture. A bigger opening lets more light in (more exposure), and a smaller one lets less light in (less exposure).

It’s like holding up a funnel to catch water from a tap. If you use a wide funnel, it catches more water (more exposure). If you use a narrow funnel, it catches less water (less exposure). Exposure is how much light gets into your eyes or into a camera, it’s like letting some of the world in.

Imagine you're outside on a sunny day, and you squint because the light is too bright. That's like having too much exposure, too much light came in. Now imagine you're inside a dark room, and you can barely see anything. That's like having too little exposure, not enough light got in.

Think of your eyes as a kind of camera. When it’s bright outside, your eyes adjust by shrinking the opening that lets light in, just like a camera does when it takes a picture in the sun. This adjustment is part of what we call exposure.