Have you ever had a problem where you are outside taking pictures, on a sunny day, and no matter what you do, the darker parts of the picture are just too dark? The brighter parts are okay and clear, but the rest… well it almost seems as though the camera forgets about them. And that’s true.

The thing is the camera needs light in order to create an image. It will look for the brightest light source coming into the lens, and then the aperture will open or close accordingly. What that means in ‘English’ is that if you have too much light from the brightest light source the camera will have a tendency to only focus on the light from this source.

The camera can’t monitor one area of the scene and then another just by focusing the camera on one point of the scene. It’s not as good as the human eye! (How good would it be if that were the case…I can only dream!)

Have you noticed that this doesn’t happen so much on a cloudy day? That’s because the light is fairly even, or the same, right through out the picture and the camera doesn’t have to work as hard as it normally would on a sunny day.

That’s the light you ideally want; filtered light. And the way to combat this ‘bright light’ problem is to mimic filter, cloudy-day light as much as possible.

The first step to doing this is to try as much as possible to take digital pictures in even-light situations, such as overcast days or to help avoid overexposure you can put a filter over the camera.

A filter is a tool that helps reduce glare and sharp points of light and gives you some even light throughout the scene. Once you reduce your overexposure effect in the picture by using a filter to assist in the glare reduction you will find that your pictures become better and more interesting.

Professionals use filters to reduce glare from water for example. When you find that water creates that glary reflection of light in your picture a filter can help you create this evening up of light.

Overexposure of certain parts of your picture can be annoying. It detracts from your enjoyment and leave you feeling frustrated. But once you understand how the camera actually works, and what tools you can use to prevent problems.

Amy Renfrey writes a bi-weekly/occasional article for The Corner Blog. Amy is a digital photographer, a photography teacher, and author of the popular Digital Photography Success package as well as her new book Powerful Landscape Photography. For more information, or to purchase her Photography Package, visit her site: Digital Photography Success and Powerful Landscape Photography.