Exposure

Exposure in photography refers to the amount of light that reaches the camera's sensor or film, determining how bright or dark the resulting image appears. It's controlled by three primary settings known as the 'exposure triangle': aperture (the size of the lens opening), shutter speed (how long the shutter stays open), and ISO (the sensor's sensitivity to light). Proper exposure balances these three elements to achieve the desired brightness while managing other factors like depth of field, motion blur, and noise. Overexposure results in too much light, causing washed-out highlights and loss of detail, while underexposure means too little light, creating dark images with lost shadow detail.