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What's a Stop? We're photographers so we all understand the concept of a stop. In terms of exposure, it simply refers to doubling or halving of the amount of light striking the sensor by changing the shutter speed or the lens' aperture. With digital, we can also change the sensitivity of the sensor - also measured in stops - by doubling or halving the ISO value.  Simple, right? But what happens when we get our images onto the computer.  What's a stop of brightness in an RGB or Lab color space? Recently I got sucked down the rabbit hole of exposure and grayscales to sort out a few answers for myself. What I found was revealing and a bit surprising, at least to me.

It started when I was watch...

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After working in the newspaper and studio businesses for several years, I chose to leave professional photography in 1977 to pursue a career as a mechanical engineer. Over the years, I retained my interest in photography, and the advent of digital processing rekindled my passion. I was able to retire at the beginning of 2009 and began an encore career in photography with an emphasis on fine art large scale landscape and abstract figure photography.
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