Metering Modes? A-E Lock?

chrisgrieve

chrisgrieve

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Hi All,

I have been trying to get my head around all the metering modes, wonder if anyone would be kind enough to explain the following (in dummy terms)

- what metering modes do YOU use?
- why is this?
- in what circumstances would you change to another mode?

- what is A-E Lock?
- again when would you use this?

i have read some things in magazines etc but i just cant get my head around why you would use a certain mode over another.

appreciate your help, thanks

chris
 
You know I don't know what I use. It's probably the centre weighted, matrix, multi zoned, super smart, evaluative program one. :shrug:

They are all pretty much the same deal unless you use spot metering, which is just looking at a small centre section of the frame. Just how small depends on what your camera offers.

All the others basically are looking at the whole frame, with or without a slight bias to the middle, and thinking to themselves.... "if this whole scene was actually a mid grey, what would be the right settings?"

Mostly, they get it about right and camera metering can be relied on to get most things in the ball park. There are times that you know it's going to be wrong though. A very common example is where you have lots of a very bright sky in the frame and all the stuff below it is too dark. This is when you could use the exposure lock (AE lock).

You can point the camera at the ground so all the sky is out of the frame, let the camera choose some exposure settings... lock them and then recompose with the sky and take the shot.

Of course, now your sky is blown out and white but you've chosen which bits of the shot get correctly exposed.

Hope that helps a tad.

Though I know I'm going to hit submit and see someone has typed out a better explanation......... quicker! :lol:
 
I use M(anual) for work inside as I have to balance flash with ambient light so I generally tend to ignore what the meter and go with what I know will work.

I use A(perture priority) for landscape stuff so I can set the depth of field for the required amount. When it gets too dark to use A then I'll switch to manual so I can use the bulb setting for exposures longer than 30 seconds.

If I was shooting a moving subject then I would probably use S(hutter priority) so I can dictate the amount of movement in the subject or make sure the shutter is fast enough to catch the motion. I tend to set the camera so it has the auto iso on for this mode so I know it's not gonna come out blurry. It might be noisy, but it wont be blurred!


A lot of people will tell you to use full manual all the time as it gives you more control.

I say PAH! to them, I can't be arsed and I know how my camera is going to react in most situations. I don;t do a lot of fast paced stuff so don;t have to constantly fiddle with exposure compensation.


AE lock is for people who don't know how to use manual ;)


I never really use it and I've never really felt the need either.
 
chrisgrieve said:
Hi All,

I have been trying to get my head around all the metering modes, wonder if anyone would be kind enough to explain the following (in dummy terms)

- what metering modes do YOU use?
- why is this?
- in what circumstances would you change to another mode?

- what is A-E Lock?
- again when would you use this?

i have read some things in magazines etc but i just cant get my head around why you would use a certain mode over another.

appreciate your help, thanks

chris
Click to expand...

For me:

I use evaluative metering generally.

It seems to get me the best overall results.

I change to spot metering if the part I want perfectly exposed is quite small (ie. a face against a very dark background).

AE lock is for creative modes (rather than manual). Say, for instance, I am in AV mode and I'm taking a photo of a bright sky and some trees. If I meter off the trees, the sky will be totally blown out. So I point the camera at the sky to meter off that, I then press AE lock and take the photo at the settings to expose the sky properly. The trees will be a bit dark, but that is easier to fix than a totally blown sky.

Hope that helps, I only have a basic understanding though! :thumbs:
 
Bit of a soft spot for the old centre weighted & aperture priority myself.

But use manual when I've got the time, it's all really dependent on what you're shooting and what result you're after innit.
 
EdinburghGary said:
Good timing this post, bought Understanding Exposure this morning and I am shooting fully manual for the next few weeks. I now know how to use my light metre :)

Excellent book so far!
Click to expand...

Is the author Bryan Peterson?
 
thanks for all the helpful info, starting to understand it a bit better now, if anyone has anything else they want to add please do,as the more help the better, thanks again.
 
I use aperture priority most of the time as I mostly shoot landscapes, and they don't move much. except if there is an earthquake.:lol:

I have set my AF/AE lock to AE lock only, and on AE hold. This means that if I am getting a blown out sky, I meter for the mid tone of the sky, then press AE, and then recompose for the shot and take the shot. I usually shoot in RAW so it is then easy to bring back the detail in the land.
 
chrisgrieve said:
- what metering modes do YOU use?
- why is this?
- in what circumstances would you change to another mode?
Click to expand...

1. Matrix (Nikon's posh bells-and-whistles evaluative metering).
2. It's very accurate and very difficult to fool.
3. Never. I quite often adjust when I know the "correct" exposure isn't the shot that I want, though--usually with exposure comp.
 
I either use matrix metering with exposure compensation as necessary or spot metering in manual mode when exposing to the right. (ETTR is where you overexpose and then recover from the RAW; it gives you more tonal data than the default exposure settings. Spot metering off highlights and overexposing by 2 1/3-3 stops does the trick.)
 
thanks everyone for their input, its greatly appreciated, i think i will head out with the camera and put the tips to the test, thanks again. :thumbs:


chris
 
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