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Beginner Metering...
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johnnypanic
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I use matrix metering, for the vast majority of time, but will use spot metering in certain circumstances.
Jeff Watson
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Perhaps you would care to explain that.
Phil V
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When you point your reflective meter (camera set to evaluative, spot or CWA) at a scene, you should understand whether it's brighter or darker than 'average'.
Some people will just say 'spot metering never fails me', but if your spot is pointing at a white flower, your image will be underexposed unless you compensate for it.
Remember even smart meters don't know what it is they're being asked to measure, you need to add the understanding.
Just following what Uncle Bob does, because he always gets perfect exposures, won't work because you and I haven't got Uncle Bobs grey cells computing the scene.
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Jeff Watson
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Thanks for the explanation.
Phil V
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My personal 'skill' is that I know what average looks like
Whereas other people know what a stop and a half brighter than average looks like, which completely defeats me.
The upside is... I understand that, and I use exp lock to keep me right.
Whereas other people know what a stop and a half brighter than average looks like, which completely defeats me.
The upside is... I understand that, and I use exp lock to keep me right.
Jeff Watson
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That's what I like about my Nikon. I get a visual aid showing me what a stop and a half would look like, using the exposure compensation feature.
OP
rookies
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Which Nikon that is that on the live screen
Jeff Watson
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The two Nikons I own have this feature. That's the D60 and the D5100.
Go to exposure compensation via the menu and key in a stop and a half. There will be an image that indicates what your end result will look like.
Go to exposure compensation via the menu and key in a stop and a half. There will be an image that indicates what your end result will look like.
Teflon-Mike
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Photographic equivalent of a sailor sticking a wet finger in the air to see how strong and which way the wind is blowing.... I LOOK at my scene.... (then like as not, shrug, and leave it on whatever is default in the camera, but that's another matter)
This is pretty useful: Everything you need to know about exposure theory but were afraid to ask 101.
But, quick-bit; your 'meter' is measuring light intensity... & once upon a time we didn't have a multiplicity of choice over 'mode' metering mechanisms; we were lucky to have a meter! Even luckier if it was 'in' the camera.. so if we had one, we had to take a meter reading that was 'there or there a bouts' for the whole 'scene'.. an 'average'.. 'cos at the end of the day, we can only use, for one exposure, one shutter-speed, aperture and ISO combination...
BUT, some bits of our scene might be quite dark, some quite bright, and if we got the 'average' wrong, the the bright bits could white-out, or the dark-bits black out, or in between the mid-tones 'skew' from the middle and be too dark or too light compared to what we saw.
So, 'spot-metering'; rather than taking a measurement from the whole scene, or a wide area of the scene; you take a 'spot' sample from a tiny bit of it.. meter off something that's about 'average' and.. well.. same as taking a bigger area average really, you could still blow the high-lights or loose the low-lights... BUT, 'Multi-Spot'? Take more than ONE 'spot' sample.... you can meter just how brght or dark the high & low-lights are, the use the 'range' of meter readings to make some sort of mathmatical 'average' for the entire scene between.
NOW if you can imagine it; your Digital-Camera IS basically, a LOT of light-meters.. one for every pixel in the picture it makes.. 'cos the 'digital' bit.. digital camera doesn't record an 'image', it record a number.. three numbers actually, for each pixel, one for the amount of red, one for the amount of blue, one for the amount of green, in each pixel... but I detract a little... point is, you are holding a 'meter' that can, and in fact HAS to take millions of TINY 'spot-meter' readings to create the data-file that describes the picture it 'makes'....
Point camera at scene, then, and it has however many million 'spot meter' samples, for everything in the scene, high-light, low-light, mid-tone, the lot...
And it can use any or all of them to decide what might give the 'best average' between the highest and lowest.. because, we ca STILL only use ONE combination of Shutter, aperture and ISO...
So the 'meter-modes' are describing different mathematical manipulations to calculate a single 'average', to base the exposure settings on.
Back to my 11+ at school, (FAR too many years ago); but, from the 'data-set', you have the "max" (highlight), "min" (low-Light), difference between them is the "Range"; but then you have the "Median" which is the halfway point between them; the "Mean" which is all your data values added up and averaged by how many values you have; the "Mode" which is the most common value in your set of samples, a-n-d I'm too old for this stuff! BUT, lots of different 'sums' you can do, looking at a set of 'Data' to combine them and make a new value that 'sort' of represents the whole lot....
And electrikery is MUCH better at maths than I am.... and where I might struggle to 'average' a pair of spot-meter readings in my head.. micro-processor in your camera can do gazillions of complex computations in a nano-second; so can use any or all of the 'Samples' for the individual pixels, and come up with any number of different, and mathematically correct, 'averages', like the 'median', 'mode' and 'mean', depending on which program yo tell it (or the factory programmers told it) to use.
Whether any of them are 'more accurate' is mutable; the 'right' exposure is the one that makes your picture look most like you want it; you can very accurately calculate an exposure that looks horrible.....
SO, its back to the top, and LOOKING at your SCENE.... and judging for yourself, from what you SEE, what YOU want; and whether the cameras 'auto' metering will give it you, or not.... and my original quip, most of the time, it will, close enough; almost irrespective of the metering program set a few layers down the menu's...
If not? Why not? The most common ones are that a scene is uncommonly light or dark; say a twilight scene, or a snow-scene, where the 'meter' is going to try and make settings to make the whole scene vary about an 'average' 1/5th grey mid-tone, and shifts the average up or down to make the entire scene brighter or darker than what you see; or you have uncommonly high contrast in the scene, where the camera might struggle to capture detail in both high-lights and low-lights at the same time, and different metering programs MAY be able to weigh these up and adjust the 'average' to a mid-point that better centres on the range... ASSUMING that is what you want...
So the trick is to know what is 'common', and where the camera will do all these fancy calculations to offer settings like as not to deliver what you want or expect; and what is 'uncommon', where it might not. and then the VERY tricky bit.... what to do about it!
BUT all starts by looking at your SCENE, not the settings on your camera.. you need to look through it, not it at it!
landwomble
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Great advice. I'd say - learn what's good or bad after the shot. When I shot film - you had to get it right in camera. With digital - you still get it right in camera but you have the huge luxury of taking a shot and reviewing it instantly. Turn on the histogram function in your camera and learn to read it - it'll tell you if any areas are over or under exposed.
Phil V
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Just found this, (I wasn't tagged or quoted).
Short answer would be *No. Fortunately Mike did a great job.
*its a long time since I did any technical learning if the basics, when I was teaching the Mrs, I bought her 'Understanding Exposure' which was recommended by everyone for years, but I thought it was garbage.
russellsnr
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OK, from the OP
What Metering do you use?
Sekonic L758 in spot metering mode 99% of the time to put the clouds to the right without blowing out.
and to get a shaddows reading when the DR is to great so I can blend two images together.
What Metering do you use?
Sekonic L758 in spot metering mode 99% of the time to put the clouds to the right without blowing out.
and to get a shaddows reading when the DR is to great so I can blend two images together.
Terrywoodenpic
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My personal 'skill' is that I know what average looks like
Whereas other people know what a stop and a half brighter than average looks like, which completely defeats me.
The upside is... I understand that, and I use exp lock to keep me right.
Very true "Exposure lock" is an absolute god send. I use it all the time.
Even on Back lit subjects, which will be a nightmare for most exposure systems, There is always part of the scene that represents a "Normal " exposure.
My Son was recently remarried, and the ceremony took place in a Hotel with the bride an groom facing a very large near floor to ceiling window with light flooding in. My camera as did any one else's trying to shoot during the ceremony were shooting totally against this light.
However to my right and at the feet of the videographer was a largish patch of similar illumination to that lighting our side of the bride and Groom. I estimated that it would be just about right and Locked my exposure on it. It worked great.
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Phil V
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Sounds like my world exactly
