Metering

[kimapali]

Okay so I feel really silly for even asking this, but could someone please walk me through what they do when they use the meter in their camera?

I've been doing a lot of reading these past couple of weeks, and everything talks about metering. They say something like "check the meter" or "meter it against the person's face" or metering it away form the sun...something to that effect, then they say that they would recompose the shot and take it.

What are they doing to take the meter reading? Pointing it in a certain direction and that's it? Do you press the shutter halfway to do this? I don't get it...

Thanks in advance!

[jerryph]

The meter on cameras does one thing... tells you if, at the current settings on your camera, that if you took the picture, that it would be overexposed, underexposed or somewhere in the middle, thats it.

On my camera it activates when I press the shutter down 1/2-way. If it is not properly exposed (the meter is not reading in the middle), then I use either shutter speed, aperture or ISO settings to make it read in the middle before taking the pic.

Hope that helps.

[kimapali]

So then let's say I was in manual mode, and I wanted to take a meter reading off of someone's face. Would I point it at them, see what my camera is saying and make the adjustments based on that reading, then go back to where I wanted to take the picture and shoot?

[jerryph]

If you are in manual mode, you press the shutter down, look at the meter, adjust (let's say) aperture, when it is where you want it, you push the shutter down and take the pic.

This is normall done without lowering the camera, done in a couple seconds.

[perfectoarts]

You have to also check what metering mode setting you have selected on your camera. Depends on the camera you have, usually there is a centre-weighted, partial and spot metering modes.
There are some excellent links on the web. Google metering mode & the info is limitless.
For starters try this site. It is very useful.http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-metering.htm

[jefferybull]

Hey you all if I may jump in this one I saw videos all about the same thing and yesterday I tried it on my Nikon D80.Every time I got the meter in the middle by adjusting aperature and it then sais everything ok I got nothing but huge overexposures.Why do you think this may be??

Thanks,

Jeff

Ps..example pic attached

[eyevan]

im no expert but if i were to pick one thing,id say the camera is metering wrong because of light reflection off the water.Many times try taking the same picture with 1 to possibly 3 ev underexposure.Also set your camera to bracketing where it will take say 3 exposures of the same picture at different exposures.Thats the bulk of my education here so far.Maybe it will help

[reval8r]

The camera meter is really pretty dumb. All it understands is 18$ gray. When you meter, the system is measuring light to give an 18% gray image. If you shooting a white wall, the meter will give you a reading for 18% gray. When you take the picture with that exposure, you'll get a gray wall instead of white. You have to do the thinking, and remember if I want that wall to be white I'll need to over-expose a couple of stops. Same with black, the meter will set the exposure for a black wall to 18% gray and the wall be gray, not black. To get the wall black, you'll have to under-expose the meter reading. Even with a meter, we have still have to use our knowledge and experience to get the best exposure.

With all that said, I use often use a digital calibration target to set exposure and white balance. They're expensive, but well worth it when you're being paid by a client. It saves a lot of time in post having a target to reference. These are great for portaiture and still life, but would not be as handy for shooting landscapes, wildlife, etc. Here is where I got mine http://www.photovisionvideo.com/store/shop.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=P&Category_Code=DCT.

[dkippen]

Larry - great idea, but if your bank account is short, another option to try is to go to HomeDepot and pick up samples for laminate countertops. I learned about this in a photo workshop this Spring. The colors used are Wilsonart Black-1596; B96 and N. Sea Grey. I don't remember how the instructor put them together, but it looks just like the digital calibration targets.

[kdhukate]

Metering Can only be done in Manual mode. Take a reading with the Bright objects especially RGB color and finnaly take snaps.

[jerryph]

Metering Can only be done in Manual mode.

Thats not quite true. :)

Every time you take a picture with near any dSLR camera in P, A. S or manual mode, it sets settings based on the metering mode for you. Using manual mode affects ONLY aperture, ISO and speed settings. You globally set exposure with these settings but metering is a subset of WHAT you are telling the camera to expose for.

Now, depending on the camera, the metering mode will shift the exposure settings. In dynamic metering mode, the camera will take into consideration the entire frame. In something like Nikon's center-weighted, it looks on the entire frame, but gives emphasis to just the center area. In spot metering mode, it ignores the lighting requirements in almost everywhere except on a very specific and small area in the center of the picture.

The effects if you took a picture 3 times with nothing changed except the 3 different metering modes can make a big change.

Let's use a hypothetical example. Here is the scenario:

You are a photographer who is shooting an outdoor music festival in the middle of the day. In front of you is a group on an enclosed stage with a roof that shields the band members from the sun.

Your picture is of the entire stage and the trees at the sides, but the center of the composition is on the face of one of the band members.

Using dynamic mode, the entire scene is perfectly exposed, but because the stage is under the roof in a darker area, it is very dark. The camera has metered for the overall picture and since the trees are in the brightest part of the picture, it lowered the exposer to properly expose the trees.

In center-weighted, on that SAME picture, the stage may be properly lit, but the faces of the singers is dark and facial features are not clear. The trees are lightly overexposed, but the camera doesn't care because the focus is the center area of the photo.

In spot metering, The trees are likely blown out, the stage may be lightly overexposed, but the face of the singer... is spot on.

This would be the effect of doing the same picture 3 times and changing nothing but metering mode.

Understanding what the metering modes do and their effects, helps you decide where you want the camera to place the emphasis of the exposure attention on. The effects can be quite different.

As far as I know, on Canon and Nikon cameras, metering selection has no bearing concerning colour space used (RGB, CMYK, etc...).

[Paranihia]

You can get an 18% grey card to meter off, put it in front of the lens press shutter 1/2 way take readings & should be OK to go depending on what metering system you want ie spot, partial, average/pattern/evaluative. However, in the concert scenario, you would meter on the skin of one of band. You also should be quite close to the stage. Then flash, unless your shot has proven to be OK without. Bands are used to flashes. Be careful of the instruments though, you may get lots of unwanted reflections. You know the sky would be blown out, so don't have any in the shot. It is a very tricky one. However, if you have a white building, green trees & blue sky it might work better if you meter on the sky. In situations like that I use centre weighting & a circular polariser. Hey I'm a student too & don't know hardly anything. Keep practising, good luck & happy shooting. :D

[dkippen]

Paranihia - are you sure you're a student? You sound pretty smart to me!