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Archive 2015 · spot metering question

  
 
Vanadium
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · spot metering question


Problem: can't selectively sample exposure
Situation: I have the d600. The ae L af L button sets my focus. I have the AF mode as S with single focus point. Metering mode set to spot. I tap my focus key on my subject. Then I redirect to a much brighter area in the background and press halfway on the shutter because I want to sample exposure from this spot. Then I redirect to my final frame and shoot. The scene overexposes, meaning it is not sampling the bright background.

How do I address this problem? I want to quickly be able to tell the camera what part of the frame to set as the "baseline" level of exposure.



Jan 17, 2015 at 05:59 PM
binary visions
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · spot metering question


Try your custom settings > Timers/AE lock > Shutter-release button AE-L. You want to set it to ON.

On my D7100 it's setting C1.



Jan 17, 2015 at 06:14 PM
Andre Labonte
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · spot metering question


For such situation you have 4 choices that I can see, others on the forum may have additional ideas.

1) Shoot your exposure manually.
This is what I do 99.9% of the time, even doing sports in variable light. I use center weighted for genera stuff and for harder stuff I spot meter points in the frame and assess the average I want. If I can find a good grey, middle blue or middle green color, I just spot off those.

2) Use exposure compensation to average between your focus point and the background. To do this, spot meter on your focus point, then spot meter on your background and see how many stops different they are, and adjust the compensation to 1/2 that value (or some other ratio as you see fit)

3) Use the AE lock button. Spot meter on the background and press the AE lock and then recompose. Of course this is NOT an average exposure but a correct exposure for the background ... very useful for silhouettes. Of course you could always use exposure compensation in this method as well but in the opposite direction as in #2

4) Matrix metering I'm told handles things like this, especially on the newer bodies. Since I never use matrix metering I can't talk too much about it, but it is something to try.

One other thing ... I do not know your level of knowledge, but if you are unsure how to set exposure manually, then get the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson and learn how to expose manually ... once you do, the exposure in general will make much more sense. It's not as hard as most people think.



Jan 17, 2015 at 06:16 PM
jbouchard
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · spot metering question


binary visions wrote:
Try your custom settings > Timers/AE lock > Shutter-release button AE-L. You want to set it to ON.

On my D7100 it's setting C1.


What he said. set the shutter release button for AE-L. Use your thumb to focus, and the shutter button lock is intuitive, to me anyway.

My challenging situation is small concerts in like bars/clubs. Where the lights make the faces bright, but the backgrounds are very dark. I spot meter on the musician's face, typically with exposure comp set to -1. Even though I'm using spot metering, it's not narrow enough that it is able to ignore the really dark background. Setting the exposure comp to -1 or so typically gives me a face that's not overblown.

On my D700/D300 I use back button to focus, then spot on the face, and half-press the shutter button to lock exposure. Then I can reframe if I like..



Jan 17, 2015 at 07:50 PM
Weez
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · spot metering question


Here's how I have mine set up, and I'm thinking it's a bit unorthodox compared to what most shooters use, but it seems to make things much smoother for me:

Default metering is matrix, Pv button is center-weighted, Fn button is spot. This allows me to select a metering method without adjusting my grip and/or taking the camera away from my eye and is very quick. No holding a button and turning a dial. I can easily hit the Pv button with my middle finger or the Fn button with my pinky.

AE-L/AF-L button is set to exposure lock and hold.

This allows me to set exposure and recompose, as opposed to focusing first and then recomposing.

I'm almost always in M, with auto ISO on, so I typically don't have to do anything other than choose an aperture and/or shutter speed and I'm good to go. If my subject moves into shade, a brighter area, or whatever, a quick push of either the Pv or Fn button will tell me if matrix will be way off. If that's the case, lock it in with the AE-L button and shoot. A second press of the AE-L button (or the timer runs out - I have it set to one minute) returns me to auto ISO.

The nice thing about doing it this way, is that even if I adjust the aperture and/or shutter speed after I've locked in the exposure, the ISO will also adjust accordingly.

If I had a dedicated AF button on the back (I have a D750), I might have it set up differently. The shutter button halfway "detent" seems more intuitive to focusing. The back button has no detent - it's either pushed in or not.



Jan 17, 2015 at 10:21 PM
newusaa
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · spot metering question


Listening to your explanation of what you do made my head spin. I think a mistake that is made a lot during tricky exposure areas is people don't realize it is actually easier to go to manual, set the exposure and shoot away (if light isn't changing such as in a shady area). My point, put another way, is that people confuse matters more precisely because of the fact that matrix metering is generally so good. If you need to do the thinking yourself it's not so bad.


Jan 18, 2015 at 01:46 AM
DaveOls
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · spot metering question


I'd say that manual is the easiest solution, but set a specific iso so that it does not use auto iso. You learn more in manual also.


Jan 18, 2015 at 06:45 AM
Weez
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · spot metering question


newusaa wrote:
Listening to your explanation of what you do made my head spin. I think a mistake that is made a lot during tricky exposure areas is people don't realize it is actually easier to go to manual, set the exposure and shoot away (if light isn't changing such as in a shady area). My point, put another way, is that people confuse matters more precisely because of the fact that matrix metering is generally so good. If you need to do the thinking yourself it's not so bad.


, yeah I understand. The implementation of the technique is much easier than the explanation.

And yes, matrix does an outstanding job in most situations, which is why I have it set as the default.

I know a lot of shooters don't like to use auto ISO, but with my D750 I have no reservations about it at all. With older cameras that don't have as good of a DR performance or the higher ISOs were not usable, yes, I can see the argument.

You can also use the Easy ISO feature, but I find that to be clunky, and I want my dials to be strictly aperture or shutter speed.



Jan 18, 2015 at 03:25 PM
Andre Labonte
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · spot metering question


newusaa wrote:
Listening to your explanation of what you do made my head spin. I think a mistake that is made a lot during tricky exposure areas is people don't realize it is actually easier to go to manual, set the exposure and shoot away (if light isn't changing such as in a shady area). My point, put another way, is that people confuse matters more precisely because of the fact that matrix metering is generally so good. If you need to do the thinking yourself it's not so bad.


***************************
Precisely why I shoot manual exposure 99.9 % of the time.



Jan 18, 2015 at 04:06 PM





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