I am just wondering if I am not understanding my digital camera, I use the info on a photo as soon as its shot, what would be nice is to be able to read the light in this way before taking the photo. I have read the little book that came with it but I think maybe I am missing something, I seem to meter my shots wrong a lot of the time. If some one could take the time to explain to me how to properly meter shots I think it would help.
I shoot alot of frames for hobby and alot turn out well but those that dont really look bad, I feel like I am a stand still, my skill started to get better but now I seem to be at a stand still.
I shoot with a 20D and most of the time I use a 70-200mm f/4 L series a lot of the time for outdoor.
Michael, there are many introductory books available at Borders or Barnes & Noble that teach about exposure / metering / aperture / depth of field. There's also a certain amount that one gains just by taking lots of pictures and immediately getting the feedback by looking at the shot and the histogram.
Remember that your meter is trying to adjust for the entire scene, averaging to 18% gray. When you shoot monotone colors, especially snow, sand, water these will meter "wrong" and you will need to know how to adjust for these situations.
mdaddyrabbit wrote:
what would be nice is to be able to read the light in this way before taking the photo.
Among the metering method available in your camera (center-weighted, center and evaluative I guess) you have to set the one that fits your needs / standards - the manual is rather well explained in this regard.
The Histogram before shooting would not be meaningful in center based metering systems since the histogram provides information for the whole picture [the overexposed areas could be of interest though, before shooting]. For instance, in center mode, only about 10% of the center of the image exposure is taken into account, when you don't really care about the background.
One thing to remember is that depending on the exposure you're trying to achieve, your histogram may not always show you the "correct" info. This also deals with knowing your equipment, and knowing how which settings perform in which ways.
Practice. Understanding the technical aspects is all well and good, but as suggested earlier, find the metering that best suits your needs. Adjust your exposure to suit your needs. Having a histogram is helpful, but don't think that you can't waste a shot or two to check your metering. Viewing the histogram after the fact is just as useful as checking it before the shot.
Eventually, as your skills grow, you'll be able to evaluate a situation and know fairly closely what you're going to have to compensate for. I used to shoot film all the time by making manual settings based on experience only, no light meter, no metering at all. It just takes practice and consistency.
An important thing to remember is that the histogram doesn't tell you what the proper exposure will be, it just tells you the amount of the various tones in the shot. If your background is all black, it's going to show up skewed to the black end, this has no relation to your proper exposure though. The histogram is a fantastic tool once you understand what it's tell you, I check mine all the time. But for a long time it was complete gibberish to me!
