Can anyone provide how to use Spot Metering properly.
I have read many books on the subject and am having some difficulty making it work properly.
I have read Understanding Exposure and where to spot meter when dealing with sunsets etc but I can seem to grasp how do you with my camera.
I have read my manual twice and still trying to get the handle on this.
Anyone have any advice where to go now.
They say meter off the sky, or meter off the grass less 2/3 stop, etc. but how do you hold exposure, recompose and focus and then shoot in the easiest way possible.
Some say use the FN button for Spot Metering it's easier.
When I try this, all my exposures turn out underexposed for some reason.
What basic element am I missing?
What's the best way to learn this so that I can get it through my thick scull?
Anything would be appreciated.... I take most pictures in Matrix Mode but want to learn how to spot meter for those backlit shots of sunrises etc.
Shoot in manual exposure mode. Or use EV lock after getting your exposure off the spot meter.
If you have the FN button set as the spot meter, it assumes that you're shooting in manual exposure mode I would think, or are using it as a quick check.
Spot metering does what it says, it meters the spot you're aiming at (depending on your active AF-point).
So if you want a specific (small) part of your image exposed for the best use spot-metering.
If you use spot metering on a bright subject the remainder of the image could be under exposed and vice versa.
I regularly use spot metering when I am trying to photograph a person and the sun is behind them. This enables me to meter on their face and then the background blows out just like Chirs said. You can have your focus point on your subject, push your AE-L button on the back of your camera and it will hold the exposure settings if you need to recompose. Most Nikon's you can also set a custom button to do the same thing if you are using the AE-L button for something else.
In Spot Meter mode Camera sees everything as midtone subject, the exposure is calculated equivalent to 18% gray (eg..Gray card, Green grass, blue sky etc) which is 0 stop. (Pls read zone system concept to understand midtone...) So when you set Spot meter mode the metering value is calculated from the active focus point equivalent to midtone eventhough the actual is bright or dark. If you spot meter off the stuff which is equivalent to midtone like Gray card, Green grass, blue sky there won't be any change in exposure since camera sees the midtone subject as midtone.... So all subjects in the frame will be expeosed properly (i don't say perfect, since it is indivisual's taste).
Eaxample: Normally our palm is +1 stop brighter than midtone. So when you spot meter of the palm camera will expose it to 0 stop even though palm is +1 stop, so plam will be underexposed by 1 stop . Since we know it is +1 stop we have to compensate the exposure +1 stop. If you are in A mode adjust Exp compensation or in manual mode where you don't have expo button, physically adjust Aperture or shutter speed to achieve +1 stop compenstation (over expose by 1 stop). Now shoot and check the Histogram..Similarly if you shoot portrait with even light situation, Meter off the cheek or forehead and keep +1 stop and click... Normally when you have back light situation, if you use Matrix and CW metering they will be fooled by brightness of the background. So meter off the subject using SPOT and compenstate according to its ZONE. You will get properly exposed (SUBJECT) picture..Obviously background will be overexposed. Similarly if you shoot Sunset, keep the SUN off the view finder, spot meter the aread around sun, set +1 stop you will get the nice redish orange exposure.
PURE BLACK with detail => -2.5 Stop
MIDTONE => 0 Stop
PURE WHITE with detail => +2.5 STOP
SO play with in the range and get the help from Histogram for blown details. practice...practice...practice...practice...practice...
I have few compiled docuemnts on exposure. I ma happy to share. If any one is interetsed pls drop me mail to [email protected]
E-Vener wrote:
Spot metering works best when done with a hand held meter.
Say what?? I use the spot meter in lieu of a hand held meter... Although the two aren't the same really. As a hand-held meter can meter ambient for you whereas the spot meter works off the reflectance of the object that you point it at. This is my understanding.
One thing Canon does better than Nikon is multi-spot metering which allows you to take up to nine spot meter readings and see them plotted on an exposure scale in the viewfinder. Then it is easy to adjust the exposure so that the range best fits what the camera can capture. As far as I know there is no Nikon with this feature and we are stuck with one reading at a time. On the plus side some Nikons do have finer (smaller spot) spot metering capability.
In my opinion spot metering is not for novices because all of the smarts built into matrix metering go out the window when you use spot metering, and the user then has to provide the smarts to get a good exposure (as well as to know what a good exposure is). It is up to the user to recognize how a spot meter reading relates to the tone and colour of what was metered and also to other parts of the scene, and adjust the metered exposure (the combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO) accordingly. It is not hard to do but it does require some knowledge and experience to get it right consistently. Every metering method can be fooled some of the time but spot metering is the least clever and therefore the most in need of user assistance, even though it is also the most precise metering method.
By all means meter for bright areas of interest or dark areas of interest or anything in between that you are familiar with, but do not meter the specular highlights such as sunlight reflecting directly off water or off a mirror or off chrome because those highlights are naturally meant to be overexposed and any attempt to avoid that will result in everything else being underexposed. Matrix metering knows this and generally works around the brightest spots.
Know too that the meter is measuring luminance and does not factor in the colour. In general R, G and B components make different contributions to luminance as in this formula:
L = 0.3R + 0.59G + 0.11B
This is pretty close to the way our eyes and brains recognize colour.
So, for example, only 11 percent of the blue value contributes to luminance value. If you meter off a bright blue subject that lacks red or green components and crank it up to make that two stops above middle tone (such as when "exposing to the right") then you'll blow out the blue channel big time. Put another way, a reading off a blue subject may indicate quite a low exposure (more than three stops below "pure white") even when the blue channel is close to maximum value. The same goes for the red and green but to lesser extents.
On my D700 the viewfinder displays an exposure scale and indicates whether the current reading is high or low and by how much (I think up to two stops off middle tone). If I have the camera in spot metering mode and manual exposure mode then I just tweak the aperture or shutter speed or ISO until what I am metering matches the reading that I want. Then I'm good to shoot with those settings until there is a change in the lighting or a major change in the appearance of what I am shooting and I am free to recompose as required.
Exposure is something that has plagued photographers forever. During the slide film era it was a nightmare, it has gotten better with the use of histograms.
All meters see middle tonalities or what photographers call middle gray (18% reflectance) but the fact is that except for black and white all colors can show a middle tonality and so we have middle red, middle green, middle blue and so on. The meter is calibrated from the factory to read that tonality.
I hope you understand that no matter what subject you meter, the camera will make it a middle tone. If the subject is of middle tonality just follow the meter but if it is not, you have to compensate the exposure.
Spot metering is a very precise way to measure exposure but it will require experience. The spot meter of a camera reads about 3% of the subject, perhaps more, if using normal lenses. Use a tele in the range of 135mm or above and it becomes a near 1% spot and a more precise tool in its measurements.
I use spot metering most of the time and I am used to it. I do not use a meter under bright conditions preferring to go with "sunny 16."
The best book I have read on exposure: "THE CONFUSED PHOTOGRAPHER'S GUIDE TO EXPOSURE AND THE SIMPLIFIED ZONE SYSTEM" by Bahman Farzad.
I bet the book will make you an expert.
Thanks again for all your input. I will be doing a lot more reading on the subject thanks to your input. I see such wonderful photo's in the forum and I want to impove my number of keepers by getting a better handle on my exposure settings. Thanks again.
