Fellow FMers,

I'm looking for a way where I can consistently nail my exposures and shoot in AV mode, and I feel like Spot metering is the best way to do so.

I'm really curious to see how you guys are doing so successfully w/ the 5D and what your technique is.

What is the key to focus, spot meter, and recompose quickly w/ the 5D?

Thanks.

-Steve

Using spotmetering in general, requires understanding of the light from that spot and it's importance relative to the light from other spots in the scenery.
Therefore you will have to dial in your exposure compensation, every time

RT.

edit: but hey, wait a minute, I just looked at your website, Incredible!
You know everything about using light and nailing exposure?
Hence, Im not sure about your question then?

Steve,
I agree with RT. Your website is fantastic! You already seem to have a gook knack for nailing your exposures. However, just to answer your question: I never, ever use spot metering. I use Evaluative or average mode or my hand held Sekonic and shoot in manual. Now, having said that, I can think of a few times when spot metering would be handy but a quick chimp is all I need if I need to check exposure.

I find that I'm too concerned about getting the image in focus with my 5D more than anything else. I use center spot focus and recompose if I'm fairly far from the subject but if I'm close, especially with a wide angle lens, I'll use one of the outer focus points.

Steve,

Where I use spot metering is when nothing matters but the area I am metering. Say low light and the face is lit well but not much more or to nail a certain part of the frame that really counts.

When using spot I pretty much use manual and exposure compensation together, but Av works too.

btw the secret is like everything else, practice, trial and error. Nice work, you'll pick it up quickly.

Here's a non-wedding photo that wouldn't have been possible without spot metering.

Steven Young wrote:
Fellow FMers,

I'm looking for a way where I can consistently nail my exposures and shoot in AV mode, and I feel like Spot metering is the best way to do so.

I'm really curious to see how you guys are doing so successfully w/ the 5D and what your technique is.

What is the key to focus, spot meter, and recompose quickly w/ the 5D?

Thanks.

-Steve

I use Spot metering on my 5D 100% of the time. I think it's just a matter of visually recognizing how light or dark the thing you're focusing on is, relative to the scene. I think it just comes through experience and trial and error.

I'm shooting manual, not AV if that makes a difference.

Tony - I may be wrong, but if you are shooting manual, does the metering on the camera make a difference?

I'm talking about those who use Spot Metering & center focus to get consistent exposures in AV mode the whole day. Which buttons do you use on the camera, and what's the mindset?

I shoot in manual mode. If I want the couple to be exposed correctly, I spot meter off faces and give it about a +1 compensation for caucasians and about a -1 for darker skin. You may have to fiddle with it, but you'll know that you are within a certain range for what you want and can compensate if you have to.

I also use the * button for focusing, so I could theoretically take a spot meter with the shutter button, and focus using the * button. The * botton is one reason I may never switch to Nikon.

I won't lie -- trying to change focus points, aperture, shutter, and making sure it is all correct can be difficult. I haven't missed many shots, though. It took me a bit longer to figure out the focus select button...

Steven Young wrote:
Tony - I may be wrong, but if you are shooting manual, does the metering on the camera make a difference?

I'm talking about those who use Spot Metering & center focus to get consistent exposures in AV mode the whole day. Which buttons do you use on the camera, and what's the mindset?

The camera will meter the same with AV or Manual in all the different modes. It's the same light reading on the same spot. In manual, it won't change the shutter speed automatically when you move around though.

Getting consistent results and using aperture priority seems like an oxymoron to me, unless it's cloudy, consistent light.

Tony Hoffer wrote:

I use Spot metering on my 5D 100% of the time. I think it's just a matter of visually recognizing how light or dark the thing you're focusing on is, relative to the scene. I think it just comes through experience and trial and error.

I'm shooting manual, not AV if that makes a difference.

Tony, very interesting. Totally different from what I do but your results are proven.

So what do you do in changing light? Keep the exposure consistent on the faces and ignore the background light?

spot metering is all about determining the subject's relation to neutral gray (18% gray)-pick up a book by ansel adams that talks about the zone system or something on exposure that teaches various colors and their values to 18% gray-with a little practice and that basic knowledge of tone, you can determine how much to compensate over or under (exposure compensation)

for instance a lot of neutral greens and reds fall right around 18% gray, whereas yellow is typically a stop over, etc.-for many of my subjects (white people), i typically use +1 exposure compensation when metering off their faces-i hope this is what you were asking about

i typically shoot manual mode as well but it's nice to have this to fall back on in Av mode when you need to get exposure quickly and there's no time for chimping

daniel

Exactly Jim. I generally just meter the face at about +2/3, as Daniel describes above. Screw backgrounds

Tony Hoffer wrote:
Exactly Jim. I generally just meter the face at about +2/3, as Daniel describes above. Screw backgrounds
Hmm....sounds intriguing! I'll have to give it a try.

I shoot mainly aperture priority and program (YES, that's right). I use mainly spot metering on my 1DS II camera, with the meter set for whichever focus spot I use. I meter for the shadow beneath the eye, and as much as possible shoot from shade (dark) to light. Works for me.

When using Manual, how do you guys determine the correct settings(iso/aperture/shutterspeed) to use?

Do you start with a standard settings(e.g ISO400,1/60,f2.8) and starts to chimp until you get the correct exposure?

Or do you use AV mode to get a rough settings and set it in Manual?

melvin - i jump to AV to get an idea, and then dial in those settings in M mode.

emandavi - on the 5D they don't have that custom function to spot meter on your focus point. It can only meter the center point, which is ok i guess because i use the center point to focus.

melvinho wrote:
When using Manual, how do you guys determine the correct settings(iso/aperture/shutterspeed) to use?

Do you start with a standard settings(e.g ISO400,1/60,f2.8) and starts to chimp until you get the correct exposure?

Or do you use AV mode to get a rough settings and set it in Manual?

I typically find a portion of the scene with a goldilocks refletive value (not too dark, not too light...just right) and take a reading off that to get a base. Sometimes it's a face or the palm of my hand. Other times, it's simply a mixture of light and dark tones in the shot. Then I chimp and adjust to taste. If the faces are too dark ( as seen in the histogram ) I open up a bit until the flesh tone is around 80 percent to the right in the histogram.

Or I simply take a reading off a gray card or my incident meter and call it good and tweak in post.

However, I'm going to give Tony's method a shot and see if I like it. The only problem is that I like using a bit of flash so I tend to set my overall exposure then add flash to light the skin tones.

We shoot manual most of the time, but when using spot metering in AV (the spot meter is hooked up through the * button on the cameras custom functions) we just meter off of what is important. When taking a portrait, the face (on a normal skin Caucasian) which is 2/3 stop over with exposure compensation. The exposure is really close most of the time.

-Zach