Aaron Lewis Photography wrote:
It's all explained in the manual but you would use spot metering in low light to insure you're metering on the area you intend to be in focus.

Matrix metering would be useful for a moving subject in good light, like sports

Center weighted can be used in a variety of situations with a stationary and predictable subject.

I think that's how it goes.

Changing metering modes doesn't fix bad lighting situations

What do you use with models?

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
What do you use with models?

Here is a decent guide:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutori … tering.htm

For portraits, I wouldn't ever use the in-camera meter, I'd pull out my trusty Sekonic L-358.

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
What do you use with models?

After struggling with lighting models for quite a while, I decided that  I needed a light meter for guidance. Some will disagree but I got a Sekonic L-358. I find it very helpful during initial setup

My camera is always set to center weighted or when I shoot dance recitals I change it to spot.

Raoul Isidro Images wrote:
Use center weighted and 1/3 underexposure for fast action such as weddings and dynamic outdoor photo shoots.

You can recover dark areas from RAW, but not so much on blown out highlights, so 1/3 to 1/2 under is a safety net.

.

so we have one post about ETTR and now one about ETTL

just to play devil's advocate, you do realize that you can recover 1/2 stop over or under even in jpg unless its completely blown out? and 2 stops (approx) in RAW?  one would have to be really over exposed to not have enough room to recover. and if so, 1/2 under wont help

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
What situations might you use center weighted or spot metering verses multi-segment?  I noticed that when using direct sun light to backlight in multi-segment metering the camera would attempt to expose for most of the scene and under expose my subject.  So I played around with spot metering and got my subject properly exposed and it blew out the backdrop.  It took some tinkering and fill flash to fix it all.  Any guidelines on using the different metering modes especially in direct sunlight with a model? 

Thanks

I haven't used center weight metering since the Nikon FE2 about 1990. In those days I did a lot of handheld metering of ambient light. Now I am going to say some of this depends on the camera system.

Simply put a camera's meter is an idiot savant with ADHD. Their goal is to get an 18% neutral grey reading but the can be easily distracted. By this I mean the meter of a camera will set exposure for the 18% neutral grey reading but camera meter might suddenly react to a bright shinny object in the background or reflection, a light source that may not effect the real exposure but will cause the camera to change its exposure. For example concerts or maybe the sun reflecting off the water of a body of water in the background.

For general exposures with the sun or main light source at my back, I use Matrix (segmented) metering. For backlit situations I use the spot meter off a persons face. For flash fill I use Matrix (segmented). The reason for this is that  the camera meter is trying to average the front and background natural ambient light with the flash. It I used a spot meter, I am meter a small part on the subject so that is what the scene that the exposure is trying to compensate for so that means the background maybe blown out or to dark. The other thing is lenses now give the distance info as part of the calculation.

flash fill example

Debbie Hawk by FullMetalPhotographer, on Flickr
Camera: Nikon D2X
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/4.8
Focal Length: 102 mm
ISO Speed    100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash    Fired, Return detected
Exposure Program: Shutter speed priority AE


I will say this I am lazy so I will switch to manual exposure if I do not like what the camera is doing or if i want more creative exposure control. I tend to switch to manual more the EV controls.

When shooting concerts and arena events I tend to shoot manual exposure a lot. I find that the exposure is more consistent. Camera meters can get distracted by the concert lights flashing.

Concert/Sport Examples


rock1 by FullMetalPhotographer, on Flickr

Camera: Nikon D2X
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 98 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Program: Manual
Metering Mode: Multi-segment


mexicoindepenence06091608 by FullMetalPhotographer, on Flickr

Camera: Nikon D3
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 82 mm
ISO Speed    6400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash
Exposure Program: Manual


Wargods13072708 by FullMetalPhotographer, on Flickr

Camera: Nikon D3
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO Speed: 6400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash
Exposure Program: Manual
Metering Mode: Multi-segment

In general practice I will meter for the highlights and process for the shadows.
With highlights you only have about 1/2 - 1 f/stop of latitude, and with the shadows you have about 1 1/2 f/stops - 2f /stops of latitude.

Metering Example


Print by FullMetalPhotographer, on Flickr

This was a shot I did at Baker Beach with a reflector card look at where the meters are place for my readings.

Raoul Isidro Images wrote:
Use center weighted and 1/3 underexposure for fast action such as weddings and dynamic outdoor photo shoots.

You can recover dark areas from RAW, but not so much on blown out highlights, so 1/3 to 1/2 under is a safety net.

.

Combine that with full stop exposure increments and you've got the most accurate semi-auto mode possible.

fullmetalphotographer wrote:
When shooting concerts and arena events I tend to shoot manual exposure a lot. I find that the exposure is more consistent. Camera meters can get distracted by the concert lights flashing.

I do the same. I find it amusing that people consider it an achievement to shoot in manual and think that P/Av/Tv are easier. They are much harder in rapidly changing light and high contrast scenes.

Plus in that context you usually want the change in light shown in the photo.

It's a shame there isn't a way to limit the range in which a camera reacts. For instance when the lights go bright and push the exposure down by two stops the camera is limited to changing by only one stop.

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
What situations might you use center weighted or spot metering verses multi-segment?  I noticed that when using direct sun light to backlight in multi-segment metering the camera would attempt to expose for most of the scene and under expose my subject.  So I played around with spot metering and got my subject properly exposed and it blew out the backdrop.  It took some tinkering and fill flash to fix it all.  Any guidelines on using the different metering modes especially in direct sunlight with a model? 

Thanks

The answer is high contrast situations.

In a low contrast situation - shooting a solid colored wall to make it extreme - the metering mode won't matter.

In high contrast situations it depends on how you approach exposure.

For instance a street scene at night. It will have a lot of darkness and a few street lights. If you want to expose for the highlights the matrix metering will look at the whole scene, and see a street light to the side and set the exposure lower so that doesn't blow out. If you want to prevent that from happening, you need to choose one of the other modes.

If there's one specific detail that you care most about, spot will allow you to meter off of just that detail. If you're just concerned about the subject in general, then partial will ignore the sides and meter the whole subject, not just a part of the subject. If you wants to consider the sides a little bit, then center weighted allows you to do that. There's also multi-spot metering where you use spot mode, aim the spot at different parts of the scene, press the Mf-n button to keep track of that reading and then do that for every spot you want considered. At the end, the camera averages out all the spots you've read and gives you the right setting. The first time I tried this I metered off of a window and the wall to each side giving two dark readings and one bright one and the exposure was way more accurate than my guess as to the appropriate EC.

The metering is more about how you think than the scene and your back lighting scenario shows that. You needed the fill flash not because of the metering but because the scene was simply too high contrast. If you were shooting natural light only, you'd have to make a stylistic choice to expose for the face and blowout the background or expose for an average and leave the background bright and the face a little dark.

I tend to lean towards darker exposures. If you look at Julian Humphries work, he leans toward brighter exposures in his non-Polaroid work. That's a style thing regardless of the difficulty of the lighting. So for a back lit situation matrix might be the more natural choice for me and spot or partial for him.

The thing is, it's more a out how you think. If I choose my darker exposure by thinking "I want the image as dark as possible, but I don't want the face more than one stop below middle grey, then spot makes sense for me. Or for a brighter look, maybe matrix is the way to go and boost the exposure compensation so that it's as bright as possible bit not letting the highlights get brighter than two stops above middle grey.


So the choice is a mix between the scene and how you think. I've heard many people lean towards center weighted for Av/Tv or TTL flash. Maybe think of it as "subject prioritized matrix" as the subject is most often in the center.


There's also LCD metering where you shoot and adjust until it looks right. For some reason people think that because this didn't used to be an option, it's shouldn't be an option now, but it is. There's no reason not to use every tool that's available.

I'm sure people will tell you that when they started shooting with a film camera and couldn't do that their exposure got better,  but it's not the switch that's responsible for the change it's the fact that they chose to think differently. They just didn't have the discipline to do that on their own.


What I'd recommend is shoot every day just for practicing exposure. Pick a metering mode, put the camera in P and don't even look through the viewfinder or at the LCD. During any portion of your commute to work where you're not driving, just shoot everything you see. Eyeball the exposure compensation and then check the photos later. See if there's a metering mode that leads you to getting better exposures.

For shooting models digitally it probably won't make much difference because you've got the time to do test shots and compensate. For truly fast changing light, you really can't keep up so you need to either pick a manual setting that's in the middle of the light range or set the camera to full stop exposure increments and shoot at - 1/3 EC.

Raoul Isidro Images wrote:
Use center weighted and 1/3 underexposure for fast action such as weddings and dynamic outdoor photo shoots.

You can recover dark areas from RAW, but not so much on blown out highlights, so 1/3 to 1/2 under is a safety net.

1/3 under was always what I used when shooting slide film many years ago as any hint of overexposure would wash out colours horribly.

With digital, most of the information is in the upper 2/3 of the histogram so underexposure really compresses the darker tones into a relatively few discrete levels (even with a 14bit RAW file) so if you have to increase the exposure during RAW development you run the risk of introducing banding and noise in the darker areas.

ETTR as a general policy is a good way to ameliorate this issue at the possible risk of blowing the occasional highlight beyond recovery, but if you're careful then this is usually pretty easily avoidable.



Ciao
Stefano

www.stefanobrunesci.com

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
What situations might you use center weighted or spot metering verses multi-segment?  I noticed that when using direct sun light to backlight in multi-segment metering the camera would attempt to expose for most of the scene and under expose my subject.  So I played around with spot metering and got my subject properly exposed and it blew out the backdrop.  It took some tinkering and fill flash to fix it all.  Any guidelines on using the different metering modes especially in direct sunlight with a model? 

Thanks

Metering is only a reference guide to give you an idea of what to change. There are no right or wrong answers in how to expose a scene. The meter is telling you what the light is doing and it is up to you how to interpret the scene and make adjustments.

Yes, when you're shooting backlit stuff, you're shooting a really contrasty scene where for sure the highlights are going to blow out and/or the subject will go dark. So you have to decide if the blown hightlights bother you? Or does the dark subject bother you? What resources do you have to either block the highlights some or fill the subject with a little more light? It's more of a give and take, a little juggling and the problem solving that goes with it. The meter is just a guide.


ETA: good answers above, too.

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
Thanks everyone, wanted to report back after shooting the other day with this advise in mind.  I found that shooting in manual without flash to get proper exposure of the backdrop and slight under exposure on the subject allowed me to than add fill flash to make it close to what I wanted every time.  The problem is that I had to significantly increase aperture to do this.  So, I can get the exposures right but there was no way to get the nice background blur in high contrast sunny situation.  Iso and shutter speed wasnt sufficient to compensate. Anyway to have a low aperture and do this?  Thanks again, really appreciate everyone who offered their insight and experience!

Using my camera as an example: My cameras sync at 1/250. So if you are shooting in bright daylight, at ISO 100, you are looking at an exposure of f/11 @ 1/250. Not great for shallow depth of field.


Camera: Nikon D3
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 16 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Flash    On, Return detected


FalkeFixed by FullMetalPhotographer, on Flickr

Depending on the camera their are fast sync options, but I prefer using reflectors for that shallow DOF.

Reflector shot
f/2.8 at 1/4000
ISO 100


glam2_127 by FullMetalPhotographer, on Flickr

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
What situations might you use center weighted or spot metering verses multi-segment?  I noticed that when using direct sun light to backlight in multi-segment metering the camera would attempt to expose for most of the scene and under expose my subject.  So I played around with spot metering and got my subject properly exposed and it blew out the backdrop.  It took some tinkering and fill flash to fix it all.  Any guidelines on using the different metering modes especially in direct sunlight with a model? 

Thanks

here's an example of an image I just shot using spot metering. Model was front lit by the sun, I'd a say almost noon so the sun was already high. I had her scrimmed. The ground was covered by some type of white sand (not exactly sure what it was) but I wanted to play off it and shoot a scene that looked almost snow like. Keep in mind I'm in Vegas and this shot was actually at the wetlands. So I decided spot meter off her skin therefore blowing out the rest of the scene.


If I wanted more of the background exposed, then I would have switched to center metering and see what that gave me. If all else failed, I would have exposed for the background, popped my light and filled her in with some flash.

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
I found that shooting in manual without flash to get proper exposure of the backdrop and slight under exposure on the subject allowed me to than add fill flash to make it close to what I wanted every time.  The problem is that I had to significantly increase aperture to do this.  So, I can get the exposures right but there was no way to get the nice background blur in high contrast sunny situation.  Iso and shutter speed wasnt sufficient to compensate. Anyway to have a low aperture and do this?

Get a ND filter for your lens and a large white/gold reflector to bounce sunlight back at the model for fill.

No need for flash and you'll find that the background and foreground will always be pretty nicely balanced in exposure because, well, the sun is a long way away so bouncing it off a reflector isn't going to make much difference to the exposure. You might lose half a stop or so but that's about right to give a nice natural look (much better than fill flash IMHO) anyway



Ciao
Stefano

www.stefanobrunesci.com

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
What situations might you use center weighted or spot metering verses multi-segment?  I noticed that when using direct sun light to backlight in multi-segment metering the camera would attempt to expose for most of the scene and under expose my subject.  So I played around with spot metering and got my subject properly exposed and it blew out the backdrop.  It took some tinkering and fill flash to fix it all.  Any guidelines on using the different metering modes especially in direct sunlight with a model? 

Thanks

I think you can achieve whatever  you're doing with whichever mode. 

I use spot to find out how much light falling on subjects and/or background.  I make sure I underexpose the scene enough to freeze the subjects.



I stick my hand out to meter off of it to know the exposure of the rim light and bounce the flash.



In contrast to recommending lcd, I haven't met any one bragging about being able to manually expose a photograph.  I mean this skill yields so much benefit and not that hard to learn.  The lcd is there to confirm what you're doing, a feedback to move from where you start.  When you're shooting in snow or at the beach with the sun beating down, your lcd's useless and deceiving at best.  To top it off, if you got those glasses that got dark automatically...well u got the picture.



I highly recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exp … hotography