Metering.

[rangerrick9211]

What in camera meter do you use most often? What are the factors that influence which you choose? Thanks for your help!

 

[KmH]

What in camera meter do you use most often? What are the factors that influence which you choose? Thanks for your help!

Spot and center weighted. The in-camera meter is easily confounded in other modes, particularly if there is little light variation is a scene like a black dog sitting on a pile of coal or a white dog out in the snow.

I meter the highlights and the shadows and from experience pretty much know what settings I want to used based on that. 98% of the time I use Av and M modes.

I capture in the RAW file format and introduce an 18% grey card (I have a small one on my keychain) into my shots when the light changes for setting white balance later in ACR.

 

[dxqcanada]

Spot metering.

20 years figuring out how to take a picture I like.

 

[dcclark]

Matrix metering, with judicious use of exposure compensation, and a lot of experience learning how the meter reacts to different types of scenes. I'm at the point where a single button press and flick lets me get the meter right where I want it, without having to twiddle with the position of the center-weighted or spot meter.

I do use the spot meter in extremely wonky lighting situations, such as very high dynamic-range areas, or something where I want to expose for only a specific part of the frame.