Does METERING matter??

[Big Mike]

When using flash in studio, you shouldnt have to worry about meetering since you should set your camera at the lowest iso you can get and at about F8 / F11 and your shutter speed at your max sync speed or lower.

What if you want your fill light to be a half stop less than your key light? And you want your accent light to be 2/3 of a stop brighter than your key light?

 

[c.cloudwalker]

When using flash in studio, you shouldnt have to worry about meetering since you should set your camera at the lowest iso you can get and at about F8 / F11 and your shutter speed at your max sync speed or lower.

Really? I wonder why I spend so much money on a flashmeter...

Havn't you ever tried the shoot and hope method , i will have to throw away my flash meter

No really my style but...

I realize that a lot of digital photogs think they can get away with looking at the last shot, correct, look at the next last shot, correct, etc until they think they have it right.

And it might eventually work when that screen thing in the back of the camera is reliable as a proof. :lmao:

 

[kundalini]

If you set ISO, Aperture, shutter speed already in M mode or in any other mode, does metring the scene matter?

If you don't meter the scene, how do you know what settings to use, regardless of shooting mode you're using? My method is to meter first (with appropriate metering mode), then adjust settings.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Ok guys.. lets get back to the original question.

If you set the ISO to 100, shutter speed to 1/100, aperture to F/2.8. Does it matter what meters you are on when you take a pic? Mo thinks it does matter.

 

[MohaimenK]

If you set ISO, Aperture, shutter speed already in M mode or in any other mode, does metring the scene matter?

If you don't meter the scene, how do you know what settings to use, regardless of shooting mode you're using? My method is to meter first (with appropriate metering mode), then adjust settings.

AHHH! I see now. So you meter the scene first, so lets say I shoot a model in a very bright spot, then I use the spot metering and then change the rest acordingly?

 

[Big Mike]

If you set the ISO to 100, shutter speed to 1/100, aperture to F/2.8. Does it matter what meters you are on when you take a pic? Mo thinks it does matter.

But why did he set it to ISO 100, 1/100 and F2.8 in the first place?

NO, if you are in manual mode, changing the meter mode won't change anything (except the display of the camera's meter).

 

[c.cloudwalker]

If you set ISO, Aperture, shutter speed already in M mode or in any other mode, does metring the scene matter?

If you don't meter the scene, how do you know what settings to use, regardless of shooting mode you're using? My method is to meter first (with appropriate metering mode), then adjust settings.

AHHH! I see now. So you meter the scene first, so lets say I shoot a model in a very bright spot, then I use the spot metering and then change the rest acordingly?

You need to read this:
Amazon.com: Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) (9780817463007): Bryan Peterson: Books

 

[Robin Usagani]

If you set the ISO to 100, shutter speed to 1/100, aperture to F/2.8. Does it matter what meters you are on when you take a pic? Mo thinks it does matter.

But why did he set it to ISO 100, 1/100 and F2.8 in the first place?

NO, if you are in manual mode, changing the meter mode won't change anything (except the display of the camera's meter).

I know Mike.. this is just a theoratical question LOL.

 

[Rekd]

All you have to do is look at the meter while you're changing one of the settings and you'll see the meter moves with it. Thus it makes no difference.

 

[Rosshole]

Wow...

If you are using the in camera meter to help determine your Manual exposure, the mode definitely matters.

 

[Christie Photo]

Changing metering system wont do crap. It just tell you where 18% should be!

Which is, at least in my world, very valuable information.

-Pete

 

[Overread]

I think we might have a few crossed messages here which his leading to some confusion:

When you meter using the camera body the camera looks at the ambient light within the areas of the scene that you specify with the metering mode. So if you choose spot its looking only at metering one spot you define whilst other modes look at larger areas or the frame as a whole. These different modes will of course pick up on different amounts of ambient light and thus will affect how your meter reads the scene and thus how your meter point in the camera will react when you adjust your settings.

Now if you are in a situation where the ambient light is not contributing to the shot or where its significantly reduced in importance and where instead you are using flash/strobe lighting to provide the majority of the light then the in camera meter is of less use. This is because it can't read the flash light (its then that you want use of the external flash meters and other handheld metering types) even when you use preflashes.
In these situations you can use the camera to read the light you have to work with on the subject and then adjust the output of your flashes so that they will deliver the light you need to use the in camera settings you want to use. An understanding of how light outputs fall off over distance; the effect of diffusion and also the stop values of the light settings is needed here - often using an external flash meter is preferred as then you can get the exact power out put at the subject of what each flash is giving out.

Combine that together with reviewing shots on the histogram and you can effectively control your lighting. Using the camera histogram alone, whilst it can work, is far more tricky as you get more complexe scenes and more than one or two variable light sources. In addition it can confuse the issue as to which light source might be putting out to much or too little power.


Remember ISO aperture and shutter speed are all that will affect the exposure (in camera) itself but metering is the processes by which you know how and what settings to dial in to start with - and thus how you meter and what mode you use is of key importance in getting the right settings for your shot.

 

[ghache]

Really? I wonder why I spend so much money on a flashmeter...

Havn't you ever tried the shoot and hope method , i will have to throw away my flash meter

No really my style but...

I realize that a lot of digital photogs think they can get away with looking at the last shot, correct, look at the next last shot, correct, etc until they think they have it right.

And it might eventually work when that screen thing in the back of the camera is reliable as a proof. :lmao:

LOL, what are you talking about? I think this is the beauty of digital to have that "screen thingy" at the back of your camera as a proof.

 

[gsgary]

Really? I wonder why I spend so much money on a flashmeter...

Havn't you ever tried the shoot and hope method , i will have to throw away my flash meter

No really my style but...

I realize that a lot of digital photogs think they can get away with looking at the last shot, correct, look at the next last shot, correct, etc until they think they have it right.

And it might eventually work when that screen thing in the back of the camera is reliable as a proof. :lmao:

But it is not very easy to set a nice lighting ratio, i'm sticking with my flash meter

 

[Overread]

Havn't you ever tried the shoot and hope method , i will have to throw away my flash meter

No really my style but...

I realize that a lot of digital photogs think they can get away with looking at the last shot, correct, look at the next last shot, correct, etc until they think they have it right.

And it might eventually work when that screen thing in the back of the camera is reliable as a proof. :lmao:

But it is not very easy to set a nice lighting ratio, i'm sticking with my flash meter

Exactlty - the in camera histogram reads the light over the whole shot - but its only able to really show us the spread of light and if the shot as a whole is over/under exposed. It can't easily pick out the areas of the shot (barring the overexposed blinkies) where a little more/less light is desirable - we can guess from the preview image - but then we are again acting blind without light stop info - we can't tell that we need 1 stop more light or half a stop or a quarter stop less etc...