How to deal with this spot metering issue

[batmura]

Whenever I use spot metering to take a reading from the sky, my subject is underexposed and when I take a ,eter reading from my subject, the highlights are always blown out. What am I doing wrong? It seems I don't quite understand the use of this mode, so if you could explain when and how you use spot metering I wold appreiate it.

 

[SCraig]

You have to decide which is your subject and meter for that. The subject is what needs the proper exposure, and shots like that frequently exceed the dynamic range of a camera.

You alternatives are to meter for the sky and use flash to properly light the subject, or take multiple shots and combine them with HDR.

 

[Derrel]

Stop using spot metering. Unless one is a VERY serious, fastidious, near-expert user, spot metering can easily lead to a number of very serious exposure problems. ANd no, I am not kidding or teasing, in any fashion or manner. I mean this 100% sincerely.

You do not mention what camera you are using. Modern Nikons, and a few of the very-newest Canon cameras, can read BOTH reflectivity AND color of subjects, and are NOT color-blind and "dumb", like older light metering systems. SOme people have tried to blend the old "roll-film modified Zone System concepts" of adding or subtracting exposure, AS IF they were using an old, "dumb" (dumb as in color-blind) 1960's era spot meter calibrated to 12% to 18% gray. And guess what? They have a lot of problems.

I honestly think that spot metering leads to more problems than solutions, unless the user is an expert photographer, and is intimately "dialed in" to EXACTLY how his camera works, with his entire system of metering, processing, and his own equipment set-up.

 

[tirediron]

Spot metering determines exposure based on a very small (<5 degree) beam based on either the centre of the viewfinder or the selected focusing point (depending on camera model & mode). Its purpose is to make an exposure calculation based on a very small portion of the scene. For instance, if you have a backlit person who takes up a relatively small percentage of the scene, but you want to have their face exposed, then you could spot meter that and it would be correctly exposed; the rest of the scene wouldn't be though.

 

[TCampbell]

If you _only_ care about one thing in the image, then you may be able to spot meter it and ignore everything else. But that's not the common case.

When you're outdoors doing environmental images and you're spot metering, you'll want to take more than one sample. The idea is to find the "range" necessary to get a good exposure.

If you find the brightest thing in the image (maybe some white cloud in the sky) and then the darkest thing in the image (probably something dark hiding in the shadows.) This will give you the range necessary to get the entire exposure. You'll need to find the middle exposure and as long as the range of the scene doesn't exceed the dynamic range of your camera, you'll be fine.

There are limits to this. During the day, never try to "meter" the sun as your bright point. It doesn't matter what exposure you set... the sun will always be too bright even if the rest of the exposure is black.

If you're taking photos in mid-day sun but your subject is in shadows, your camera may not be able to deal with the dynamic range necessary for the shot. You'll need a new strategy... either re-frame your shot so that the sunlit sky background isn't in the frame (so now you don't need all that dynamic range) -- or use reflectors or daytime fill flash to bring up the shadows so that they're not so many stops below the exposure of the sky.

If I shoot, say, a concert event which would often have a very dark (black) background... I might spot meter off the performer's face. This is going to clip the backgrounds and leave them completely black... but that's ok because I want them black anyway. There's a case when spot metering just one thing works.

 

[elementgs]

This topic is so frustrating to me. It seems like every time I "learn" something I have to unlearn it and learn all new techniques. I've also been having trouble with spot metering and I'm sure this is why... I just get really dull results with matrix metering on my D3200 and I just don't feel like center weighted is appropriate for most pictures... I move the spot around all over the place and all that but it's causing problems, a lot of the same problems mentioned above.

I really need to find a mentor and bounce a bunch of thoughts off him/her... I feel like I'm wasting my time right now.

 

[Light Guru]

Whenever I use spot metering to take a reading from the sky, my subject is underexposed and when I take a ,eter reading from my subject, the highlights are always blown out. What am I doing wrong?

Your not doing anything wrong.

Thats how spot metering works if your subject and sky are vary different in brightness.

There are several ways to approach a situation like that. Exposure blending, and HDR are the most common.

 

[Robin_Usagani]

That's not an issue. That is exactly what the camera is supposed to do. You have to meter somewhere in the middle. If you want blue sky and good exposure of the subject, than you need to put the sun behind you. If you put the sun behind the subject, then you need to add flash.

 

[Light Guru]

Stop using spot metering. Unless one is a VERY serious, fastidious, near-expert user, spot metering can easily lead to a number of very serious exposure problems. ANd no, I am not kidding or teasing, in any fashion or manner. I mean this 100% sincerely.

I disagree using the spot meter is extremely helpful in determining how big a difference there is between your highlights and shadows. Im not talking about using the spot meter to expose your photos I talking about you using the spot meter to read the scene in front of you.

I honestly think that spot metering leads to more problems than solutions, unless the user is an expert photographer, and is intimately "dialed in" to EXACTLY how his camera works, with his entire system of metering, processing, and his own equipment set-up.

Using a spot meter is easy, and you don't have to be an expert photographer to use it, you just need to be a thinking photographer who wants to better analyze the scene in front of them. Knowing that your subject and sky are 4 stops apart vs 10 stops 8 stops apart is extremely useful information.

 

[Trever1t]

I use spot metering 100% of the time shooting portraiture.

Any metering method is only as good as the user. The OP just doesn't have the education or experience to yet comprehend why when metering on a bright subject the darker subject ends up in shadows. This is exposure 101 and has nothing to do with metering type used.

 

[shaylou]

I'm not going to read through all these threads but did anyone find out why is he using spot metering. Yes it has its uses but if he is asking how it works he obviously doesn't understand it's uses.

Simply stop using it and study metering would be my advise.