How to use your built in Flash in the sun

[Robin Usagani]

Perhaps someone can explain to me why my spot metering is way off LOL. My intetion was to post pictures SOOC. I pointed my spot metering to the dark sculpture. Perhaps I pointed it at the shiny area on the sculpture. But how about when I pointed it to the sky, why is that off? My exposure compensation is at 0 and so is my flash compensation.

 

[Derrel]

Perhaps someone can explain to me why my spot metering is way off LOL. My intetion was to post pictures SOOC. I pointed my spot metering to the dark sculpture. Perhaps I pointed it at the shiny area on the sculpture. But how about when I pointed it to the sky, why is that off? My exposure compensation is at 0 and so is my flash compensation.

Your camera has color-blind light metering. It has absolutely zero idea of what the color of anything is. It cannot tell blue sky from a large expanse of the Black Forest or a large expanse of a white, sandy beach, a gray sandy beach, or that rare black sandy beach over in Hawaii. With a dumb, color-blind meter the user must "interpret" the correct exposure needed, by adjusting the actual exposure used...less exposure for dark subjects, so they come out "dark", and more exposure for white objects so they come out "bright".

Why do you think I keep harping on Canon's need to get color-aware light metering in consumer cameras????????

 

[Robin Usagani]

so what line of canon cameras will have color=aware light metering? When I take family photos I do exactly what I did on this tutorial.. but I look at the preview and adjust the exposure. So you are telling me Nikon consumer cameras have this color-aware metering? AWWWWWW Darn it!

 

[MohaimenK]

Look Kundalini, don't care, if I'm not in a convo keep me out of it. Plain and simple. I hope that's not too hard to understand on your end? Thanks bud!

 

[kundalini]

not......gonna.....bite

no wait...... can't stand it..... please wait......








CHOMP!

Who the phuque are you?

I'm certainly not your bud now.

Is that too hard for YOU to understand?

 

[Overread]

I'm going to leave the exposure in the camera part well alone for the moment as I feel that with spot metering whilst it should have been better (yes even for a regular canon nonecolour aware meter) it can be easily fooled by being pointed at bright reflective points.

One thing I will recommend is learning to read the histogram when you get a shot out of the camera - this can help a lot when reviewing shots - in this case it might have shown that you had a larger amount of darker space in the shot that could be brighter (ie your darker shadowed main subject).

OK.. I fixed it. Looking at the image I posted the first time on a bigger screen, it was really not that bad. The sky just made you believe it was very dark. But anyway.. i adjusted the exposure so it will make more sense.

One factor that might be important here is your screen compared to kundalinis and others. IF you are using an LCD screen and you're not calibrating it with a hardware based calibrator (like a spyder 3) then chances are your backlight is set very bright (by default most LCDs are very bright). This can be a pain when editing as it means you're viewing you shots far brighter than a calibrated screen will show them (or a CRT for that matter).
Thus you might see the shot as decently bright whilst those of us with calibrated screens see a far darker overall brightness.

 

[kundalini]

Thus you might see the shot as decently bright whilst those of us with calibrated screens see a far darker overall brightness.

Excellent point, as usual, Overread. Hadn't considered that myself. I just assumed everyone runs a calibrated monitor.

 

[Derrel]

so what line of canon cameras will have color=aware light metering? When I take family photos I do exactly what I did on this tutorial.. but I look at the preview and adjust the exposure. So you are telling me Nikon consumer cameras have this color-aware metering? AWWWWWW Darn it!

Yes, Nikon incorporates color-aware metering in ALL their cameras, from consumer, to mid-level, to flagship. They *invented* the technology. Earlier, in the 1980's they invented Matrix Metering. Most reently, they invented a new addition to 3-D Color Matrix metering, which has been around since 1996, with the "Scene Recognition System" or SRS, found in their higher-level cameras. The following articles reference the 420-pixel and 1,005 pixel color-measuring arrays used in Nikons. The newest D7000 has a brand-new AF and metering module that measures 2,016 RGB color values,and uses the color information to help in focus tracking. Canon is now moving toward implementing its own color-aware light metering system, which was developed after Canon figured out a way around Nikon's IP, by developing a 4-color system that measures Red,Green, Blue, and YELLOW-green, which is, surprise,surprise, a new,patentable idea.

As I understand it, the Japanese have a special world for yellow-green, and consider it to be sort of its own color...maybe in the same way they recognize the taste of "umami", which Westerners do not categorize. My understanding is that the color of green, springtime shoots and buds is the closest way we westerners can think of yellow-green in the Japanese sense.

3D Color Matrix Metering II from Nikon

3D Color Matrix Metering evaluates multiple segments of a scene to determine the best exposure by essentially splitting the scene into sections, evaluating either 420-segments or 1,005 segments, depending on the Nikon D-SLR in use.
The 3D Color Matrix Meter II takes into account the scene's contrast and brightness, the subject's distance (via a D- or G-type NIKKOR lens), the color of the subject within the scene and RGB color values in every section of the scene. 3D Color Matrix Metering II also uses special exposure-evaluation algorithms, optimized for digital imaging, that detect highlight areas. The meter then accesses a database of over 30,000 actual images to determine the best exposure for the scene. Once the camera receives the scene data, its powerful microcomputer and the database work together to provide the finest automatic exposure control available.

Nikon | Imaging Products | Scene Recognition System



The D3 and D300 are equipped with the Scene Recognition System, which has been attracting much interest since its announcement to the media. First of all, please tell us about the system.

“Technically, the Scene Recognition System uses color, brightness and other information obtained from the 1,005-pixel RGB sensor to analyze the subject prior to capture and applies the results to achieving greater accuracy in AF (autofocus), AE (auto exposure), and AWB (auto white balance) control. The 1,005-pixel RGB sensor that was first introduced in the F5 has been improved in the area of exposure accuracy, mainly as a light meter. By adding a diffraction grating between the prism and the lens for light metering, the 1,005-pixel RGB sensor is able to detect the color and brightness of the subject more accurately, significantly improving accuracy in AE and AWB. AF benefits as well, because the sensor even recognizes changes of the subject’s position within the viewfinder.”

About a year ago, I counseled a new Texas resident and new Nikon D300 owner who was using his camera to do the modified Zone System "plus and minus" exposure placements using in-camera readings, which were ALREADY color-aware and ADJUSTED to give the "right" exposure to items he was metering. He was having absolute fits,and bracketing like hell,as he said....unaware that the readings he got were already adjusted, based on the RGB color and reflectance values the D300 was giving him. He was trying to out-smart a smart camera, by acting and adjusting his exposure readings as if his new Nikon had a dumb, color-blind meter inside of it.

People seem to get bent out of shape about this topic, but you know, it's a matter of learning HOW your camera actually operates. For people with old-school cameras where the light meter is calibrated in terms of an 18% reflected light value as baseline, you need to meter and run the camera entirely,entirely differently than if you have a "smart" light meter and or flash meter (like all Nikons have, or the Canon 7D now has) than if you have an old-school light meter like a Sekonic or Minolta or Pentax spot meter...

I find it ironic that people keep re-posting old,outdated advice from a certain book that IGNORES the color-aware light metering Nikon is doing, and suggests that people do the absolute wrong things,metering wise. The premise that the first series of three photos were "well-exposed" is one I do not agree with,at all...

Learning when to under-expose or over-expose or expose dead-on with the in-camera light meter, or when the meter will be fooled, is part of learning your own equipment. Personally, I think Canon has a huge way to go in terms of light metering proficiency,since cameras today do not shoot negative AND positive film, but everything is all positive, all the time, and the exposure tendencies for those two are reversed...