Is the cameras (D3200) exposure meter always right?

[snapsnap1973]

I was testing my camera and taking landscape pics out a 5th story window and the meter told me that the scene was 0 on the viewfinder meter. I took the pic and it came out washed out. So I changed the exposure speed (I think) and made the lines appear on the negative side of the meter (maybe 4 bars in). The picture came out closer to the colors I was seeing. It was sunny out and a beautiful day by the way amd I had the WB set to sunny.

Is there a difference to shooting out of a window and having the WB on SUNNY and being outside in the light and setting it to SUNNY and taking the same scenery?

Are the in camera exposure meters always correct? I'm guessing not.

 

[tirediron]

No, they're not. There are a number of factors, including the lighting in the scene, the background, the mode your camera is in, the metering mode you've selected, etc, etc. Your camera manual and this site will explain it more clearly. Once you understand more clearly how your camera actually looks at and measures light, you will find it's easy to get the correct exposure.

 

[Tinderbox (UK)]

Nikon metering is an complicated process and it gets it right a lot of the time, but it can be fooled.

Below is how basic Nikon matrix metering works thanks to Ken Rockwell, whether this is still valid i don't know, if not provide a update.

Nikon Matrix Metering from KenRockwell.com

John.

 

[480sparky]

......Are the in camera exposure meters always correct?...........

No.

 

[dennybeall]

The metering is always right, BUT what it's right about depends on the settings you give it to work with. For example, If you have a center weighted setting and the center is a dark area then the bright areas will be washed out. I you point at a bright area then that will be right but a darker area will be underexposed. So yes, the camera is right but often the photographer is not.
Sometimes all of an area can't be right due to the range of light so you have to take two or more pictures and put them together.......

 

[Gary A.]

The metering is always right, BUT what it's right about depends on the settings you give it to work with. For example, If you have a center weighted setting and the center is a dark area then the bright areas will be washed out. I you point at a bright area then that will be right but a darker area will be underexposed. So yes, the camera is right but often the photographer is not.
Sometimes all of an area can't be right due to the range of light so you have to take two or more pictures and put them together.......

Yes, the meter is always right ... but you have to learn and understand what right means to the meter. The meter reads what the meter reads and very often what is right for the meter isn't right for the image at hand.

 

[JoeW]

The metering is always right, BUT what it's right about depends on the settings you give it to work with. For example, If you have a center weighted setting and the center is a dark area then the bright areas will be washed out. I you point at a bright area then that will be right but a darker area will be underexposed. So yes, the camera is right but often the photographer is not.
Sometimes all of an area can't be right due to the range of light so you have to take two or more pictures and put them together.......

Yes, the meter is always right ... but you have to learn and understand what right means to the meter. The meter reads what the meter reads and very often what is right for the meter isn't right for the image at hand.

Yep!

What the camera sees and what your eye/brain sees are NOT the same. The camera attempts to replicate it. But part of being a good photographer is learning to see how the camera sees and then manipulating the camera to create the image you want. That's why most DSLRs have exposure compensation.

 

[Tinderbox (UK)]

That`s why i prefer mirowless camera`s with an evf , you can see at least the exposure you are going to get, and some idea of the focus point and depth of field, then adjust the camera to what you want if it`s got it wrong, much easier than taking the photo and then checking if you got it right on the lcd or not if you dont want to be accused of chimping.

John.

 

[pgriz]

The meter gives you a reading. Whether it is the right reading for your situation depends on what you, the photographer, is trying to do. Which is why many cameras have different metering modes that allow you to get the camera to see the parts that are relevant to YOUR image. In many situations I would already know from experience what the approximate exposure "should" be. I also check using a hand-held meter to either validate or correct my impressions of the amount of light available. And the in-camera meter provides additional information which can guide my exposure choices. For instance, I would usually spot-meter the highlights and shadows to determine my scene dynamic range, in addition to knowing how much ambient I'm getting.

 

[pgriz]

That`s why i prefer mirowless camera`s with an evf , you can see at least the exposure you are going to get, and some idea of the focus point and depth of field, then adjust the camera to what you want if it`s got it wrong, much easier than taking the photo and then checking if you got it right on the lcd or not if you dont want to be accused of chimping.

John.

Well, there's "chimping" and there's using the tools available to you. On my T1i, I've installed the Magic Lantern firmware, and that allows me to see a dynamic histogram (and a few other tools) on the LCD. It is very useful to see pattern ahead of time, including the places where you may be either blowing or blocking the detail. Once you've got the "right" exposure for what you're trying to do, and if the light doesn't change, you don't need to be constantly checking the LCD to see if you got the shot.

 

[TCampbell]

It helps to understand HOW the meter works in the camera.

You can buy an external hand-held light meter. These are sometimes referred to as "incident" meters because to use such a meter, you hold the meter at your subject's location (not at your camera's location) and it measures the amount of light which lands on the meter (which would presumably be the same amount of light that would land on your subject and that's why you hold it at the subject's location).

The meter in your camera is sometimes referred to as a "reflected" meter because it measures the amount which lands on your subject AND THEN REFLECTS off the subject and ultimately into your camera.

When you think about that, immediately you might become suspicious that some subjects reflect more light than others. If I'm metering the light by pointing my camera at a mostly flat, black, non-reflective surface... my meter isn't going to register very much light. If, on the other hand, I point my camera at a very bright, white, highly-reflective surface... my meter will register an abundance of light. And this would result in two very different meter readings EVEN if both subjects were in identical lighting conditions. The hand-held meter is much more accurate... but may sometimes be impractical (if you're shooting a landscape of some mountains which are miles away, you cannot easily walk all the way back to those mountains to hold the meter up in front of the slopes... then walk all the way back to your camera. The light would have changed by the time you finished all that walking. Reflected meters are certainly far more convenient, but you need to be aware that they can be fooled... particularly if your subject is either especially reflective or especially non-reflective.

If you notice your scene is dominated by things which are likely to fool the meter (mostly black scene or a mostly white scene) then you might want to either (a) reduce the metering area to a "spot" (don't use full matrix metering) and then select an element which is more of a mid-tone reflectivity, or (b) if using any semi-auto mode (Program, Aperture, or Shutter priority modes) then you might want to dial in some exposure compensation. If shooting in manual, you may want to adjust exposure to something other than the "0" point in the middle of your meter (the camera will usually try to bring up dark subjects so you may want to dial the exposure compensation to a negative value. It will try to underexpose white subjects so you may want to dial the exposure compensation to a positive value.)

 

[KmH]

DSLR camera light meters are calibrated based on the valid assumption the average scene has a range of colors and an average reflectance of 12% to 18% medium gray.

When a scene has more or less average reflectance than that 12% to 18% then the meter does not accurately meter the scene regardless the meter mode used.
More reflectance in the scene makes the meter show less exposure than is needed.
A common metering problem is a scene of a snow covered field. With all that reflective and white snow will usually require you to add 2/3 to 1 stop (EV) of exposure more than what the meter indicates.
You can do that using the cameras Exposure Compensation (EC) feature. See page 63 of your D3200 Reference Manual.

Here is some more info on when and how to use EC.
EV Compensation Explained - Digital Photography School

It is worth noting that mass produced DSLR cameras have some variation from camera to camera, particularly at the consumer grade, entry-level end of the product line.
Your D3200 may under or overexpose every shot a bit compared to another D3200.
Consequently, you may want to always have some amount of EC set to compensate for that innate under or over exposure.