metering the sky at Apeture 2.8 and recompose

Honestly.. i have no idea how to calculate stuff, I just know What Aperture does and i know the basic settings to put it at e.g. sunny sky, f16 with ISO 100 at shutter 1/125 or if im on iso 200 f16 shutter 1/250
and other basics i can roughly guess the needed aperture, I personally use Aperture for DOF more than calculating light (for just now) but reading up on exposure...
 
Exactly. I only ever calculate things when i'm sitting here posting on this forum. Every other time it's 3 stops ok that's 9 clicks on the wheel.

Yeah. Or when the exposure is super long, but then it's a piece of cake to keep multiplying by 2.


Yes, that is what I usually do as well.
 
My two cents

1) Sky (back towards the sun) is often the brightest dominating thing in a subject that can easily throw off simple metering that was common in older film cameras. The results are similar to a handheld ambient meter in broad daylight.
2) It doesn't matter what you meter off. Just as long as you adjust exposure placing the reading in the appropriate place within the dynamic range.

I do something similar but I meter off palm of my hand pointed up at the sky and adjust 1 stop. Others have told me that metering the sky (or grey card of course) provides a more consistent readings but old habits die hard. My camera doesn't have complex metering.. lending itself to metering once-in-a-while.
 
I wonder: does anyone else just count the number of notches you travel on the dial, and then go the other way with the other setting, ignoring calculating stops altogether? Works a heck of a lot faster with me (I mean, I guestimate first where my shutter speed or aperture is going to land, and adjust ISO to compensate if either goes somewhere I don't want, but still).

Your post reminds me of this discussion we had recently:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photographic-discussions/170672-aperture-rings-gone-good.html

It is exactly why I miss aperture rings on lenses... Left hand == aperture, Right hand == shutter.
 
I didn't quite hear an explanation from the video guy of how metering the sky creates an evenly exposed image. I'm just at the beginning of studying light and metering, but doesn't this idea only work when your sky/foreground are of similar brightness? Otherwise, if you metered for the sky and took your composed shot, wouldn't the foreground be underexposed?

I was out taking some photos of wheat fields being harvested, and the only thing I could think to do was to point down and meter the foreground so I get that correctly exposed, hold AE-L, compose my shot by including more of the sky, take the shot (metered for foreground, sky blown out), and then after taking that shot, letting go of AE-L to quickly re-meter for the sky(which was already in the position to be metered) and take another shot. Then I end up with a shot metered for foreground, and a shot metered for the sky, and I would have to blend the two in PS.

Am I missing something major here?
 
Was it after sunset like in the video?

Yeah, but now that you mention it, I only waited until just as soon as the sun fully vanished behind the ridge rather than 10-20 minutes after the sun disappeared.

So is that his main point, that typically from 20-26 minutes after sundown the light will be perfect so you can meter from the sky and have a balanced sky/foreground?
 
So is that his main point, that typically from 20-26 minutes after sundown the light will be perfect so you can meter from the sky and have a balanced sky/foreground?

Yup. That's his point. That and it has nice pwetty colours.
 
Was it after sunset like in the video?

Yeah, but now that you mention it, I only waited until just as soon as the sun fully vanished behind the ridge rather than 10-20 minutes after the sun disappeared.

So is that his main point, that typically from 20-26 minutes after sundown the light will be perfect so you can meter from the sky and have a balanced sky/foreground?
In photography, the devil is in the details.

The difference between a pro shooter and an amateur shooter is the pro monitors 20 details per image the amateur never considers.
 
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Nikon users:
Left hand zoom
Right thumb shutter
Right 2nd finger aperture
Right 1st finger shutter button

Right eye glued to the eye piece and the stars align... lol
 
Left hand, zoom/focus
Right hand, aperture/shutter

More like

Left hand zoom in AF
and
Right hand aperture in Av
or
Right hand shutter in Tv

Nikon users:
Left hand zoom
Right thumb shutter
Right 2nd finger aperture
Right 1st finger shutter button

Right eye glued to the eye piece and the stars align... lol

OR...

Left hand, hold the camera.
Right hand, everything else.

----------

I don't use very many zooms, so "zoom" is rarely an option for me (with my hands anyway).

When I use manual focus (rarely), I would do that with the left hand.
 

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