New type of metering?

[unpopular]

I mean, even if you could use spot meter, it wouldn't be good enough. If this type of metering does exist, you could ETTR as much as possible to get the least noise without blowing out the highlight and will also be a good starting point for people shooting ISOless.

I am not sure what "shooting isoless" means, but I agree with Josh. What you're talking about is pretty basic zone system stuff that has been around for the last 75 years.

 

[Rephargotohp]

I've measured fo highlight and then gone 2 under and have gotten a correct highlight exposure (if that is really what is critical to the image) If you are shooting portraits the highlight is not critical to the image, the skin tone exposure is

While that is true, I still think it is a good idea to prevent blown specular hilight whenever possible.

I also don't quite understand. If you spot meter off the hilights, this would place them at middle grey? Are you using an evaluative mode?

Not sure if you are asking me but I will answer. I don' t think any camara has a combination of spot and evaluative...so no I wasn't.

and it depends what your "Highlight" is.people assume the highight would be white and it may not be . The "brightest" area of a scene may not be white so it may not be made gray if it already is.

In the instance I was refering to was a night shot that the highlight was the subject but it was surrounded by black so even with spot metering, the black influenced the spot metering. Using histograms i could see when the highlight got to where I needed and it was 2 stops below what I spot measured. But that is a highly special sitiuation

 

[unpopular]

I've measured fo highlight and then gone 2 under and have gotten a correct highlight exposure (if that is really what is critical to the image) If you are shooting portraits the highlight is not critical to the image, the skin tone exposure is

While that is true, I still think it is a good idea to prevent blown specular hilight whenever possible.

I also don't quite understand. If you spot meter off the hilights, this would place them at middle grey? Are you using an evaluative mode?

Spot metering covers quite a large area, so you are getting an average of the entire area, not just the brightest area, so you might still get blown out highlights.

Not really, and on the occasion that I do I just drop back one third stop. But typically this is because I misread the scene and chose the wrong place to meter entirely.

I don't know how large my spot is off hand, but usually they're around 1% and this issue would exist no matter how the data is interpreted.

 

[unpopular]

Not sure if you are asking me but I will answer. I don' t think any camara has a combination of sopt and evaluative...so no I wasn't.

All evaluative modes are spot, it's a matter of having a lot of spots to evaluate.

and it depends what your "Highlight" is.people assume the highight would be white and it may not be . The "brightest" area of a scenemay not be white so it may not be made gray if it already is.

This is not true. If your brightest region is middle grey and you provide +5ev, it will be blown white. Anything -1ev from your "middle grey" brightest region would be very bright with little to no detail, -2ev bright with detail.

The meter doesn't know anything about the scene, and all that the evaluation knows is the relative brightness of various points as they compare to a predetermined calibrated value: middle grey. So if your brightest point is truely middle grey it will render correctly if exposed while "zero'd in" however, if your brightest region is three stops brighter than middle grey either you or your camera's computer will have to expose at three stops greater than how it's metered.

In the instance I was refering to was a night shot that the highlight was the subject but it was surrounded by black so even with spot metering, the balck influenced the spot metering

Unless your hilights were itsy bitsy, you were not in spot mode. (see above)

 

[Josh66]

LOL... If your "highlight" is middle grey, you probably shouldn't go around calling it the highlight... A black background would not influence the meter reading on your subject, assuming your subject was not an insect or something.

IMO, you just need to read up on the zone system, and maybe read up on spot metering... I'm not trying to sound like a dick or anything (and yet I realize that I probably do), but this is pretty basic stuff...

 

[EchoingWhisper]

But if camera manufacturers made this, it would save all the fuss, and give us even better noise performance.

 

[unpopular]

LOL... If your "highlight" is middle grey, you probably shouldn't go around calling it the highlight

cut him a little slack, understanding that the brightest point in a scene may not be white is huge. The next step though is understanding that you're not confined to what is actually in the scene and that you have choices regarding how the scene is rendered based on exposure.


There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about what a meter is and what it does. A reflective meter does not provide information about "proper" exposure, but rather how much light is reflecting off the object compared to a known standard.

 

[Josh66]

But if camera manufacturers made this, it would save all the fuss, and give us even better noise performance.

I still don't know what "new" feature it is that you are talking about... Auto mode?

Everything you're talking about already exists.

 

[unpopular]

But if camera manufacturers made this, it would save all the fuss, and give us even better noise performance.

My Starlight was an awesome meter, I sold it though because I never actually used it once I stopped using film. I agree that having a meter that was "latitude sensitive" would be great, but it's just not as essential as you are making it out to be. Figure out what your camera's latitude is, meter off the hilights and increase exposure to the outer limits of what it can record. You'll never have blown hilights ever again and very seldom plugged shadows while maximizing SNR.

 

[Josh66]

To me, it sounds like you want HDR with one press of a button... Like you want to just press the button and have everything come out perfect. Am I wrong?

 

[unpopular]

To me, it sounds like you want HDR with one press of a button...

^^ you should see my RAW files

Nine out of ten times HDR is totally not necessary.

 

[Josh66]

To me, it sounds like you want HDR with one press of a button...

^^ you should see my RAW files

Nine out of ten times HDR is totally not necessary.

That wasn't directed at you, but I know what you mean. There is more range in one frame than most people think. Also, you don't always want everything to be 'perfect'.

It just sounded like the OP wanted a metering mode that would produce HDR-like results every time.

 

[Rephargotohp]

LOL... If your "highlight" is middle grey, you probably shouldn't go around calling it the highlight... A black background would not influence the meter reading on your subject, assuming your subject was not an insect or something.

IMO, you just need to read up on the zone system, and maybe read up on spot metering... I'm not trying to sound like a dick or anything (and yet I realize that I probably do), but this is pretty basic stuff...

Well you do sound like a dick but I'll let that go ...and now I will expain so that you will no longer be a dick

here is the typical situation that everyone here seem to fall into. Yhey are shooting portraits outdoors with a subject that is backlit. It's beyond the dynamic range of the camera but they take it anyway...then they complain about the "highlight" are blown out.

That is NOT what has happened. The sky behind them is blue which is just slighly above middle gray. But now it looks white (because they exposed for their subject) and they complain. What they really have done is Blown out midones of the sky and made them white.
That is what I am refering to

and if you have never shot concerts you wouldn't understand the influence of a lot of shadow area on metering, even spot.

OK,Mr Dick?


and I say that just kidding, I know you're not a dick...well..maybe

 

[unpopular]

I knew it wasn't.

I think the OP just wants a meter that will indicate how many stops over exposed the hilights are, perhaps according to an evaluation. He wants to press the shutter half-way and immediately see that he's n-stops over exposed on the brightest region at a specific exposure compensation so that he can stop down by that readout. It's an alright idea, I suppose.

 

[unpopular]

here is the typical situation that everyone here seem to fall into. Yhey are shooting portraits outdoors with a subject that is backlit. It's beyond the dynamic range of the camera but they take it anyway...then they complain about the "highlight" are blown out.

Well, certainly you have to make compromises when the situation is beyond latitude, that was always the case and is kind of what the skill in photography is about.

and if you have never shot concerts you wouldn't understand the influence of a lot of shadow area on metering, even spot.

no. this just isn't true, unless you spot meter off a teeny tiny portion of the frame. I don't know what is going on with your spot metering, but this is just not the way spot metering works. Only if your spot is partially on the object which you are metering will it be influenced by some other region.