Spot meter question

[MrsLittle]

When doing portraits, do you spot meter? If so, do you meter off the darkest person's face or lightest?
I keep telling myself that I'm gonna remember to try out spot metering instead of Matrix, but when I get out and start taking photos I completely forget.

 

[KmH]

Yes, I spot metered when I did portraits.
I usually metered 6 or so spots before I decided what I wanted to do exposure wise.

On faces I generally metered the highlights on the faces.

 

[MrsLittle]

Thanks Keith. So in other words, meter for the lightest parts of the face.

 

[cgipson1]

Average light caucasian skin tones are around one stop brighter than 18% gray... which is what most gray cards are. (Most cameras now meter about 12% gray, rather than the older 18% gray, as most scenes actually have a 12% reflectivity value). Usually if metering a face.. I try to overexpose about a 1/2 to one stop. Check histogram.. correct if needed.

You may find this interesting... old thread http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/film-discussion-q/88206-does-18-cut-skin-tone.html

 

[kundalini]

I tend to use a hand held light meter, but if not available, I will spot meter for the brightest spot on the subjects face.

 

[KmH]

Yep! I used a hand meter too, for metering incident and strobed lighting.

For the OP, the light meter in the camera can only measure reflected light.

 

[MrsLittle]

I will just fiddle around with it a bit until I get the right exposure. I just really hate blown out skies, but unless I use a strobe then it most likely is going to be there.

 

[scorpion_tyr]

I will just fiddle around with it a bit until I get the right exposure. I just really hate blown out skies, but unless I use a strobe then it most likely is going to be there.

Yep... and if you spot meter on someone's face, it's really going to be there. That's why I almost always use a flash outdoors. If it's just one person, and your close enough, the pop up flash on your camera will do the trick just fine.