Spot Metering Automatic Vs. Manual

[FLCKeats]

Thanks for all your responses.

I thought as much, but oddly, when someone throws out something that obscure, I have to check.

I felt like I was missing some secret of photography. I know now, I'm not.

 

[Derrel]

Be careful if you put a camera into SPOT metering mode and start shooting in Av or Tv mode...it can lead to wild exposure fluctuations, and if you're not paying attention to the rear LCD, and are just blazing away, it's possible to get huge deviations in the exposures from scene to scene, or even shot to shot, just based on whatever comes to rest in the center of the viewfinder, where most spot meters meter ambient light--smack dab in the center of the finder.

I really see little use for spot metering in 2017 on d-slrs; you've got a histogram and blinkies and INSTANT, on-the-scene "developing" nowadays...it's easy to take a conventional center-weighted reading, or a matrix meter reading, shoot a shot, then review it, and see how well the exposure turned out.

Spot metering is fine for experienced shooters, but again, it's got some very serious consequences if it is used in a slapdash or forgetful way! Believe me--I've screwed up in spot metering mode, in the way I am cautioning against, and it can be UGLY!

Spot metering is really for "experts" and "serious" shooters who are paying very close attention,all the time. If you think you're in CW or Matrix in AV or TV modes, but are actually in spot metering, oh man, it can be horrible to see wild exposure swings of 3,4,5,6 stops!

 

[jcdeboever]

Be careful if you put a camera into SPOT metering mode and start shooting in Av or Tv mode...it can lead to wild exposure fluctuations, and if you're not paying attention to the rear LCD, and are just blazing away, it's possible to get huge deviations in the exposures from scene to scene, or even shot to shot, just based on whatever comes to rest in the center of the viewfinder, where most spot meters meter ambient light--smack dab in the center of the finder.

I really see little use for spot metering in 2017 on d-slrs; you've got a histogram and blinkies and INSTANT, on-the-scene "developing" nowadays...it's easy to take a conventional center-weighted reading, or a matrix meter reading, shoot a shot, then review it, and see how well the exposure turned out.

Spot metering is fine for experienced shooters, but again, it's got some very serious consequences if it is used in a slapdash or forgetful way! Believe me--I've screwed up in spot metering mode, in the way I am cautioning against, and it can be UGLY!

Spot metering is really for "experts" and "serious" shooters who are paying very close attention,all the time. If you think you're in CW or Matrix in AV or TV modes, but are actually in spot metering, oh man, it can be horrible to see wild exposure swings of 3,4,5,6 stops!

I agree for the most part. I found this out because I shoot flowers at SPOT nearly 50% of the time but forgot to check it and missed some shots when not thinking it all the way through. I think using spot and AE-L is very useful in difficult visualizations / situations. Matrix seems more like auto mode to me and seems to be all on or all off, never could quite figure out where to use it with 100% confidence, seems to work well indoors and landscapes. The mentor I worked with for a short time once said, "we were taking amazing images, long before spot and matrix came along and said to be careful what you read on the subject." He also said it's easy to get trapped in technology, the two biggest mistakes he read on the internet were ISO and metering. He said ISO is gain or signal to noise ratio, not sensor light sensitivity, and spot metering is a wonderful tool. I have never heard many people talk or write about ISO in-variance, ISO gain, signal to noise ratio, AE-L type stuff. Once he told me about that, now I know what to look up.

 

[astroNikon]

Her explanation was that: "You only use spot-metering on automatic so that when you meter on the 'spot' you want, the automatic exposure compensates and corrects the rest of the image, as where on manual, you have to go in and fix everything else once that one spot is correctly metered."

I'll also jump on the bandwagon that your friend is whackoo.

Example: Go take a photo in any exposure mode in spot metering mode of the inside of a dark pipe on a bright day from a good distance. What happens to the rest of the image if the dark pipe is properly exposed? Then expand the metering area and see how the scene changes.

Such a simple "rule/statement" shows a lack of understanding of the metering modes. You have to use the correct metering mode for the scene/situation. Not because of a specific Exposure Mode.

 

[tokaji michael]

I think that spot metering is just ok, so you always know where is the camera metering , i always use spot metering and sometimes partial metering

 

[Gary A.]

I use Spot and Manual 99% of the time.

 

[table1349]

I use Spot and Manual 99% of the time.

Well obviously you need to learn something about being a real photographer.

You should probably take lessons from this guy since he lives in your area I do believe. He's pretty good in my opinion.

 

[Ysarex]

I just hold my finger up in the light -- works every time.

Joe

 

[vintagesnaps]

If she ran a camera store (edit - worked at a store... kind of different) and this is what she thinks works, so be it, maybe it works for her. Sometimes I think people can get into using a particular technique that they swear by but isn't necessarily the only/best way. Good thing you took the advice with a big grain of salt.

 

[Derrel]

I just hold my finger up in the light -- works every time.

Joe

View attachment 137305

But ya' hafta' lick the finger first, to tell what direction the wind is coming from, right? Speaking of fingers, and such...who remembers using the camera's built-in light meter to read a close-up meter reading of your palm ()without casting a shadow on the open palm!), and the opening up the lens one stop, or slowing the indicated shutter speed down by one EV value? I'm sure there are a few older folks here who recall this era.

Measuring the light falling on the open palm from close-up is an old method to sort of simulate an incident light meter reading, and was popular for about two decades (or more) before it fell out of common use. When I started, I often did that: I metered my left palm, and opened up one f/stop, and called that the "incident" light reading value. And no, I am not kidding about this. I had a GE light meter, and then a Weston Master II meter in that era.

 

[jcdeboever]

I use Spot and Manual 99% of the time.

You have too, you carry around 14 flipping cameras per shoot.

 

[TCampbell]

I see two areas where your friend is confused.

I'll take the second one first...

"exposure compensation" is something you can dial in for any of the creative modes *except* manual mode. So if you shoot aperture priority, shutter priority, or program mode... and lets say for example that you want to dial back exposure compensation to -1 stop. You would do that in any of the semi-automatic modes. In manual mode, you'd adjust the exposure so the digital needle in your viewfinder shows you're a stop below the zero or center point.

HOWEVER... "exposure compensation" (EC) can be dialed into Program, Aperture, or Shutter priority regardless of which metering mode you chose (you can dial in EC in spot metering, evaluative/matrix metering, etc.) EC isn't limited to just using 'spot' metering with 'automatic' mode (usually fully automatic mode won't let you make adjustments, but Program mode will.)

As for the first point (which most everyone has made already so I'll chime in with my "me too" answer)...

The metering mode simply decides how much of the scene (and what area) should be considered when coming up with the exposure recommendation. You can think of the exposure recommendation as an EV (Exposure Value).

Having that, now you get to decide how to make that exposure... do you want to shoot wide aperture and a faster shutter speed or a tiny aperture and a longer shutter speed, etc. That's where the manual vs. aperture priority vs. shutter priority come in to play.

I use most of the modes on my daily and I also use most of the metering modes. But as John points out... they aren't "linked".

I tend to use spot metering only occasionally and the times that I use it are when I actually want the camera to disregard the light values in the rest of the frame because I realize that taking them into considering will ruin the exposure. A common time when this happens is concert photography in dark venues. A "matrix metering" or "evaluative metering" mode will try to consider the whole scene. And since the background is nearly black, the camera will try to bring up the blacks at the cost of blowing out the highlights. So I typically spot meter on the performer's face. I've also found there's commonly a relationship between the spot metering and evaluative metering depending on the lighting for the venue (if it isn't changing frequently but for some concerts it is changing frequently). So sometimes I'll use evaluative metering but dial in some exposure compensation.

 

[Gary A.]

I use Spot and Manual 99% of the time.

Well obviously you need to learn something about being a real photographer.

You should probably take lessons from this guy since he lives in your area I do believe. He's pretty good in my opinion.

That was funny. Lol

You're right, he actually lives with my wife.

 

[table1349]

I use Spot and Manual 99% of the time.

Well obviously you need to learn something about being a real photographer.

You should probably take lessons from this guy since he lives in your area I do believe. He's pretty good in my opinion.

That was funny. Lol

You're right, he actually lives with my wife.

 

[petrochemist]

Hi all,

In short, I had a coworker today tell me that you "don't spot meter on manual mode".

This threw me through a loop. I'm not a beginner, but I'm not advanced, and I've always used various metering modes on manual to achieve the correct exposure.

Any insight? Always down to learn something new.

Thanks!

Considering Spot metering came out in 1960 with the Pentax Spotmatic, which was a fully manual camera, her advice must be flawed!
If my sources are correct decent automatic exposure cameras where at least 5 years behind this.

I'd treat her comments not at "you don't" but just "I don't"