Your Camera's Meter Will Lie to You.....

[bratkinson]

Looks like it must be a Nikon-unique problem to me!

(Then why did my Canon 5D3 lie to me a couple weeks ago?)

That's one of the advantages of shooting manual and looking at the results...I can make adjustments as appropriate and who cares WHAT the camera thinks!

 

[timor]

Not always applicable and the idea is to dispense the with adjustments.
We know, what the camera thinks, it thinks nothing so there is nothing to care about.

 

[ratssass]

"Light meter" is a misnomer. It should be thought of as an "exposure meter".

The meter doesn't lie, "0" just doesn't mean "proper exposure".

...dosen't that make a case for matrix metering?I'm just never sure when to use one or the other.I would think (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that that in a high contrast situation,I would use matrix,and when in a relatively mild contrast,meter for what I think is average.

 

[unpopular]

I don't know. I shoot spot exclusively, which according to some people cough-derrel-cough is decades out dated. Spot metering isn't too difficult, you just have to be aware of what you're metering.

The nice thing about spot metering is that you can determine exactly if, when and where shadows or hilights will clip, if the scene has too much dynamic range for one exposure and exactly what tonal zone any region will be at any given exposure.

This is why that old fart Ansel Adams from decades ago used and trusted a spot meter.

 

[runnah]

Good stuff, nice to see practical examples.

 

[otherprof86 28]

Great video. Well thought out and presented. I just want to add that the puzzle of what the camera thinks of as a correct exposure was solved for me when someone explained about 18% gray cards. I used to carry one with me and take readings off that. The camera makers standardized on 18% grey as the correct exposure, so something that is lighter than that will come out darker, with the "correct exposure," and something that is darker will come out lighter. Think about photographing people with different skin tones. The camera, without adjustments, "thinks" all people should be 18% gray. Does anyone use 18% gray cards anymore? They would be useless in street photography, but might be useful in studio work. I think the standard was originally devised by Kodak, but I may be wrong. Again, great video, and I'm sorry I wrote so much for such a small addition to the topic.

 

[nycphotography]

Wait... you mean some people don't put their cameras in spot mode on the first day and then forget it could even work some other way?

 

[480sparky39 38]

.... Does anyone use 18% gray cards anymore? .......

A Robin Myers Digital Gray Card is always in my backpack.

 

[Derrel]

I don't know. I shoot spot exclusively, which according to some people cough-derrel-cough is decades out dated. Spot metering isn't too difficult, you just have to be aware of what you're metering.

The nice thing about spot metering is that you can determine exactly if, when and where shadows or hilights will clip, if the scene has too much dynamic range for one exposure and exactly what tonal zone any region will be at any given exposure.

This is why that old fart Ansel Adams from decades ago used and trusted a spot meter.

What is your &&&&&&& problem, unpopular??? Why are you referring to me and insulting me, by name??? Seriously. Why?

You shoot spot metering exclusively and you speak of "dynamic range", and yet all your images (that I have seen) are flat and dingy and low-contrast in appearance. With the results you get, you might as well just shoot in any of the auto modes. The results would be the same. Flat and gray.

 

[unpopular]

Maybe I should shoot in auto mode. With the spot meter, of course!!!!

---

But seriously, while that is my personal taste, the reason I can achieve that look is because I can capture the whole range in the first place. Perhaps I could pull the shadows a bit more and make it into Velvitachrome, but no matter I always have the whole tonal range. Its a matter of processing at that point.

 

[unpopular]

(BTW - take a look at my histograms. they aren't flat, just soft)

 

[Derrel]

Here's a few hours shooting,all done in Matrix mode, with a Nikon and 70-200/2.8 VR-I zoom. Mostly all automatic Lightroom processing...not custom-tweaked for the most part, except on a couple of images....just basic WB adjustment, AWAY from the standard Daylight setting, and all shot using just matrix metering, which is color aware, and distance-aware. Look at the full EXIF information, and you can see that the camera evaluates the distance FOCUSED UPON, which is something that 480sparky's video is not doing...he is not focusing the camera, just letting it sit there, pointed straight ahead, while he shufles solid black, solid gray,and pure white solid-color fields in front of a camera on a tripod.

His video also does not show us any IMAGES made of those various flat paper targets...all the video shows is...the in-camera metering moving up or down as the background goes from solid gray, to solid white, to solid black. How would those exposure settings actually look in photos??? Yeah...the meter yo-yo's. Any PICTURES showing how the light metering actually WORKS?

I'd love to see some spot-metered surfing photos shot 10 minutes before the sun drops over the horizon. lol. Yeah...I bet they'd be awesome!!!

kiwanda_2012_1230 Photo Gallery by Derrel at pbase.com

All Matrix. Some Exposure Compensation dialed in based on decades of experience. Mostly "automatic" Lightroom conversions. No heroics needed. Snapshooting, no need to chimp. Just look thru the camera, focus, shoot when it looks good, no need to double-check much.

 

[unpopular]

Why do you think I believe my method is best for all circumstances and for all people?

When have I ever suggested that?

And, fyi, on many of those images it would be pretty easy to use spot metering. I know I'd want the wet suits to be at about Zone III-IV, so I'd just put the camera in AE spot, and compensate the exposure -1 to -2. Or I could spot meter off the hilights in the wet sand, or surf and compensate to +2 to +2.6. Again, in AE. My method doesn't depend on AE or ME.

But yeah, it's a bit slower. It's not like I don't know that. But the advantage is that I'm in control of what regions, if any clip out. I'm not depending on the camera to find it's best compromise. In some situations, maybe this isn't desirable where speed is.

 

[gsgary]

I don't know. I shoot spot exclusively, which according to some people cough-derrel-cough is decades out dated. Spot metering isn't too difficult, you just have to be aware of what you're metering.

The nice thing about spot metering is that you can determine exactly if, when and where shadows or hilights will clip, if the scene has too much dynamic range for one exposure and exactly what tonal zone any region will be at any given exposure.


This is why that old fart Ansel Adams from decades ago used and trusted a spot meter.

What is your &&&&&&& problem, unpopular??? Why are you referring to me and insulting me, by name??? Seriously. Why?

You shoot spot metering exclusively and you speak of "dynamic range", and yet all your images (that I have seen) are flat and dingy and low-contrast in appearance. With the results you get, you might as well just shoot in any of the auto modes. The results would be the same. Flat and gray.

That will be a Sony setting

 

[TCampbell]

A gray card and incident light meter are always in my bag. BUT... I only occasionally pull them out.

It's on my list of "gear that every photographer should own, but should NOT always use."

I suppose I could say I mostly trust my camera's light meter, but have to learned to recognize when not to trust it.

Spot metering is a great way to meter provided you target something that reflects a middle-gray reading. An 18% gray card held in the incident light with the subject will probably also lie to you since most cameras these days seem to be calibrated for 12% gray (but you can get 12% gray cards). An incident meter always tells the truth BUT you may need to sample several points My current meter will let me sample several points, find the middle exposure, knows my camera profile, and warns me if the image requires more dynamic range than the camera will provide. My old meter just gave me the readings (but I was certainly free to meter as many points as I wanted and work out the middle exposure myself.)

I do like evaluative/matrix metering modes... but whereas the camera is trying to find the best exposure given the range of the shot, there's not much provision for you to say "yes, but THIS SPOT is the spot that I really care about the most". Spot metering, of course, does let you target the very spot you care about the most. That said... I flip to spot metering only when I'm convinced evaluative metering isn't going to cut it.