Back to the basics II

Ooops, I just realised I should have posted this yesterday but well.. gathering is even more fun.

Today, I'm going to share with you all about Metering.
What is metering? I would say this is the main core for your photo.
It is a meter measure how much light go thru your beloved lens and fall on the focusing screen.
BEWARE: Changing focusing screen may affect the metering too.
So, if this meter gets correct amount of light, then u will get a photo with balance/good exposure.
However, this meter is not as smart as human being. It may be fooled most of the time (other than April Fool).
This meter measures the light depends on the technology they used on the body.
I would say Nikon has the most advanced metering system coupled with Scene Recognition feature.
Still, it will be fooled.
In summary, we have 1. evaluative/matrix 2. center 3. Spot
Most of us use the number 1 because it measures the entire frame.
2 is used when u just wanna shoot something at the middle
while 3 is used to meter a very tiny thing...

Our meter in fact is programmed in such a way
when it detects the amount of light is very POWERFUL
then it decides to tell the body... hey, go darker to balance it
in other word, when it detects very extreme low light, it will overexpose the shot

Study case 1: Imagine u shoot a pretty model under the sun light
the 1st thing come to your mind is. use lowest ISO
then u snap... but u are not happy with your shot. so u use flash, ok, now u see the shadow on the model is gone..
but... u can still do the same thing without using flash
use Spot metering
meter at the face of the model
then LOCK it...
then u snap
yes, she is as shine as the sun
now, u can the sky color may be blown away.

Study case 2: u plan to shoot a group photo, the background is so dark. all ppl are wearing dark color, for example. Black
then u snap... u find the shot a bit overexpose
because the meter detects dark area more...
so, again... simply switch to Spot metering, meter at the face of someone...
yes, u got it.

To double check how nice is the exposure, is it balance or not, u can use the histogram to read
I would say, it helps 90% of the time
yes, ntg is 100%
Because u may come to a situation. the subject is properly exposed but the background may clip either to left (dark) or right (bright)
it is fine as long as the subject u wanna focus at is properly metered.

However, sometimes u can stick with your evaluative metering option... but u must try and error with the histogram. let's say it is a bit to the left, then u try ramp up the EV to 0.7 or more. And, vice versa.

For sony alpha users, i would suggest u set +0.7EV at all time to get better dynamic range. U will say WOW when u see the result. (this is the finding i found after i read latest DCM which claims sony tends to underexpose most of the time)

Ladies and gentlemen, hope this helps.

Next topic: Something you may not want to use but it just works like a God.

THANKS FOR SHARING！！！ GOOD INFO

Sweet, very nice information .

thanks for sharing dude

george, nice you put in your time typing this with your own... great great effort and they are very informative.

perhaps 1 more tip to add in, a common one. when shooting at backlit, say portrait, normally we will have darker object/subject without firing flash. we can use spot metering to brighten the object/subject, but it will overexpose the background in return...

this is the easiest and fastest thing i normally do to safe my battery life firing the built-in flash...

good info george.... thx