Spot metering vs "the Sky brothers"

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I always struggle with setting exposure and really need to improve. I think it was Coldy who pointed out I consistently overexpose and since then I'm usually using centre weighted metering at -0.3EV but it obviously varies from subject to subject.

I've read Peterson and was wowed by "the Sky brothers" and "Mr Green Jeans". I tried manual exposure using the sky brothers as recommended and found this a pain with my superzoom because the apperture changes so much from shot to shot as I zoom.

Should I meter off the sky / vivid green vegetation or should I be spot metering off my subject? Should I be matrix metering, centre weighting or spot metering, when and why?

If the question is too basic then feel free to recommend another book.

Thanks in advance.
Stephen

[Visual Reality]

I heard Center Weighting went obsolete when Matrix was introduced. Personally I leave mine on Matrix all the time.

[Rooz]

depends what you want to expose "correctly". do you want to expose for the sky ? the grass ? a person standing in front etc. if you use your function button as a spot meter, you can aim at your subject, press the function button to take a meter reading and then use AE-L to take the shot. tell you the truth i could never really undersatnd petersons analogys for blue jeans etc. perhaps is need to rethink it.

sometimnes the settings will be very different, sometmes not so much.

[Rooz]

I heard Center Weighting went obsolete when Matrix was introduced.

no, they do 2 different things.

[herc182]

I have NEVER used centre weighting. I see no need for it. If someone does have a need please let me know!

I nearly always use spot metering and meter for highlights in a shot (to provide a strong contrast between the highlights and shadows).

in terms of getting the sky and foreground correctly exposed, is very difficult. the bottleneck is the dynamic range of the sensor or film (the latter having better). To get true exposure (for a landscape) you meter the sky (note the reading) meter the foreground (note the reading). The foreground (for realism) should be at least one stop darker than the sky.
Then whatever the difference is between sky and foreground, use the same strength neutral density filter to balance it out. This in my opinion gives the best results.

However, I am a firm believer of being lazy :D So i use HDR. I take three bracketed shots at 2EV intervals, then combine them in software afterwards.

You could take two shots and combine them in photoshop after (i.e. one exposed for the sky and one for the forground) but this is more work (again, my lazy streak coming in!).

Without doing any of those things, I tend to meter for sky (nothing worse than a white sky) and slowly increase exposure (checking the histogram) until i am happy. Then you can play with the file through dodging and burning back at home (take the photo in raw though)

An example is the photo below:

34939

I used dodge and burn on the clouds which previously had a bit of a washed out sky. Not the best example but gives you an indication of what i am trying to say.

Hope that helps.

[domenic]

Hi Guys,
How would this work for cameras without autobracketing? With regard to images with moving subjects. Such as a costal landscape, with fast moving subjects, such as the sea and possibly fast moving clouds?

Cheers

Dom

[Rooz]

great explanation phil. i think that works great for PP and landscape shots. for portrait work and people shots, CW works pretty well.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Ok, I'm getting the feeling I'm being too ambitious expecting to shoot jpegs and get most of them spot on for exposure in camera by manually bracketting.

I gather the short answer to my question then is:
* to use spot metering.
* Meter for what I care about most.
* Check the histogram is "centred" after the shot.
* Shoot Raw so I've got 14 bit data to adjust curves later in photoshop.
* Use autobracketting by either +/- 0.3 or 0.7 EV as jpegs
* Or bracket like hell and use HDR and edit the wholesome 32bit image.

The above sounds like a lot of work but I suppose it frees you up a bit from staring at the histogram and reshooting everything with various EV tweakings after you've seen what hasn't quite worked.

Nice shot by the way Herc.
Dominic I guess you'd have to manually tweak the EV values to bracket yourself if the camera can't be set to autobracket. Even with autobracketting you'd be limitted for fast changing scenes like a backlit bird taking flight.

[XaiLo]

Hi Guys,
How would this work for cameras without autobracketing? With regard to images with moving subjects. Such as a costal landscape, with fast moving subjects, such as the sea and possibly fast moving clouds?

Cheers

Dom

Domenic, you would have to manually create an over and under exposure of the original image. I typically create +2EV and -2EV exposyres then run them through a HDR program.

[erichlund]

Each version of the meter has it's purpose. Matrix is the greatest compromise. It's also the most complex, because it meters across the entire image. I think there is some emphasis on the focus point, but the big advantage of matrix is that it uses the scene library to help with the decision.

Center weighted is a favorite of portrait photographers who are to lazy or cheap to buy a hand held meter. It puts the emphasis on the subject, but not so tightly that it misses near highlights and shadows. However, one problem is that it is fixed at the center of the image, so you sort of have to use meter and recompose. For this reason, since focus is very critical in portraits, final focus should not be taken at the same time as metering. It should occur when the shot is taken.

Spot, on Nikons, only meters at the 2% spot, and that is at the focus point. However, while this ensures that the spot is properly metered, it doesn't do anything for the rest of the photo. So, if used for a single subject, it can work well, but it can also be totally wrong for the total image. So spot metering should be used carefully, measuring several important points in the photo, and then setting the exposure manually to best capture the overall scene.

Basically, the matrix meter is very good, and I generally leave the camera set on that. However, like Rooz, I have spot in my function button. Frankly, I hardly ever use center weighted, but not because it's bad, just because it doesn't really fit my shooting style.