Feb 9, 2006, 20:04
I wish the 350D had spot metering! Instead I use the center weighted, which says is uses something like 9% or so of the frame.
Shuttertalk mentiones a good point, talking about metering one place, then recomposing. Except that I would think you're better off using spot metering just then, because you can meter a number of different areas in your composition and then decide which area you want to expose for.
Anyway, I am surprised everyone talks about metering as if it was function DOING anything to your picture. the meter just METERS (hence its name...)!! and you decide on the exposure time you want to use, on the base of the information the meter gives you.
So which metering mode you are in, does not affect your picture. However, using spot metering you can get more detailed information about the light being reflected from different areas in your picture and you can make a more informed decision about your exposure.
if you look at it another way: the meter on your camara will tell you exposure is right (+/- 0, if the area you point it at will be exposed as "middle gray". so if you have a number of different light intesities in your frame, and your camara is set to average metering, the exposure it suggests is unlikely to be right for either the highlights or the shadows of your composition. Your camara doesn't know, what you want to show in your picture, so use the spot metering and find out, how you want ot expose to get the picture you are thinking of.
Actually, I am sure that's what Muzza meant when showing those pictures, just wanted to make sure we don't start thinking of our cameras as more than they are, we are still the one's composing our pictures
Shuttertalk mentiones a good point, talking about metering one place, then recomposing. Except that I would think you're better off using spot metering just then, because you can meter a number of different areas in your composition and then decide which area you want to expose for.
Anyway, I am surprised everyone talks about metering as if it was function DOING anything to your picture. the meter just METERS (hence its name...)!! and you decide on the exposure time you want to use, on the base of the information the meter gives you.
So which metering mode you are in, does not affect your picture. However, using spot metering you can get more detailed information about the light being reflected from different areas in your picture and you can make a more informed decision about your exposure.
if you look at it another way: the meter on your camara will tell you exposure is right (+/- 0, if the area you point it at will be exposed as "middle gray". so if you have a number of different light intesities in your frame, and your camara is set to average metering, the exposure it suggests is unlikely to be right for either the highlights or the shadows of your composition. Your camara doesn't know, what you want to show in your picture, so use the spot metering and find out, how you want ot expose to get the picture you are thinking of.
Actually, I am sure that's what Muzza meant when showing those pictures, just wanted to make sure we don't start thinking of our cameras as more than they are, we are still the one's composing our pictures