question about light metering

[gail]

I posted this to general forum also. Didn't really know where to ask this question. :? So I'm posting here also. Thanks


Don't know if I'm in the right place to ask this are not. didn't know what forum to post to for this question. But anyway here goes.

Witch one of these is most used and why? I don't quite understand witch one of these I need to use. I'm confused.

Evaluative
Light Metering

Center-Weighted
Averaging

Spot AE Point

Is there a need to change this at different times?
mind usually stays in the Center mode. I've never really notice it till now. I just happen to hit the button one day and was thinking now what is this?

So witch one of these do you all mostly use?

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Gail,

Evaluative: the camera assesses lighting in different areas of the scene and uses some fancy algorithm to determine the correct exposure settings.

Centre-weighted: the exposure reading are averaged across the scene, except that additional weighting is given to the centre of the frame.

Partial: readings are taken from the centre of the frame, usually indicated by a circle covering about 9% of the scene.

Spot: Most cameras, other than pro models like the 1D or 1Ds, don't have spot metering. It means that readings are taken from a very small area - a circle covering about 1-2% of the frame.

Personally, I would like to have a camera with spot metering, but with my 10D I use partial as this means I determine which part of the scene should be metered rather than the camera. If the subject is off-centre, then I take of reading from the subject and reposition my aim.

Regards,

[dtrayers]

Roger explained it well.

Here's is an article for further reading:

http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/cameras.html#metering

[shniks]

Hi Gail, I have only just started experimenting with this as well. I normally leave the camera in evaluative mode, which takes the best overall reading.
However, I have found that Spot AE point works well when the main subject has different lighting from the rest of the scene, and you want to make sure this subject is well exposed. The camera will take a reading from whatever is in the green square on the lcd, so make sure your subject is in there - or you can lock the exposure first then move the camera.
I dont really use the other one.......maybe one day it will come in handy.

[Laziferous]

I find spot metering helpful when shooting birds, or other animals. Otherwise, I mainly use evaluative. In scenes that have a very wide tonal range, I usually take two exposures and blend them, because no matter how I have the camera set to meter, it can't capture the full range.

Evaluative seems to be the most well rounded in camera meter I guess. To each his/her own though. Everyone has their own preferences, and one is no more right than the other. It's only right when it facilitates in your intended end result. If it works against what you want in the end, I guess that's wrong.