Does metering mode choice affect exposure?

Curious and can't find the answer. I kind of view the metering process as a tool to gain information ABOUT exposure.

Let's say that I'm shooting a basketball game with my 7D and have the camera set to 1/640, f/2 aperture and ISO 2000. Given those three setting, does selecting spot, partial or evaluate modes affect exposure if the settings remain the same?

Probably a really easy answer, but I'm not finding it. Thanks in advance for your insight.

dave

edit for clarification: The above situation assumes Manual Mode shooting, not TV or AV. Thanks!

if your shooting in M it doesnt affect the picture since your have 100% control of the camera ( you will see in the viewfinder though that the ev will be different with the different metering ). if you shoot AV then the shutter speed will be different with each metering.

Yes, the meter is connected direct to the chip that determines how long to expose the shot for. I usually leave it on evaluative, cause it is a good all around balance of the light hitting the sensor. For very bright or very dark scenes, or when you want to expose for a dark area in an otherwise bright scene, set it on Spot metering and make darn sure the actual area of the spot is over the part you want to expose for. It works both ways though, use it on an egret in dark water, or a crow in the snow. The brights or darks will be over or under exposed, no way around that, but the egret or crow will be correctly exposed.

To see it in action, set the camera to Av Mode, then Spot metering, and watching the shutter speed as you move the focus point to different spots, see how much the shutter speed changes with just a little bit of movement over light and dark areas. Then do the same in Evaluative mode.

So, metering in Manual mode is a waste of time?

snyderman wrote in post #11979375
Let's say that I'm shooting a basketball game with my 7D and have the camera set to 1/640, f/2 aperture and ISO 2000. Given those three setting, does selecting spot, partial or evaluate modes affect exposure if the settings remain the same?

This may be redundant, but the only thing that the metering mode will change in your example is the sliding exposure bar which indicates to you where the camera thinks the exposure will be. Typically one would want to see the camera indicate a 0 exposure or somewhere in that vicinity to let them know they didn't grossly miss one of the settings. Metering mode is important in manual shooting to reinforce your shot setting selection, but it will not impact the actual exposure like it does in Av and Tv modes.

No, the camera still needs the meter to tell it how much light is hitting the sensor. Even in manual, if you watch through the viewfinder and move the camera around, you will see the pipper move on the scale, to one side of center or the other.

If I shoot AV mode then I use evalutive metering mostly.

In manual mode I'll either use evaluative as a rough guide, or use spot metering. I can't see the point of using spot metering in any mode other than manual.

JoYork wrote in post #11979713
I can't see the point of using spot metering in any mode other than manual.

Spot metering mode works great in both Tv and Av modes as well in similar situations as referenced by canonloader below. In high contrast scenes spot metering is a nice tool to help you correctly expose a certain part of the image that may not be correctly exposed in evaluative.

canonloader wrote in post #11979466
For very bright or very dark scenes, or when you want to expose for a dark area in an otherwise bright scene, set it on Spot metering and make darn sure the actual area of the spot is over the part you want to expose for. It works both ways though, use it on an egret in dark water, or a crow in the snow. The brights or darks will be over or under exposed, no way around that, but the egret or crow will be correctly exposed.

If you have the camera set to Manual 1/640, f/2 aperture and ISO 2000 then that is what it will do and nothing else. The exposure meter in the viewfinder may be totally off-center if the camera "thinks" you exposed wrong. Different exposure modes may show different amounts of off-centering though.

Thanks for the info guys. I'm always shooting basketball in manual mode, so what I'm reading here says M = full control over exposure regardless of metering mode. Thanks again.

dave

You're right. It's only information in M mode.

For me, metering definitely depends on the scene at hand. If I were shooting a high contrast scene (say, if your BB players had Black and White jerseys), I would definitely switch to partial or evaluative metering. Spot metering is dang useful, but something like blacks and whites can throw it off. Put your AF point on a black subject and your picture will be overexposed, because your camera will think that black = dark scene, and vice versa.

Maybe you missed that he said he's using M mode, so the metering result is only advisory?

JoYork wrote in post #11979713
I can't see the point of using spot metering in any mode other than manual.

Aperture-controlled birding, especially if you're shooting something dark like a GBH and a great heron flys by that you want to get photos of. Unless the heron is very large in the viewfinder, evaluative will utterly fail in this situation and you'll have a lovely heron-shaped blowout in your photo

apersson850 wrote in post #11982349
Maybe you missed that he said he's using M mode, so the metering result is only advisory?

Well, with the assumption that you aim for 0EV (which was what I did starting out with M mode).