What Metering Mode...

do you guys use and why?
I have put this thread here because it's the birders' replies I am most interested in.

I find the metering mode most difficult to understand - OK, I'm getting on in years which could have something to do with it, but I study your Exif detail where it is available. Somehow I can't really learn anything from it because often some of you use a different mode for a similar situation So what determines which mode you'll use.
Any enlightenment here would be really appreciated, thanks.

I'm hardly a birding expert, but I mostly shoot aperture priority to get the DOF I need then tweak the iso if shutter speed is too slow, and exposure compensation if I've got overly dark or bright backgrounds. Ideally I'd shoot with spot metering but my S3 keeps defaulting back to evaluative and it's too much trouble to keep resetting it.

Thats one of my problems also. I just use AP and get the lowest exp I can. I always try to get at least f/4.5 or 5. Then adjust the ISO for the faster shutter speed.Just like eccles. But his images come out waaaay better then mine.

scrumpy wrote in post #3078830
do you guys use and why?
I have put this thread here because it's the birders' replies I am most interested in.

I use Partial Metering as opposed to Evaluative. I find it more accurate for bird photography because most of the time I want the correct exposure on the bird. Underexpose or overexpose the background is often fine for me when shooting birds. I would love the Spot Metering in the 1D body when i upgrade. Don't get me wrong, i have seen people having good luck with Evaluative for birds, as long as the person understands what it does.

With the 400D I would use partial as Fee has suggested. Adjust exposure compensation as needed depending on wether the feathers you are metering off of are light or dark as opposed to the rest of the bird.

I use center-weighted, partial, & spot meterings and ISO 400 most of the time.

With the 30D, I use Evaluative, the dot with the broken circle around it. This has proven to get the best overall lighting shots for me. There is generally very little shadow and hightlight repair needed in RAW editor. Recently, I have been using Spot metering also and it gives good results too, but it can blow out a light background if the bird is dark.

I'd suggest you do some serious testing. What I did was set the metering to one of the 4 options, for the whole days shoot. I worked through them all that way and came away with a pretty clear picture of what each one produces. You don't want to restrict your usage of metering modes to just one, so get to learn them all so you know which one to use in what situation. Shooting situations change by the minute and changing metering takes a second.

Thank you all for your replies. You have given me a ton of stuff to chew over and try out. Now which way did that damn sparrow go