 mikey magden |
Meter Hi Sean, What I am not understanding in spot meter is when I take different meter spots, what is the correct meter reading.Let's say I was metering flowers in a cloudy situation and shooting a bee. I would meter the flower, meter the bee,and meter a green leaf. What meter would I use? I think I would use a f16 A, but I would also need a fast shutter speed to get the bee.Because the area is cloudy and I can't get a high shutter speed even with a flash , how would you read the meter? Thanks, Mike
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doug Nelson |
Using a spot meter can be just the right way to meter, ot it can cause confusion. I've struggled with this, too. Know what your light meter is reading. A center-weighted averaging meter is amazingly accurate in most situations. The various matrix metering systems can also be accurate. In cloudy, diffuse light, either of the two system here would probably work. A light meter tends to reduce any tone it reads to a middle gray (regardless of the color). Its the light intensity of reflected light it's reading. Meter the sky or a bright highlight and the system will "freak" and close down the aperture, or speed up the shutter. This would render the whole scene too dark. Meter a deep shadow, and the system will "freak" the other way and open up, rendering the whole scene too light. In your example, meter the green leaf, and, since it's about a middle gray in reflected light intensity, anyway, you'll get a correct overall exposure. I use a spot meter in very contrasty situations when I want to be sure faces aren't too dark with a sunny background. I try to meter a mid-tone area.
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doug Nelson |
To answer your direct and very good question, the correct meter reading is one that indicates an exposure that 1. gives the maximum range of tones, from all black to white-out white 2. Or, in a scene without max highlights or shadows, all the tonal possibilities are rendered. With digital, we have a tool that I didn't have in my film days, the histogram. A histogram "train wreck" at either end of the histogram tells us the scene is over- or under-exposed.
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mikey magden |
Thanks.
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