 christine T. aaron |
purpose of internal light meter What is the purpose of the DSLR light meter? I thought that I was supposed to adjust the ISO, aperture, shutter, etc. so that the mark was on 0. At that point, is the picture supposed to be in correct exposure?
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Yes Christine, The light meter will guide you to the correct aperture/shutter speed and 0 is exposed. I shoot everything manually as I want to control my DOF (depth of field) and shutter speed and will often sacrifice a higher ISO (if required) to capture the image the way I want to. If you meter on a tree, you will get one reading - move the meter to the car on the street, you will get a different reading and then meter the sky for a totally different exposure. When all 3 are part of the overall image, we have to decide what & how we want to set the exposure to capture the image based on these readings. This is why HDR is so functional since you can shoot different exposures and paste them together to give the image a more realistic resemblance of what you are seeing. The camera is limited with how it can record light, our eyes are much better at seeing detail in both dark areas & high-lighted areas at the same time. I often under-expose just a tad (depending on the scene) as I find it easier to lighten in post to bring out more detail of a dark image where as over-exposed may have blown highlights that are not recoverable. If the image has blown out white areas, there is not much you can do in post processing to recover any detail of that area. I highly recommend taking an Exposure class as it is the basis of all that is Photography :) Hope this helps, Carlton
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christine T. aaron |
Thanks for your response. It does help, yet after I have that proper exposure reading, I then need to use a gray card - correct? That is, I am not ready to shoot until I have determined the white balance? Am I missing other basic technical factors?
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Yes Christine, A gray card is crucial for getting the correct White Balance. I often shoot fast paced at festivals and will look for something close to 18% gray in the image to get me closer to the correct colors and it gets harder when going from hard light under the sun to shaded areas under the trees. I have thought about getting little gray dots to stick on people so that I can use the eye-drop White Balance tool in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) but there are so many "in the moment" captures that placing a little dot would destroy the moment so I shoot away and hope I can get the colors correct in post :) I carry a gray card for quick shots and a white balance card when I am setting up to shoot several shots in the same location (like Senior pics, etc..) and then set my Custom White Balance in my 5D2. Its easy to do, saves post processing time & image color is more accurate. Search for "PhotoVision White Balance target" to buy one w/instructional DVD. Love in Light, Carlton
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christine T. aaron |
Thanks a lot. Chris A
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Nicholas Semo |
In answer to the first question.....it depends. The meter in the camera will try to make everything a medium tone if set to the zero mark. So if your taking a photo of snow and set the camera up so the meter reads zero your photo will be under exposed....the dreaded gray snow. Likewise with a dark subject, the meter will try to make it a medium tone and your photo will be over exposed. What you need to do is meter a object in the scene that is already a medium tone set to zero and everything else will fall into place.
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christine T. aaron |
Thanks. The part about the meter making everything a med. tone truly helps me. Therefore, if I focus my camera on a gray card, the light meter should be accurate, if I also go the preset route OR if I am in my usual moving about mode, I know that I may select a white balance setting and then figure out the aperture, shutter, and ISO from my alledged pre-existing knowledge base. Now that I read what I wrote, I realize the only time to use the internal light meter may be when I use the gray card. or am able to eventually identify a neutral gray object.
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