 John P. Gallagher |
Center Weight Metering I am interested in getting a fully manual 35mm slr (Vivitar V3800N) that has center weight metering. What are good techniques for getting correct exposure. Would I always have to put the subject dead center in the frame? Is is helpful or necessary to have a separate hand held meter? What are situations that can fool the meter? How much can the center weighted meter be trusted. Thanks, John
|
|
|
|
||
|
doug Nelson |
Many of the finest cameras use center-weighted metering. You can become as skillful at using this system as pros are with their matrix systems, as long as you know what your meter is reading. The only reason ANY light meter works at all is that it reads the scene, or portion of the scene being metered, as an 18% reflectance gray. Believe it or not, for most situations, all the tones in the scene will average out to this middle gray, and you get an accurate reading. For strongly backlit scenes, you should take your reading off the shadow area, the light your subject is in. If that's not practical, just open up a stop, shoot, and shoot again two stops over. There's no need to center your subject. Try one of the courses or books mentioned on this site. We congratulate you for trying to learn real photography. Your effort will pay off.
|
|
|
|
||
|
John P. Gallagher |
Thanks for the useful input Doug! John
|
|
|
|
||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||