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03/23/2006 12:55:29 AM · #26 |
In terms of metering with the camera, I think my camera is similar to yours, just an earlier model, what I do is set to spot meter while in aperture priority mode (A on the dial) at the aperture I want, aim the cross hair at the brightest part, half press so that it gives me the shutter speed, i then recompose the scene and set the dial to manual and manually set the aperture and shutter speed as obtained above.
Hope this helps. |
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03/23/2006 01:08:52 AM · #27 |
Originally posted by havy2008:
In terms of metering with the camera, I think my camera is similar to yours, just an earlier model, what I do is set to spot meter while in aperture priority mode (A on the dial) at the aperture I want, aim the cross hair at the brightest part, half press so that it gives me the shutter speed, i then recompose the scene and set the dial to manual and manually set the aperture and shutter speed as obtained above.
Hope this helps. |
Yes it helps :) Thanks.
This would be similar to what Robt (bear) said. Guess I'll have to go Manual for this. |
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03/23/2006 01:24:09 AM · #28 |
When you use your metering trick, do yourself a favor and meter a few bright spots and the dark areas as well. It will give you an idea how broad the range is in your scene.
Oh yeah, and one other thing that I was going to mention was that there was an earlier comment that you could zoom in and lock exposure, but you can't really do that with entirely reliable results.
I lose several stops of light by zooming in fully. This is mostly because of the light that is arriving at my lens, by zooming in, I am only using a smaller portion of that. This will throw metering off big time.
When shooting at wide with my camera, I could be using 1/125, but zoom and it's down to 1/30 or 1/20.
Similarly, as you approach, you will be receiving more actual light from your subject.
This is simply due to the behavior of light to dissipate radially.
Hold a light bulb up against a black peice of paper and you will see what I mean.
Light has a tendency to "fall off" very rapidly because it spreads out from the light bulb like a ball of light, getting bigger and bigger (actually it's more like radially, but I don't know if you will follow that?)
Take a look at sphere surface area calculations and you will see how a small increase in radius causes an exponential increase in the surface area it covers.
Depending on the amount of zoom and how far away you are, you could be looking at some really different exposure figures. |
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03/23/2006 02:20:51 AM · #29 |
zoom doesn't get you closer to the subject, unless your using your feet to zoom in. The light that is being reflected off of any particular object is the same regardless of if you are zoomed in on it or not. The only difference is that when zoomed in, less of the surrounding area distorts that reflected light. To put it simply, when zoomed in on a particular object, only that object is being metered -- when not zoomed in, the metering may be an average of more than just that one object.
Remember that metering just one object (tone) in the scene, the highlights specifically for this thread, is just the first step. The exposure given by the meter is what will make the metered object middle grey in tone and must be compensated for to move it back to the tone it should be.
David
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03/23/2006 03:08:33 AM · #30 |
Actually, now that I re-read your post, I think I stand corrected.
However, we have to be careful when using P&S cameras, because I know that if I zoom in and meter on something far away, I will get a somewhat more subjective result of the overall scene. I am getting a lot less light overall because my subject is just a small part of that scene, so I will get a reading of like 1/20 at f/3.5
If I zoom back out, and shoot at 1/20, the rest of the light in the scene will vastly overwhelm it and the whole picture will be washed out.
hence, using these methods doesn't always work out as planned. |
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03/23/2006 04:32:59 AM · #31 |
Originally posted by eschelar:
... I know that if I zoom in and meter on something far away, I will get a somewhat more subjective result of the overall scene. ... |
Yes, that is the point. When spot metering (which is what this is aproximating), the idea isn't to meter the entire scene -- only a few parts of it. Doing this does not give an exposure value that is good for the entire scene, just the one object. It is then up to the photographer to use that data, plus what they know about the object and scene and adjust the given exposure to work for the entire scene.
To give a brief example, say I am taking a portrait of my wife. If I was to just meter the scene, I would be at the mercy of whatever backdrop I am using for the portrait. A white backdrop makes the overal scene bright while a black backdrop makes it dark -- but, for both the meter is going to make the average tone of the scene neutral grey (midway between black and white). But what does this do to the tone of her face? Against the black backdrop her face is going to be very bright, while against the white backdrop her face will be dark. If looking at both photos side by side, it would be anyones guess what tone her skin is naturally.
Since the face is usually the most important part of a portrait, I want that to look natural, so it is what I would meter. Using a spot meter, I get an exposure reading for the face, but this exposure reading will place the tone of her face at neutral grey (midway between white and black). But my wife is rather pale, so I must add my knowledge of this to make her look natural -- that is, I must add a stop to the exposure to place her skin tone back where it is naturally. Now it does not matter what backdrop I have her in front of, I have the exposure setting that will make her face look its natural tone.
That is an example of the general technique; meter one area of the scene and adjust the exposure reading to place that object at the tone it should be at (that is, the tone you want it to be at). Specific for this discussion, metering the lightest toned object (not a light source or specular highlight) and adding a couple of stops exposure will place the brightest part of the scene at the lightest the camera can record without blowing the highlights. (What adjustment needs to be made depends on the camera).
In short, it's about control -- place one tone where you want it, and the others will fall into place. But it takes the addition of the photographer's knowledge of the scene to know what adjustment, if any, needs to be made to the meter's exposure suggestion.
David
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03/23/2006 06:47:55 AM · #32 |
Originally posted by David.C:
In short, it's about control -- place one tone where you want it, and the others will fall into place. But it takes the addition of the photographer's knowledge of the scene to know what adjustment, if any, needs to be made to the meter's exposure suggestion.
David |
This is worth repeating. |
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