Spot Metering

[wcjyao]

Hi everyone, Id like to know why spot metering is important. Im new,

so ive always used canons center weighted metering, but it seems

that many really reallly want the spot metering option in thier

dslrs. Can someone tell me why spot metering is important, and

perhaps from applications? Thank you

[davidmccracken]

Imagine you want to photograph a small dark object in a bright room. You would want the exposure to be correct for the object you were photographing and not the ambient surroundings.

[anupam]

It lets you choose exactly where you want to place middle gray. By metering small parts of the scene you can figure out their relative exposures instead of having to trust the camera's interpretation from a large area.

 

Examples would be black dog on snow or the moon or practically any number of situations.

[akajohndoe]

I use it almost exclusively. Why bother to guess on exposure when you can select a small subset of the intended image that you know the correct exposure compensation to obtain the desired result?

[lalit]

If you use DSLR and can show histogram, you can also use this feature to be able to make decision and take another shot with adjusted values based on histograms.

[sacbee]

Take an example of shooting the moon. If you use the spot metering the light entering only from the moon will be used for setting exposure thereby it'll be more precise and also amount of light sensed will be more. If u're using other metering modes to shoot the moon, light will be sensed not just of the moon but the ones from the darker part of the sky too there by the overall sensed light will be lesser and exposure may be different.

 

cheers,

Sachin

[hash]

Lalit is right but sometimes you don't get a second chance!

[danield]

I found this link http://www.photozone.de/4Technique/metering.htm very helpful on this understanding metering modes.

[andrew robertson]

Spot metering can be handy but is by no means essential, especially with digital cameras

(where the histogram is your most useful metering tool). It can be good for comparing

brightness levels in a scene.

[jim_larson1]

<i>Lalit is right but sometimes you don't get a second chance!</i>

<p>

Like you don't always have a chance to do spot metering?

<p>

Sometimes when faced with a scene where I won't have time for a second shot, and I have difficult lighting . . I just quickly dial in some exposure compensation and hope for the best in post processing.

[rdkirk]

A camera histogram usually fails with a low-key or high-key scene primarly because the scale is too physically small to show the relatively tiny areas of important tone. Spot metering saves that day. However, one must actually know how to meter when using a spot meter.