Metering options

bikeit

Senior Member
I was shooting a local marathon yesterday and the lighting was difficult, sunny, cloudy overcast and then the rain, looking through the photos some aren't great with some being too bright some slightly underexposed, so as i had the metering set to matrix would i get better results if in the future i was to set the metering to spot? I dont have time to experiment as im doing another sporting event tomorrow and cant afford to get it wrong as its a paid job.
 

pforsell

Senior Member
I was shooting a local marathon yesterday and the lighting was difficult, sunny, cloudy overcast and then the rain, looking through the photos some aren't great with some being too bright some slightly underexposed, so as i had the metering set to matrix would i get better results if in the future i was to set the metering to spot? I dont have time to experiment as im doing another sporting event tomorrow and cant afford to get it wrong as its a paid job.

Spot metering is best used with manual exposure mode, imho, or you'll need to use the AE-L button a lot. Fast paced sports, rapidly changing lighting conditions and manual mode is a mix that requires that you know your camera inside and out and can do exposure compensation "from the hip."

I recommend either matrix or center weighted (I personally use CW when I am not using spot+manual).
 
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nickt

Senior Member
Spot can work, but likely it will give you more trouble than you already have. If the spot falls on white clothing, you will get a darker picture. If it falls on dark clothing, you will get a light picture. Center weighted might help. I have one of my front buttons programed to switch me to spot metering. For a very selected few shots, I'll use. I would not leave it on full time. I would continue to use matrix and shoot raw. Keep an eye on your histograms. You should be able to quickly fix the raw shots you are not happy with.
If you are not comfortable processing raw, shoot raw + jpg and then you can learn on the bad shots.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I shoot a lot of scenic landscape images and found I had to under or over exposure too much when using Matrix metering. When taking photos that have either the sky or water in them, quite often they will influence Matrix metering. I switched to center weighted metering for everything now and don't have to override the settings nearly as much--still do at times, but not as often.
 

spb_stan

Senior Member
I use spot much of the time but my subjects are not moving quickly, and it would be really hard to make sure the "spot" you are metering is mid tones or you will have more problems than with Matrix. If you are trying to keep the subject in the center, I would use that and adjust the size to one of the larger center biased meter circle options.
 
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