I always make sure the meter is balanced on 0. But the histogram says they are underexposed.
Here is an example. Matrix metering, center-weighted, 1/400 (he was walking), F.2.8, ISO 100. I had the mark at zero and applied no exposure compensation. I guess I was wrong in thinking that if the mark is centered at zero, the image would be correctly exposed.
I cannot figure out how to upload an image ... choosing "insert image" didn't work. So sorry, maybe someone can help here. It was an image of a man, looked dark.Here is an example. Matrix metering, center-weighted, 1/400 (he was walking), F.2.8, ISO 100. I had the mark at zero and applied no exposure compensation. I guess I was wrong in thinking that if the mark is centered at zero, the image would be correctly exposed.
Thank you, sparky. Focal length was 60 mm and those trees and swing were pretty far away. If I wanted to make sure the background had great bokeh and the image well-exposed, what do you think would have been better settings for me? I appreciate your time!!A blurred backgound isn't as simple as just opening up the aperture. Focal length, as well as distances to both subject and background, plays a major role.
Thank you, sparky. Focal length was 60 mm and those trees and swing were pretty far away. If I wanted to make sure the background had great bokeh and the image well-exposed, what do you think would have been better settings for me? I appreciate your time!!
Thank you so much. I will change it to center-weighted for these kinds of images. Makes a lot of sense.I feel one of your problems was using matrix, it doesnt care what area is your sbject it just trys to give you an overall corect exposure balance, in the situation you show you should have metered for the subject of interest, the rest is as sparky said you need to pick the disance to subject, to the background, decide focal length and aperture to give the result you want.
Very rough and ready edit but i guess you where hoping for this sort of thing.
View attachment 317639
You could try center-weighted metering,I use spot metering most of the time but it suits my subjects and what i want to get and can get tricky.