What Method of Exposure Metering Do You Use?
By Brian Auer • August 24th, 2007With all this talk about exposure lately, why not keep the momentum going? This week’s poll is a few days delayed due to the “Blown Away Project“, but I think we’ll all live. So I’d like to know what method or mode of exposure metering you all use when photographing. I’ve started the poll with three basic answers, but I’m sure there are other variants out there so feel free to add your answer if it doesn’t fit into one of my three.
The “Segment Pattern” answer applies to most camera default settings. I think a lot of cameras call it “honeycomb” pattern or “multi-something-or-other” segmenting. It’s basically a method that evaluates a majority of the frame and tries to find a good exposure setting. The “Center Weighted” answer is similar to the previous answer, but more emphasis is given to the center of the frame. And the “Spot” answer means that the light is evaluated over a very small area right at center of the frame. So which one do you use?
Also, make sure you check out last week’s poll results where I posed the question of What Movie Should Every Photographer See? Some of the top runners include Baraka, Sin City, and Sleepy Hollow. And in total, there were 15 movies suggested by other photographers. So if you’re tired of nothing being on TV, or if you’ve seen all the new releases, check out this list and go hit the movie store.
Brian Auer is a photography enthusiast from San Diego, California. He's also the guy behind the Epic Edits Weblog. As a hobbyist photographer since 2003, his passion has been to constantly improve his photography skill set, to share his own knowledge with others, and to become an integral part of the photographic community.
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If I would have to name one big disadvantage of my 400D (XTi) it’s the lack of the spot-metering. So I use center weighted, which works most of the time, but sometimes is off too much…
I tend to switch based on circumstances; although, mostly between segment and spot. I have only just got a camera that does centre weighted so I intend to try that for a bit as well.