Best use of centre-weighted metering

[Guy S]

We all do this when we get excited telling the story. Doremus Scudder just went the wrong way. You open, not close.

“The best scenario is to take a reading from the brightest area that you want to retain detail in, say white water or textured snow, and then close down two stops.”

Should be “open”.

Ahh of course

 

[Bill Burk]

Meanwhile I often walk about with a camera that only has center weighted averaging.

I struggle to get correct auto exposure with the ES-II. Constantly checking indicated shutter speed to make sure it’s not stupidly wrong.

Here it was exceeding max 1000 when I first brought the camera to my eye since there’s sky in the frame.

When the light throws off the meter I will go to manual. That’s 1000 to 60 and B (plus on self-timer ES-II gives one second on B). First check the indicated shutter speed with the stray light excluded, then use that manual setting and take some pictures without checking again.

The old “meter the palm and open a stop” trick often comes in handy.

 

[Paul Howell]

Today while on my morning walk I took my Minolta 800SI and meter each scene with matrix, average, and spot mode, it was overcast, mid morning, just after 8:00 AM, there never more than a 1/2 stop difference between matrix and average. With the heavy overcast no strong backlighting. The largest difference was between average and spot metering, depending on where the spot circle fell on. With a 50mm lens the spot was around 10 to 12 degrees, had to make sure I was something that would between zone IV and VI, other up to 2 stops off.

 

[Sirius Glass]

When I use digital I do not use the screen on the back of the Z7ii and I have not checked the bar graph yet.

 

[BMbikerider]

The c/weighted metering on my F2a is as far as I can tell from my developing/printing just about exactly as I like it. The C/W metering of my 2 Minolta manual bodies (XD7&XE1) under expose by around 1/2 - 3/4 stop if photographing identical subjects outside. I know to get the nearer to correct (to my liking) to alter the aperture.

My front upstairs south facing bedroom has plain white translucent blinds and when all three cameras are compared using the light on the blinds from the sun as the light source diffused, they are all within around 1/3 of a stop which to me indicates they may have a different c/w metering pattern/area.

The lens I used in the test is a Tamron AD2 90mm/F3.5 macro which has interchangeable mounts to fit both Nikon/Minolta to keep differences to a minimum. Or in the Minolta's case alter the ISO from the box speed. Non of the three bodies are the same as my hand held Minolta Autometer 3 but it give good exposures when I use my non metered Rollieflex T.

You just have to know your equipment and it's foibles so I can put my worry beads away.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Averaging meters, center-weighted and matrix included, tend to underexpose contrasty scenes. So:

If you're shooting negative film, B&W or color, add exposure in contrasty situations. Very contrasty; add a stop. Extremely contrasty; add two stops. The key here is to get the information you need to make a good print on the negative. A bit of overexposure won't hurt.

If you're shooting transparency film, you'll need to use the exposure lock or compensation. The best scenario is to take a reading from the brightest area that you want to retain detail in, say white water or textured snow, and then close down two stops. (Note, this is a general recommendation; different films might need a bit more stopping down. Do bracket and test at first till you find the correct factor). If you can't meter the bright area, and stop down, then you need to underexpose from the meter reading a bit. How much is really a guess, but bracketing will help in tricky situations. The main thing here is to get the highlights exposed correctly so they aren't blown out. With transparency film, you just have to let the low values fall where they may (unless you can control the lighting, pre-expose, use a reflector, etc.).

Best,

Doremus

I've been using my micro 4/3 digital camera as a light meter lately. It closely matches chrome film. I found it shows clipping on the histogram and blinkies about two stops above average, close to my Velvia 50 chrome film limits. The screen also gives a quick look at whether I'm too bright or too dark. It allows me to preselect my lens for the 4x5 camera by lining up the shot beforehand, like a director's viewfinder.