can anyone enlighthen me please..

[chocochick]

i am now reading...understanding exposure by bryan peterson.

in most of his pictures.. i ocme across this phrase.." meter reading" = which to my understanding is to get the rite exposure in Aperture mode. that means getting the right shutter speed given by the camera. am i rite till now??

now .. i come come across this phrase that he uses regularly.. such as e.g

"to take my meter reading, i first tilted the camera down to exclude the distant sunrise, and then i adjusted my shutter speed to 1/60s which was indicated as the correct exposure for the very very low light cascading across the snow. I then recomposed the scene as it is and fire away."

my questions are

1) is he saying that he was meter reading using the A mode.. therefore by pointing the camera to the ground to exclude the sunrise, the camera would show the rite shutter speed in this case 1/60s. then re recomposed the picture and shoot in Manual mode??

2) in most of his pictures he would take a meter reading .. eg a potrait. he would take meter reading against the background.. then recompose and take the actual picture. Why doesnt he shoot in AV mode and let the camera chooses the rite shutter speed?

3)How would one know that it is the rite speed given when doing meter reading?

4) is there any tutorial online that teaches the rite way to take meter reading??

thanks. i appreciate all your answers..

[chocochick]

If u read d first few pages.. he mention abt manual mode.

In the case of spot metering, the sky, he set the shutter speed to 1/60s and den set the apperture to the correct value. Den refocus to the picture and fire away..

1) No he meant.. use manua mode to get the exposure den re focus and still same exposure and capture d image.
2) Coz if he had use Av mode, he need to use AE/EL lock.. den recapture d image.. still possible
3) Errr d manual should tell u how.. not easy for me to explain.. maybe someone can explain diz part
4) hmmm... not sure abt diz one

thanks for trying. will read up the first part again. where u mentinied he talked abt M mode.

and u sure he was metering in A mode??

[ShaolinTiger]

Oops, sorry accidentally merged sinisters post with yours!

[chocochick]

shaolin tiger..

englighthen me please.. i know u're a pro

[ShaolinTiger]

Me? Not pro, beginner only as well la!

Anyway I'll try my best to answer your questions, I haven't read this book so I can't make any specific reference to it.


1) is he saying that he was meter reading using the A mode.. therefore by pointing the camera to the ground to exclude the sunrise, the camera would show the rite shutter speed in this case 1/60s. then re recomposed the picture and shoot in Manual mode??

Meter reading acts the same in every mode be it M/A/S, the only difference is the action the camera takes.

In M the meter is displayed by a bar or similar depending on your current settings it will tell you if it thinks it's under/overexposed.

In A/S mode it will change the shutter speed or aperture to balance the exposure according to the meter.

What he's teaching here is the easiest way to get a foreground exposure without using AE or exposure lock.

Basically in A mode you point the camera at the foreground and take a not of the settings with your desired aperture (Chosen for depth of field say f/8 or f/11) then take a note of the shutter speed. Because if you composed the shot as normal, the meter would change the settings and give you a different exposure.

So you just dial the settings into M mode that you learned by metering in A.


2) in most of his pictures he would take a meter reading .. eg a potrait. he would take meter reading against the background.. then recompose and take the actual picture. Why doesnt he shoot in AV mode and let the camera chooses the rite shutter speed?

That's because he wants to preserve ambient light, rather than metering for the subject which can give over/underexposed backgrounds. It's the same as the case above, you can do that, but then you need to use AE lock like Sinister mentioned. Plus if you are shooting a number of shots in the same lighting M will give you more consistent results.


3)How would one know that it is the rite speed given when doing meter reading?

You don't, there is no such thing as a 'right' speed, the whole point is to understand exposure so you can get the picture in your head. The right speed is the the one which gives you the exposure you desire.

The camera doesn't know if you want high key or low key or silhouettes or burnt out clouds, that's why you have to control it and more importantly understand it.


4) is there any tutorial online that teaches the rite way to take meter reading??

Not as far as I know, the best way is to read your camera manual, then google some stuff on spot vs center vs matrix and the best situations to use them, learn to read the histogram (this is the BEST way to control exposure on a digital camera) and of course practise, practise practise!

[noruazumi]

if APERTURE is the priority when shooting, then i guess "aperture priority" is the mode to choose to let the camera to do the metering.

if SPEED is the priority when shooting, then "shutter priority" mode is the mode to choose to let the camera to do the metering.

but keep in mind the metering mode (spot, center-weight & matrix) do give different meterings.

if u know what the exact output u want, then u will know which settings that u need to choose.

in my personal experiences, it is best to start learning these stuffs by using MANUAL mode because u'll see the differences of every settings that u've made. reading is one thing but experimenting is also important.

[chocochick]

thanks to all of you.. for your explanations..

you guys just put a smile on my face. thanks for your time.

let's see if more can contribute..:)

[sinister]

thanks for trying. will read up the first part again. where u mentinied he talked abt M mode.

and u sure he was metering in A mode??

nope.. he always metered in manual.. unless for some reason (which is mention in d book)

[mobbes]

St explained it quite well. I'll just add that hat the author was just getting the correct exposure for the part of the scene he deems important.

Quite a mouthful, eh? In the case you quoted (i haven't read the book either :)), the scene probably included a sunset that was much brighter than the snow. Regardless whether you use A or S priiority**, the critical issue is whether you're using spot, center-weighted or whole-scene ave (whatever they call that la).

Obviously the important element to the author was the snow. If he didn't spot or CW meter just the snow, the cam would give him an under-exposed snow ... average brought down by the brighter sunset mah... yes or not?

By tilting the cam down & excluding the sunset, he gets closer to the correct exposure for the snow ... simple maths of averaging mah.

Another technique you can use is to zoom in to the important part to take the reading ... that is if you have a zoom lens mounted la ... for those 350D/400D fellas without spot metering .. better than nothing :)

** Think of your cam as a light meter. If DoF is important for the shot, use A mode to get the right shutter. If freezing action is important to you use S mode to get the right aperture. Make sense?

hope that helps :)