[raider]

Hi,

How do you guys meter a person's face in an outdoor setting? Assuming a light meter is not used (which i dont have one).

I always thought we should meter the person's chin and what i have always done (not sure if this is the right way) is to use a zoom lens, zoom to the max zoom covering the person's chin, take the meter reading, lock the exposure, zoom out, recompose and fire. Is this right?

So what happens if you are using a fix lens? like say DA14, DA35, FA50?

Thanks
raider

[RioRico]

Back in the day, I used film cameras with match-needle metering, at best. Center-weighted, no spot- nor matrix-metering. Or maybe I only had a hand meter. And I'd be faced with exposure problems, especially when a subject wasn't close enough for me to walk over and meter carefully. So I would judge the brightness of a subject vs something closer. Is their face about the shade of my hand? Meter off my hand! Are they about the brightness of the ground under my feet? Meter off the ground!

My common practice in the field: point the camera down, meter off a patch of ground, then aim at the subject and shoot. That's how I handled B&W film, even very slow film with little exposure latitude. Now with digital, each shot is free, no cost for film and processing, so when in doubt, bracket bracket bracket. And fix the exposure and white balance / color temperature in PP. That's what RAW is for.

[wlachan]

I guess it depends a lot on the light. If it was an overcast day w/o shadow, meter off the back of your own palm will do (+ whatever compensation required depends on the skin tone). For direct sunlight, you might meter off the lighted side and save the shadow in PP. I would use M mode instead of AE lock however.

[raider]

If i am shooting landscape, i meter the blue sky. if there is no blue sky, i meter the grass...but somehow i find that this does not work well when i am shooting a scene involving human beings....and yes. i tend to use a lot of manual modes nowadays with the green button.

do u guys use spot metering or centre weighted for portraits?

[wlachan]

If that's what you are photographing, there is a good chance the range of EV was simply to wide to be perfectly captured. The person might be well exposed but the background could be blown. You just have to make a choice and then correct the shot in PP. If the person was facing away from the Sun, fill-flash is needed, and off camera fill-flash would be even better. A reflector held by another person works too. Since we can just check the histogram, I usually take a quick snap then correct the exposure for the subsequent shots. The key is not letting the person's face look too hot or too dark. Spot or centre-weighted is just a matter of preference.