[clackers]

It's been a bit of a strange day.

First, I find a hat full of money. Then, I'm chased by an angry guy with a guitar!

When I got home, my wife yelled from upstairs, "Do you ever get a shooting pain across your body, like someone's got a voodoo doll of you and they're stabbing it?"

I replied "No..."

After a few seconds, she asked, "How about now?"

This week, I think it's handy for beginners to note that cameras by default try to replicate a scene to the level of an imaginary 18% grey tone, and there are all sorts of implications. There are settings that try to second guess what you're doing, and might pay more attention to the central zone than the edges. The camera doesn't really know what you want your picture to look like, even if you do.

Very difficult situations for the algorithms are, say, a subject backlit against a bright sky or a yellow flower against dark foliage. The algorithm may get this wrong by three stops or more, and now there's a silhouette of the person, or the flower's petals are blown to the point of no details remaining.

For this situation, we should either go completely manual exposure (chimping in an iterative process to get the correct setting - do check the faces - but being aware that in many music shows the lighting changes from minute to minute) or choose from what is typically in Pentax called the AE Metering menu its Spot Metering option, and point at the subject. Wedding photographers use this mode to make sure the dress is exposed correctly, as it's notoriously the brightest object in scene, and yet, it's important to see all its texture.

At the gig I noticed there was a cycle of coloured and 'white' lighting going on, and waited for the white phase to snap this picture of Larry Graham, the great bass player from Sly and the Family Stone, and a confidante and mentor to Prince. It still ended up at ISO 6400 and this was with a humble K-30 but Pentax sensors and the DA*50-135 are very good. We can clearly see the sweat making Larry's shirt stick to his chest.

Concert photography often sacrifices shutter speed (and hence sharpness) and ISO (hence graininess) so the images are always compromised versus the perfection of a studio environment with flashes and strobes.

It can get to the point where the colours are so distractingly bad (high ISO not only adds noise, it destroys dynamic range of colour tones, Internet 'experts' often forget this) a black and white conversion is necessary.

To finish with, there's the story of the three men sitting in a room smoking a few joints who run out of gear. One stands up and says, 'Look, we've got loads more tobacco, I'll just nip into the kitchen and make one of my speciality spliffs.'

Off he goes into the kitchen where he tips out some containers from the spice rack, grinds them up and rolls them up. On his return he hands it to one of his smoking partners who lights it and takes a long drag. Within seconds he passes out. Ten minutes go by and he's still out cold, so they decide to take him to hospital.

On arrival he is wheeled into intensive care. The doctor returns to his friends and asks,’ So what was he doing then? Cannabis?'

'Well sort of', replies one of the guys, 'But we ran out of gear, so I made a home-made spliff.'

'Oh' replies the doctor, 'so what did you put in it?'

'Um, a bit of cumin, some turmeric and a couple of other spices.'

The doctor sighs, 'Well that explains it.'

'Why, what's wrong with him?' demands one of the men.

The doctor replies, 'He's in a korma’.

The rest of the series here: Clackers' Beginners Tips (Collected) - PentaxForums.com

[biz-engineer]

I tried to read the whole text without being lost, but what's the key message to remember about spot metering?

[K(s)evin]

Great photo!

Also, me being a _________ American, could you explain "korma"?

[ProfessorBuzz]

Great photo!

Also, me being a _________ American, could you explain "korma"?

"curious" American. Korma = spicy Indian dish with braised veg or maybe chicken, and yogurt. Coma = what the guy slipped into.

The placement of that photo made me think the guitarist was laughing at the joke.

---------- Post added 04-29-22 at 08:11 AM ----------

I tried to read the whole text without being lost, but what's the key message to remember about spot metering?

Spot-metering is your friend - use it - especially when dealing with hard-to-evaluate lighting situations.

[photoptimist]

A few thoughts on spot metering:

Modern multi-segment, matrix, or evaluative metering is pretty good at exposing most scenes "properly" but it's not perfect. Sometimes the photographer needs to or wants to take more control but that comes wiht more responsibility. Unlike smarter metering modes, spot metering does not tell the camera "expose this spot properly, please." As @Clackers noted, it says "make this spot 18% gray." Thus spot metering is a much more manual approach to controlling exposure than the automagical multi-segment metering.

That said, spot metering is really useful for some scenarios and types of photography:

1) Theatre, concert, and lit night-time photography where the subject is well lit but most of the background is in darkness.

2) High-key and low-key photography where you want some bit of the scene in the middle grays but much of the scene over- or under-exposed respectively.

3) Avoiding blown skies in shots taken in dark forests by metering a spot of sky and adjusting a couple of stops (although you'll need to shoot RAW and recover the forest scene in the shadows)

4) Zone system photography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_System): spot metering lets you compare light levels in different parts of the scene to see which Zone they might be in.

I heartily recommend anyone who really wants to understand photography to give spot metering a try. Setting the camera to TAv mode with spot metering and then exploring how light level (the ISO exposure setting) varies over a scene can provide a lot of insight into how tonality varies.

One last tip: Think carefully about the camera's memory settings -- do you want the camera to stay in spot metering mode after you turn the camera off? If you use spot metering only occasionally or are prone to forgetting/not-noticing the metering setting, then turn off memory of the meter mode. Accidentally being in spot meter mode while shooting can easily lead to strange over- or under-exposures. If you always use spot metering or a diligent about checking all the settings every time you turn the camera on, then remembering the meter mode might be OK or better.

Have fun!

[beholder3]

I think there is absolutely zero beginner recommendable scenarios where spot metering is the option of choice.
Spot metering today is 99% useless and poor choice just the same as dragging around tripods.
Worse than that there are quite a number of pitfalls when using spotmetering that increase the likelihood of bad exposures.
Generally the point is that even in the fringe cases described by photooptimist you can usually live with one fixed exposure compensation dialed in after a test shot.
Using the exposure to selected AF point connection option in settings with matrix metering is even better.
Remember this is the beginners corner.

[niels hansen]

Spotmetering is many time no go. Instead there is a "thumb rule": when the motive is darker than the surrounding- give +2 exposure. When the motive i much lighter than the surrounndings- give-2 exposure. Make a test shot.
By the way: how is Clackers more and less interesting stories related to photography ( pentax)?

[gatorguy]

Spotmetering is many time no go. Instead there is a "thumb rule": when the motive is darker than the surrounding- give +2 exposure.

Spot metering has been extremely useful to me on some of my very early morning wildlife hikes. It's not at all unusual to have wide differences in exposure with a brightening sky but a still in deep shadows subject. Once the sun rises a bit I'll take my camera off spot, but when shooting wildlife I often get one chance at capturing the photo. For me chimping is not the most efficient at determining how many stops to increase exposure in that scenario. For landscapes where time is not critical I'd not use spot-metering and instead use your suggestion when needed.

IMHO spot-metering has its uses, but I'd not leave it on that setting.

[clackers]

Spot metering today is 99% useless and poor choice just the same as dragging around tripods.

I often use both, Beholder, sometimes simultaneously (which must doubly infuriate you) and have found them *very* handy.

And I think both are important tools to anyone looking to progress beyond being a beginner.

[clackers]

By the way: how is Clackers more and less interesting stories related to photography ( pentax)?

I don't think the vibe and these posts are for you, Niels.

[acoufap]

I often use both, Beholder, sometimes simultaneously (which must doubly infuriate you) and have found them *very* handy.

And I think both are important tools to anyone looking to progress beyond being a beginner.

I think beholder3 likes to bring some tension into discussions.

[clackers]

I think beholder3 likes to bring some tension into discussions.

You know, Acoufap, I like *nearly* everything Beholder3 says in discussions.

I'm a fan of yours, too, of course!

[rogerstg]

This is helpful information for a beginner. It is important that they understand various metering options which is why it's covered in beginner photography instruction. A recent scenario where a beginner used it was when I was shooting a snowy owl, perched in a tree, against a bright sky. The owl chose a perch along a popular seaside walking trail and there were a handful of others photographing. Overheard, a beginner was disappointed that the owl was too dark in her shots. Someone advised her to use spot metering. Problem solved, and was much simpler advice than chimping and experimenting with exposure compensation.

A classic scenario where spot metering is good advice for a beginner is when taking snapshots of their restaurant companion(s). Windows can cause backlight issues and dark walls can overexpose faces. It's good for any indoor activity when there are sources of bright back light (windows) or dark backgrounds; weddings, reunions, etc. Subjects quickly grow weary of a shooter's need to chimp and play with EC and it shows in their expression. Of course, as beginners learn more about composition, they'll want to move to using AE lock and/or linking AE to focus point.

[beholder3]

I often use both, Beholder, sometimes simultaneously (which must doubly infuriate you) and have found them *very* handy.

Anyone who feels a certain approach is good for them, shall use that approach. :-)
I still do not see the benefit for normal use cases for beginners.


Here it is about spot metering and I definitely vote for both
a) matrix metering with automatic emphasis on chosen focus point and/or
b) matrix metering manual exposure correction for a specific situation
being easier to use and less error prone with just the same results.

There are different ways to achieve something and spot metering IMHO is the hardest approach especially for beginners.

---------- Post added 30th Apr 2022 at 16:05 ----------

This is helpful information for a beginner. It is important that they understand various metering options which is why it's covered in beginner photography instruction. A recent scenario where a beginner used it was when I was shooting a snowy owl, perched in a tree, against a bright sky. The owl chose a perch along a popular seaside walking trail and there were a handful of others photographing. Overheard, a beginner was disappointed that the owl was too dark in her shots. Someone advised her to use spot metering. Problem solved, and was much simpler advice than chimping and experimenting with exposure compensation.

For many the result would have been unacceptable due to highlights being blown out completely. The thing with spot metering is that unless the photographer has enough experience to judge the expected result there can be pretty bad surprises as the metering with spot has no issues with creating extremely bright or dark backgrounds.


Similarly when you choose spot to shoot someone in a white dress in the sun, that can create poor results as (obviously) the white will be turned into 18% grey and everything around it quite a bit darker with impact on DR and noise.
Again you'll only achieve best results when dialing in an exposure compensation. And if you are ready to do that you could have kept matrix metering and adjusted exposure compensation right from the start.

[niels hansen]

I don't think the vibe and these posts are for you, Niels.

It would be nice if you would be a little more precise and answer the question. Is there a relation to photography in your stories that I have missed because I cant feel the vibes. I think that this forum is about photography in a broad sense, it is dangerous to open for topics not related to this. Where is the limit?