Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Denver, CO |
I agree the polarizer would probably have helped in this particular situation. But i'
I'd like to provide more general answer as well.
Really, this scene - like any other scene - can be exposed in any way you like, using any metering mode you like. It's just a question of getting good enough at anticipating how the camera will react to be able to use the appropriate amount of compensation. Also, I don't mess with auto-bracketing - I take the shot, take a quick look at it on the LCD (with histogram if I'm really concerned), and adjust if necessary. As often as not, it is *not* necessary, because even if highlights are blown a little bit, it's possible to recover them to some extent when shooting RAW (as I always do).
So, with a goal of learning to anticipate how the camera will react, I've found it most useful to essentially *never* changes modes. I'm virtually *always* using center-weighted metering, and virtually *always* "M" mode. I chose center-weighted rather than multi-segment primarily because multi-segment does not work with manual exposure lenses, and I use those a lot. Similarly, that's why I use M mode. So I basically have just one way of working no matter what lens I have mounted, and I know the camera will work in the same way.
It took a couple of weeks to learn to anticipate how the camera would react, but I feel I know it pretty well now. I select an aperture, hit the green button while pointed directly at my subject to get the camera's recommendation for shutter speed, then I scan about the scene, pointing directly at the highlights and also directly into the shadows, as well as at middle values, to see if the meter reads about what I want (somewhat positive but not off the scale for the highlights, somewhat negative but not off the scale for shadows, around 0 for a typical middle value subject). If the meter is off what I want, I adjust shutter speed to get the meter where I want it. Often, I don't need to bother scanning around to know I'll need to adjust - if my scene is basically lighter than normal on average, I *know* I'll want to slow the shutter down a notch or two, and conversely if the scene is darker than normal on average (eg, a black cat).
Sounds like a lot of work, I suppose, but relly, it takes only a couple of seconds, and once I've set the exposure for a given scene, I can take as many pictures as I want knowing they'll all be exposed similarly, rather than having some come out darker and others lighter simply because I changed cmera angles slightly, thus throwing off the highlight-shadow ration and thereby changing what the meter recommends.
Anyhow, that particular method works well for me. The point, though, isn't to recommend that specific method, but rather, the general idea of learning to anticipate how the camera is going to respond, and accounting for it before even taking the picture, using the exposure mode and metering method you are comfortable using, rather than switching to different modes and methods for different scenes in hopes of finding one that will happen to get the exposure you want right off the bat.
|
Originally posted by DougRight 
The scene modes may work well, but nobody is going to learn much about there camera by using them. At least the green button is consistent, only the conditions are variable, one can monitor what the camera is doing from shot to shot and there is the possibility of learning something along the way. And........... it's quicker to use the green button than to change scene modes.
Similar Threads 
