Camera Metering Modes Explained
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ค. 2024
- There are three main metering modes on modern digital cameras: Matrix, Center-weighted or spot metering. To get the correct exposure you need to understand the different Metering Modes of your camera and this tutorial will help you get started in understanding these three Metering Modes.
Video Time-line
00:00 Camera Metering Modes Explained
00:14 What are the Camera Metering Modes and how do they work
01:05 How the 3 Metering Modes affect your subject
01:54 Understanding how Matrix, Center-weighted and Spot Metering works
05:09 5 examples of how the camera metered these different scenes
13:17 Summarising how to use Camera Metering Modes
Social media Links!
Facebook: bit.ly/39TcPEO
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Gear used during this video:
Nikon D500
Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E VR
Nikon 18-140mm f3.5-f5.6 lens
Vanguard Altra 264AP Tripod
Samsung Galaxy S10
BOYA BY-WM4 Mark II 2.4G Wireless Microphone
Filmic Pro App: bit.ly/3bsKN3i
Editing Software used:
Photo editing: Adobe Lightroom CC Classic
Video editing:
Cyberlink PowerDirector 19
'Trevor' has never look better. He's so patient too. Standing still & cooperating with you.
Yes Trevor is a great model 😆
Manual mode and spot metering work very well for everything I shoot...
Wildlife, Architecture and Landscapes. 99% of my photography is shot using this method. Once you set it forget it same light same exposure...nothing changes. But in auto and any other metering mode camera males all changes.
Evaluative metering is good for a percentage of everyday personal shooting, but there are limitations. In aperture value mode, you choose the Fstop and the camera automatically selects the shutter speed. Exposure compensation adjustments are made with the command dial on the back of Canon cameras to make the image lighter or darker than suggested by the camera. My preset C3 is shutter priority evaluative and - 2/3 of a stop exposure compensation for bright sun lit photos.
On the other hand an overcast day with flat lighting evaluative metering works fine, sometimes with little to no compensation required.
This is a very reliable and efficient mode in many cases, but when your subjects are moving around or there is a lot of tonal values, significant exposure errors can occur. Incorrect exposures in AUTO modes occur when your subject moves in front of backgrounds of varying lightness or darkness. The camera will vary the exposure depending on the background, and this can lead to exposures way off the mark.
For example, using evaluative metering, a bird on the ground may be exposed perfectly in its surroundings, however, when that same bird suddenly flies into the sky, it may be rendered nearly a silhouette, because the bright sky fools the metering system into underexposure. We must be a bit smarter in these situations. Even zooming your lens can change the exposure, even when the light is not changing. By using exposure lock * hold when using any automatic camera modes or shooting manually and spot metering is two useful camera settings to control your exposure.
Lets say you have a dark bison standing in a grassy meadow and you have a zoom lens on your camera. At the wider setting the dark toned bison is a relatively small percentage of the scene and evaluative metering may be right on, however if you zoom way in on just the bison, now the camera is seeing a completely different scene, and metering very differently. Now the bison is big in the frame, the meter reads a lot of dark tones from the bison, and gets fooled into overexposing the bison. The light did not change as I zoomed, but the in camera meter read the exposure differently as the zoom added or subtracted tonal values.
To avoid these potential pitfalls, use manual mode in conjunction with the in camera spot meter. Spot meters do one thing converts all it reads to a midtown value.
Black with details become grey(adding light, 2.5 stops). White with details become grey (subtracting light, 2.5 stops). Complete black no detail plus 3 stops.
Complete white no details minus 3 stops.
All other metering modes have predetermined algorithms in them so they react in their own way. With the camera making all decisions on exposure. Taking control from the photographer.
😉
Thanks. I did learn something and I'm glad I stumbled upon your channel.
Glad to hear it! and thank you for letting me know that you liked my video🙏
Thank you! Hands down one the best explanations (and examples) of the different metering modes in various situations. Exactly what I was looking for!
Thank you very much for commenting and I'm grateful that I was able to explain these Metering Modes to you.
Thank you, very well explained. You've been very helpful sir.
You are welcome!🙏
Thank you, sir! I'm starting to learn about photography two weeks ago and this is so helpful xD
Happy to help! and glad that my photography tutorial are helping you learn more about taking better photos 🙏
great info ... thank you from NYC
Glad it was helpful and thank you for watching this video 🙏
thank you, sir - for explaining this topic with ease.
You are most welcome
I'm so thrilled with this video! Starting with Trevor was brilliant. I "knew" about when to use the 3 modes in general purposes, but had no idea about how gray scale affects everything. The fact that you gave us real, out-in-the-world examples was the best thing I've encountered. Bless you for making it so easy to comprehend. 5 stars.
Glad you enjoyed it! and thank you so much for your comment.
Thank you so much. I really do understand now
Thank you very much for watching this video 🙏
This is the best video about camera meeting I ever watched. Thank you!!!!!
Wow, thank you!
Really excellent explanation, thank you
You are welcome! and thanks for letting me know, much appreciated 🙏
Thank you very much for this well explained and well illustrated video!
You're very welcome, glad that it helped you out 🙏
This is an absolutely fantastic explanation of a subject that kept me guessing, but now I'm much more confident in choosing the best mode. Charles, many thanks and much appreciated
Thank you so much for your feedback, very much appreciated. 🙏
Thanks that was really helpful. 👍
Glad it was helpful!🙏
Thanks a lot! This is the best explanation of camera metering modes I've ever seen. In fact, all your videos are very helpful!
You're welcome and glad it was helpful! 🙏
Thousand thanks for your extremely good explanation and pedagogic examples ! You are a good teacher !😄
Thank you for your feedback, very much appreciated 😀
Trevor seems so patient! Thanks for yet another great article Charles. Cool T shirt 👍
Thank you, for commenting, Trevor has more patience than me😄 and I'm a die-hard Ford fan, although I now drive a Kia Sorento SUV
Thanks a lot Charles for such a nice explanation of different matrix systems
You are welcome, glad you like it! 😉
This is well explained. Now I am fully understanding the concept 😊. Thank you !
Glad it was helpful, and thank you for letting me know that this video has helped you. 🙏
A very informative video 👍
Glad it was helpful! 🙏
Great Video. Easy to understand. Thank you and Travor!
Glad you enjoyed it! and thanks for letting me know 🙏
Good explanation sir thank you
You're most welcome, and thanks for watching this tutorial.
Thank you very much. Your explanation is very easy and visible to understand . The video clip helps me to see clearly the difference among those modes.
You are welcome and glad that this video was able to help you better understand camera metering modes.
Great, easy to understand ! Thank you so much.
Glad it was helpful! and thank you for taking the time to let me know that you appreciate my videos 🙏
Thank you for the video examples!! Now I understand 🙏
Glad it was helpful!
Well presented.
Thank you
You are welcome and glad that this video tutorial was of help to you. 😉
Very good information
So nice of you🙏
Love Trevor - wonderful way to wake me up to metering!😃
Thank you so much 🙏
Thanks for this video. I love seeing the numbers, examples, and explanation. Great job!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you again a very helpful video, just what I needed to understand. I enjoy your videos very much.
Thank you very much for letting me know, very much appreciated.
This makes so much sense now!!! Thank you!!!
Glad that I was able to help you out 🙏
Thank you so much Charles! Awesome explanation - it really cemented my understanding of the 3 metering modes. Perfect!
You are welcome, and glad that this tutorial was of help to you 🙏
This is so well explained.
Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! and thanks for commenting, much appreciated 🙏
I'm busy with a photography course and this has really helped a lot! Clear, to the point. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Perfect info on the metering, thanks a lot charles
Thank you so much for your comment 🙏
very good examples and well explained.
Glad it helped!
Thanks mate. Brilliant presentation
Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for commenting 🙏
Thank you for taking the time and effort to post such an informative video. It certainly helped me to understand the different metering modes so much more clearly!
You're very welcome! and glad that I was able to help you understand how cameras meter
Thank you very much!!!!
You're welcome 🤗
Great tutorial on metering modes...AN easy-to understand video..THANKS!
Glad you enjoyed it! and thank you for letting me know
Great explanation and examples.
Thank you and glad it was helpful! 🙏
The best video on metering I have watched so far!
Wow, thanks!
Love your videos! You’re a brilliant teacher!
Glad you like them, and thank you so much 🙏
Your way of explaining the topic is too good. I am looking forward for more. Thank you for your initiative and tutorials.
Thanks a ton, I try to keep Photography Terminology as simple as I can to make it as easy as possible for people to understand.
Thank you, very clear and well explained
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you, very useful one
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent !! Thanks you Charles !
You are welcome, and glad that this tutorial helped you out 🙏
Spot on. Enjoyed your explanation and demonstrations of this subject.
Thank you kindly and glad you enjoyed it!
Very informative, thank you very much.
Thank you for letting me know that you appreciated this video
I also agree with previous comment: Your model Trevor has the patience of Job! :)
Indeed! Trevor is a great offsider, just stands there and let's me do all the talking 😉
Very nicely explained with lot of example.
Thank you and glad it was helpful to you 🙏
Very good explanation
Thank you very much
super helpful
Glad it helped, and thanks for your comment 🙏
This was really helpful I learned something today really appreciated Charles
Thank you, I appreciate your reply and glad that I was able to help you out.
amazing video you are the best
Wow, thank you so much, very much appreciated 🙏
Very interesting charles will give this ago as i learn how to use my camera ever tutorial is a big help thank you.
Metering is not the easiest thing to learn and understand, so I thought I'd try to give some real world examples to show people how it works
Brilliant. Awesome.
Amazing tutorial made easy to understand. Loved 😍 it
Thank you so much 😀
Brilliant well done best explained video on the internet by far. Thanks.
Wow, thanks! and glad you enjoyed it 🙏
Thank you!
You're welcome! and thank you for commenting 🙏
This is a very informative video, thank you very much 🙏🙏
Glad it was helpful! and thank you for commenting 🙏
Very well presented video. Clear differences can be very apparent when concentrating on one subject, which you've done here. Very helpful indeed.
Glad it was helpful! and thanks for your comment, much appreciated 🙏
Excellent!
Many thanks! and glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you 😊
You're welcome 🙏
A couple of years ago, I decided to start shooting FULL manual. That is ... setting Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO manually. No more Auto-ISO, no more Exposure Compensation, and no more metering modes.
My reasoning was that if the camera could reliably adjust the exposure in any of the auto (or semi-auto) modes (priority modes or full auto), there would be no reason for the Exposure Compensation control to exist. So ... if we are always going to be constantly tweaking the exposure to actually get it right, why not just set it directly instead of indirectly via Exp Comp.
In the process, I have learned more about my camera and more about how to actually exposure for a particular subject.
Thank you for your reply. I agree with your views for Landscape Photography, but for Wildlife Photography where the light can changes so quickly, using Auto-ISO is a near necessity.
@@CharlesNPhotography I don't agree. I shoot lots of birds in flight. If a bird flies from a dark water/foliage background to a bright blue sky, the needed Exp Comp setting can change up to 3 stops (-1 to +2). BUT, if I have manually set the exposure for the bird, and the light on the bird doesn't change, the change in background makes little/no difference.
Again, if you're going to need to constantly tweak ISO indirectly via Exp Comp, you might as well set it directly, manually.
@@rghurst If you read my reply properly, I was only talking about using Auto-ISO instead of adjusting ISO manually, because if I'm walking in an area where birds can be in the open or in the shade and my ISO has been set to Manual, my Exposure would vary wildly hence the need for Auto-ISO
@@CharlesNPhotography I read you just fine and watched your video. The gist of it is that Auto-ISO doesn't guarantee proper exposure. Even with Auto-ISO, when you find birds on your walk, you are likely to need to adjust Exp Comp for optimum exposure ... you might even need to choose a different metering mode. That is ... even with Auto-ISO, you still going to need to adjust something. You might as well be adjusting the ISO (exposure) directly.
@@rghurst 🤔 You're entitled to your logic, But I disagree as I use Auto-ISO and rarely use Exposure Compensation for Wildlife Photography with my Nikon Z6II. Maybe you should do a video to prove me wrong.
Excellent video
Thank you very much Greg, hopes it helps you understand how camera's Meter
It is one of the best videos i have seen till now on metering. Many thanks!!! Looking forward for more such videos.
Glad you liked it
Hi Charles, sorry for too many comments recently; I am going through your advice videos and trying it all out on my own Z6 camera.
I played with Center Weighted on a high contrast indoor scene with light and dark areas. When I focused on light vs dark areas, it did not change the meter reading. So I think Center Weighted doesn't seem to consider the point of focus in its metering. I will try more experiments, but just wanted to share it with you. Thanks!
Center Weighted DOES works of the point of focus when metering!
That's fine no need to apologies, that's why I created this channel to help people. This all depends on two factors.
1st it depends on how bright and dark the areas are that you're comparing to. If you're pointing the camera at light and the other in a dark area of the room. there will be a big difference.
But if you're pointing at a bright area (Not a Light) and a darker area the differences will be it the shutter speed, but you should still see a difference in exposure.
Also if you go to the menu and b (Metering/exposure) > b3, you can choose 12mm or Average. 12mm means that it will prioritize the light within a small area around the focus point.
Average looks at a greater area around your focus point.
Hope this helps you out 😉
The best metering explanation 👌
Thank you so much 🙏
very well done Charles now I know how to meter and why. Thanks so much fr Canada . P.S. I like the T-shirt also
You're very welcome, this isn't the easiest of topics to explain. By the way, I'm a big Ford fan. I've owned a XT, 2 x XW, XB and a 351 XC which could do 240 km/h on the open road
@@CharlesNPhotography good to hear Charles I was a Ford mechanic for 12 years retired in 2000 and been doing carpentry since. Thanks for your reply and the video.
loving your videos
Thank you very much, very much appreciate your feedback
Thanks!
Thank you so much for your donation, very much appreciated. 🙏
Excellent
Thank you so much 😀
So Nice explained- Thank Charles
Find it a bit tricky to handle with my forrest-walk-around shooting.
I’ll work on with it.
I have up til 39 focuspoints. What Will be your recommendation in the landscape situations?
Thanks mate 👈🙏
Lars
When I go walking in the forest with my camera, I set camera to Aperture Priority and the Metering to Matrix The light can be so uneven through the scene that I let the camera try and balance the light for me. But I also find that if there's some strong sunlight shining through the trees that I will set the Exposure Compensation to -3 or -7 to make sure I don't over-exposure the image.
Ty
Thank you 🙏
Excellent explanation.
What mode is advise for the portrait and group photos?
For Portrait Photography, if it's only one person or a couple I would use Center-Weighted, but for a group of people I'd chose Matrix Metering, as you want to have a balanced exposure for all the group.
@@CharlesNPhotography
Thank you very much. I will use it.
Hi Charles, Nikon Z comes with setting "B3" for Center Weighted Metering, where we can pick 12mm or AVG options. I don't understand what these two options do, and how they affect the Center metering. Can you please guide me?
AVG means that outside of the center of the frame the camera is going to average the rest of the frame evenly, so if you've got some very dark and bright areas it's going to meter them evenly.
12mm means that the camera is going to put more emphasis towards the center of the frame.
i come from DSLR world with the nikon D750 and i completly understand this video (thank you by the way because it solved many questions i asked myself when shooting). But my question is now with the new world order of mirrorless and EVF this is something that can be easy fixed with exposure compensation without the need to take a test shot photo. Just look through the EVF and you can see exactly what you will get and correct the exposure accordly. Am i right ? because it is one main reason i want to switch to mirrorless (with IBIS and touch screen).Thanks for the video who was really clear.
Yes and No! For stationary subject, yes there's no real need for this. But for Wildlife Photography where your scene can change quickly, the using one of these Metering Modes instead of another will still give you a better photo, as you won't have time to adjust your camera setting if your photographing a bird in flight.
@@CharlesNPhotography You are absolutly right and i forget to mention that i don't really shoot wildlife photography but more landscape and portrait.
We mst thank trevor too!
Yes, Trevor doesn't get enough thank you's
i love how everybody misunderstood what mean matrix/evalutive and confuse it with a average metering
Ys, lots of people don't understand center-weighted metering.
Does this work the same in video work on a DSLR like gh5.?
It should do 🤔
Congrats for this video!
What about if I'm in full manual mode (I control ISO, shutter speed and aperture)? I guess it doesn't matter which light metering mode you choose (spot, evaluative etc...). Am I right?
I've done some tests, and the metering mode makes no difference when I'm in full manual.
I use Nikon cameras and on the left side of the viewfinder, it shows me if my image is over or under-exposed.
Even in full manual mode is still have to choose my metering mode.
For example, if I used Spot Metering at sunset and my focus point was close to the sun, the other edges of my image would be very dark as the camera is looking at the amount of light at that one spot. But if I used Center-weighted Metering (the center 1/3 of the image) then my exposure would be much more even across the entire image.
Hi Charles, darn, you like those words...matrix /center-weighted and spot. Just one recommendation, just my opinion: your 'Trevor' section would have been more educational and would've summarized your talk if put at the end of the video. Thanks, and cheers mate
Thanks for the tip!
Manual exposure and read the histogram.
Yes! For Landscape Photography this is correct, but for Wildlife Photography you don't have the time to look at the histogram after each photo. This is why choosing the correct Metering Mode is important!
@@CharlesNPhotography My Camera has the histogram in preview on the LCD screen before I take the photo. So I do look at the histogram and always shoot manually.
good video. don't understand what it ment tho. aside from i should only use matrix with compensation expsoure 😆
This tutorial was to show when to use each of these Metering Modes and how your subject colour can affect you're exposure
Hi Charles video on nikon nx saying private video whats up fr Canada
Apologies, I realised after making in Public, that there was a small error in the text, so fixed it. It's now Live again!
@@CharlesNPhotography Have it now Charles tks fr Canada
Oh wow, finally the penny has dropped. Thank you so much.
You’re very welcome 😊 Glad this tutorial was able to help you understand the different camera metering modes
They could be brown, they could be blue, they could be purple flowers🎵 thinking about Mika here.
😀
for me this shows the failure of Aperture Priority - and why a person should pay attention to the Histogram prior to taking the photo - this would only be a proper review of the metering modes with the very same SS/F-STOP/ISO settings - with each metering mode, as Aperture Priority is adjusting your ss regardless of the metering mode
That maybe your thoughts, but it is doing exactly what it's suppose to be doing and that is metering the scene in the way you have set the camera up for.
@@CharlesNPhotography - I totally AGREE it's metering the scene for the way the Camera is set up for - thus showing a person they MAY have their camera set up WRONG - or that they are using the wrong settings and why not only Aperture Priority gets it wrong, but how most Automatic exposures can get it wrong - I just think you're leaving out another portion of the exposure here - It's MORE than how the meter is interpreting the scene. - my only hickup here is that you're not really giving the ENTIRE picture - your information gives the impression that a person simply needs to adjust their METERING to get the right exposure, which is NOT true
If Trevor was black, his name wouldn’t be Trevor.
Why not, a mate of mine is an Aboriginal and his name is Trevor 🤔
Thank you!
You're welcome!🙏 and thanks for watching my videos, much appreciated
Thanks!
You're welcome! 🙏
Excellent
Thank you so much 😀