What an excellent video. One of your very best. Having shot exclusively M43 for the last 5 years, I would like to add that the best method of metering for ME is to enable the "shadow" and "highlight" "blinkies" in the EVF (OM-D cameras). You will then see virtually EXACTLY what the final shot will look like. Rarely more than one-third of a stop out, EVER.
Good tip, Roger, thanks. I've pinned your comment to the top here. For Panasonics, the Zebra setting does a similar job but is limited to highlights only so not so comprehensive an aid.
Thank you David,. I'm most flattered to receive praise from my favourite TH-cam photographer. I don't think the latest generation EVFs are appreciated nearly enough. After changing my kit from CANON full-frame to OM-D E-M1s my "keeper-rate" improved dramatically, and I put it down, mostly, to the EVF. Thanks again, please keep the videos coming, you have a unique, lucid style of presentation that I love.
David, please don't ever stop making these videos. There's something about the way you explain things that leaves me saying, "Oh, NOW I get it." Thank you.
Brilliant! As usual.. This was a good review for those of us who are your contemporaries, or older, and a great source for the newcomer. I would add that the micro four thirds cameras will allow one to "preview" exposure because they use EVF, rather than optical.
Thanks David, your way of explaining is always very clear and detailed. While most people would stop at the metering options offered by the cameras, you went on discussing the concept of correct exposure. I found that a very welcome bonus part!
Back in the stone, I mean film age you never knew if you got the right exposure till the film was developed. The beauty of mirrorless is you have real time feedback and you can reshoot immediately if necessary. You are my favorite m4/3 evangelist!
Great video. The only time I used spot exposure was when shooting the bright characters in a dark ride at Disneyworld. The camera exposed the characters perfectly and ignored the dark, unused background
+batterista Yes, lovely isn't it. I used to buy 1600 film and push it a couple of stops just because I liked the grain and high digital ISO is quite similar. I don't think 25600 is usable for general image making but it is worth having as an effect.
Fred Px Yes, I set that always so that I can always switch quickly to M and see exactly what I'm getting. That is a huge advantage of cameras which read directly off the sensor as their main mode.
David Thorpe In low light situations the frame rate should be set to normal. If set to high (what I prefer), the preview picture is a bit darker than the picture taken (in low light).
I would be interested in comparing metering performance between in camera and using my Sekonik 1 degree spot meter. Especially if I also adjust accordingly a la Zone System
In my press days, when several of us were waiting on a job we'd all take an exposure reading. If there were 10 photographers, there's be ten different readings! There never seemed any pattern to it and the readings didn't differ that much but each one worked for each photographer. Bizarre....
Thanks for this very informative video. I wish you'd make video about crop factor affecting camera settings like aperture. The general opinion is that M43 cameras aperture must be multiplied by 2 to get an equivalent aperture as a FF. I am quite confused by this as far as exposure is concerned. After all when a light meter is used to get exposure, there is absolutely nothing that takes sensor size into account. When the sensor is smaller the light falling on each pixel is the same as long as pixel density is the same compared to FF....So why multiply aperture by crop factor ?
Multiplying the aperture to get an equivalent for FF is for people who take their pictures with spreadsheets :-) An f/2 lens on Micro Four Thirds gathers the same light as an f/5.6 on FF or an f/16 on medium format. So what? is my reaction. Micro Four Thirds lenses don't fit bigger sensor cameras so the fact is redundant. Your instincts are 100% correct. An f/2 lens is an f/2 lens.
I love how m43 cameras can show the histogram in real time. I drag mine to part of the viewfinder where it isn't in the way of my view of the subject and slightly over-expose making sure I'm not clipping. It's easier to reduce exposure in post if you haven't burnt your highlights than increase exposure and introduce noise. Some m43 photographers turn on the blinkies for identifying blown highlights, but I find them distracting... And I always use an incident meter if I use flash.... continually adjusting camera settings or flash strength to get the correct exposure wastes the subject's time, plus I don't find the viewfinder particularly accurate for judging exposure.
+simianinc I don't like blinkies - in fact I generally like to keep the viewfinder as clear as possible when shooting stills or video. I used to use a Minolta meter in film days for flash, studio and location. Brilliant for fill-in. I'm old schooling that I use the viewfinder purely for viewing. I find I know what the picture will look like from experience before take it so I just make sure the framing and focus are right.
oh my god, thank you! i laughed out loud at the rembrandt joke. i take a lot of photos of dogs running about on the beach, wondered what metering mode would you use?. i thought at first spot but i dont always get the right exposure. does the metering stop once you half press the shutter? i have the most problems with black or dark brown dogs. i use a very slow g3 and was hoping to upgrade to a gx7 this year, maybe i should get an old gh3? whats the main difference between the bulkier gh and the smaller g/gx etc? thanks for your great videos, i thought i made a mistake going for mft but i feel a bit better about it now.
frontsideboy I'm glad you liked the video. Dark dogs running about on a beach are about as difficult a subject as i can imagine. My advice would be to train them on the command 'stop' to immediately stop wherever they are, in mid jump or full running mode, meter carefully and take the picture and then recommence whatever they were doing on the command 'go'. If you can't do that :-) and seriously, the best bet would be to have the dog(s) sit for a moment and take a picture with the dogs around the same size in the frame as they usually are in your action pix. Then, dial in +1 compensation. That should be around right but a few tries will tell you whether compensation should be more or less. The point is that you need to get the exposure correct for the dogs, the rest will have to take care of itself. The GH3 and GX7, the real difference for most photographers is in the feel and handling. In principle I'd go for the GX7 but the new G7 appears to encompass the best of both of them and is worth a look. I'm hoping to get one soon.
such a simple solution i feel a little silly having not thought about it myself. d'oh! the main reason im looking at gx7 or second hand gh3 is cash. i aint flush right now but im still wanting to do something interesting with photography. and i need a little extra performance. the tilting viewfinder feels so right for following action whilst staying as low as possible. also you can get a bigger eyecup add-on for the evf. it feels too shallow as standard and using a flip screen to track action is more awkward. id love to see more old photos and video from your professional days, looks real interesting, thanks for taking the time to reply david!
frontsideboy I don't have that much in the way of old photos, so much of my work was commissioned for newspapers and magazines and record companies. At the time it was just me earning my daily bread and I'd forget about a job as soon as I'd delivered the pix. Now, I wish I'd kept copies of everything. The GH3 and GX7 thing is difficult but the more I think about it the more sense a GH3 makes. Same image quality as the GX7, but the flip out screen and much better viewfinder. Some bargains around on it now, think.
Sadly modern digital photography has taken away the joy of the entire photo-taking process.... everything happens too quickly and the results too instant.
Sorry you feel that way. Digital has its good points but its true that the instant accessibility takes away some of the pleasure. Like Downloading MP3s on the spot instead of searching them out at the record shop!
paul botwright Thanks Paul. I always mean to do more but getting hold of gear is difficult and because of the way I do videos they take an age to make.
Does the camera change the aperture of the lens during metering? I found the camera will open up or close down the aperture depending where I aim it - bright lights or dark shadow. Is this normal?
If you are in Shutter Priority mode, the aperture will change to maintain correct exposure. It will alter it also, along with the shutter speed in Program mode. If you set Aperture priority, the camera will maintain the aperture set and change the shutter speed. All central to modern camera operation and perfectly normal.
Hey David, I actually found out what's happening. It seems to be normal, but rather strange. Some call this rattlesnaking of the lens. Here's more on it. I was a bit worried as I was in A or M mode and thought I had full control of the aperture ... www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3192081
Hi David, what's the best affordable (cheap) image processing software for the modern Oly and Panasonic raw files? I currently use a very ancient P.S. Elements 8 and don't own any M43 gear. My current Fuji X-T1 jpegs have wierd-looking skin textures and eyes that have an unnatural look that's hard to correct. I never experienced that with Nikon files.
I convert all my RAW images to DNG which is more generic than the ORF or RW2 files, even though it is Adobe's. Paint Shop Pro will handle most RAW files, I believe. Having said that, few will be unhappy with Olympus's jpg output and Panasonic's is very similar in the newer cameras. I use Lightroom which is excellent but not cheap. Any recommendations, anyone?
a lightmeter allows us to rapidly expose to the right to exploit the maximum dynamic of the captor: an incident measure with a systematic correction of +1.33 EV is the goal. So that your raw image will always have the less grany shadows possible in post processing.
I cannot agree on Your spot metering verdict - rarely it does deliver the final exposure settings. Spot metering is meant to define the f-stop of the spotted area, thus if one decides that the sky should be 2 f-stops brighter than mid gray one has to add 2 f-stops on the resulting metering in manual mode or dial 2 f-stops of compensation in semi-automatic mode. If there is a lack of dynamic range on the sensor one has to take a second metering for another crucial spot in the frame on the opposite side of the range and make a compromise - or even do a third one …
I am/was a working photographer so I write about what works in my experience. I tend to subscribe to Occam's razor where you prefer a more labyrinthine take on things. Neither is of itself right or wrong but I cannot help thinking that by the timer I'd finished doing the calculations you outline, my subject would as likely as not run for the hills :-)
What an excellent video. One of your very best. Having shot exclusively M43 for the last 5 years, I would like to add that the best method of metering for ME is to enable the "shadow" and "highlight" "blinkies" in the EVF (OM-D cameras). You will then see virtually EXACTLY what the final shot will look like. Rarely more than one-third of a stop out, EVER.
Good tip, Roger, thanks. I've pinned your comment to the top here. For Panasonics, the Zebra setting does a similar job but is limited to highlights only so not so comprehensive an aid.
Thank you David,. I'm most flattered to receive praise from my favourite TH-cam photographer. I don't think the latest generation EVFs are appreciated nearly enough. After changing my kit from CANON full-frame to OM-D E-M1s my "keeper-rate" improved dramatically, and I put it down, mostly, to the EVF. Thanks again, please keep the videos coming, you have a unique, lucid style of presentation that I love.
I'll keep 'em coming - and thanks!
David, please don't ever stop making these videos. There's something about the way you explain things that leaves me saying, "Oh, NOW I get it." Thank you.
+Jorn Knuttila That's exactly my intention and it is good to hear it hits the mark for you. Thanks Jorn.
I feel like I learn something new every time.
What a wonderful examination of the photographer’s pursuit of light and shadow...
Brilliant! As usual.. This was a good review for those of us who are your contemporaries, or older, and a great source for the newcomer. I would add that the micro four thirds cameras will allow one to "preview" exposure because they use EVF, rather than optical.
Thanks David, your way of explaining is always very clear and detailed. While most people would stop at the metering options offered by the cameras, you went on discussing the concept of correct exposure. I found that a very welcome bonus part!
mcol3 I'm glad you found that part interesting. I love the technical side of things but the _photography_ part of cameras sometimes gets overlooked.
Back in the stone, I mean film age you never knew if you got the right exposure till the film was developed. The beauty of mirrorless is you have real time feedback and you can reshoot immediately if necessary. You are my favorite m4/3 evangelist!
Thanks for the video.
Love to have you do a video on your past experiences and shoots.
Simply and elegantly explained! Thank you Maestro!
Hi David,
Really enjoyed this video. I was wondering if you could do a video on the 7-14mm f/2.8 Olympus lens, Thanks.
Thanks for shedding some light on this subject, it was very informative
soixante douze That's good to hear - hanks!
Brilliant.
How have I missed this?
I will be back for another look to take it all in.
Thank you.
Glad you find it useful, Paul. Thanks.
thank you david. very informative. i use the M4/3 olympus like you. cheers. j.
Thank you. Your thoughts and opinions always make sense to me.
Great video. The only time I used spot exposure was when shooting the bright characters in a dark ride at Disneyworld. The camera exposed the characters perfectly and ignored the dark, unused background
Excellent. Thanks for your great insight.
The rose at 25600 has wonderful character, almost impressionistic with its heavy grain.
+batterista Yes, lovely isn't it. I used to buy 1600 film and push it a couple of stops just because I liked the grain and high digital ISO is quite similar. I don't think 25600 is usable for general image making but it is worth having as an effect.
Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks, Laurence!
Thanx for the interesting video. Very useful explanations. Good hint to switch off live view boost in manual mode if you want to see what you get.
Fred Px Yes, I set that always so that I can always switch quickly to M and see exactly what I'm getting. That is a huge advantage of cameras which read directly off the sensor as their main mode.
David Thorpe In low light situations the frame rate should be set to normal. If set to high (what I prefer), the preview picture is a bit darker than the picture taken (in low light).
Fred Px Useful to know - thanks!
I would be interested in comparing metering performance between in camera and using my Sekonik 1 degree spot meter. Especially if I also adjust accordingly a la Zone System
In my press days, when several of us were waiting on a job we'd all take an exposure reading. If there were 10 photographers, there's be ten different readings! There never seemed any pattern to it and the readings didn't differ that much but each one worked for each photographer. Bizarre....
Lovely to listen to as usual. Thank you.
Giacomo Ardesi Thank you, Giacomo!
Absolutely excellent, David. Really clear, thoughtful and challenging!
Glad it was interesting - thanks for taking the trouble to tell me so!
David Thorpe I also like the local scenery - I grew up in Kingston - ex Tiffin boy!
My son went to Tiffin Boys and my daughter to Tiffin Girls. My son started there in 1980, I think.
David Thorpe I started in ‘76. I was head boy in ‘82 so your son may remember me. Puccioni.
I'll ask him. He lives in Tunbridge Wells now, where I went to Skinners School, another Grammar. We're verywhere!
well done again David! extremely useful video. thank you.
+luiszo11 Glad to hear it - thanks!
great summary there, David.
Thanks, Andrew.
nice video David - and helpful - thanks
Nicely done.
Loved the Rose.
Also, nice to see there's a cool light meter app for my new Galaxy phone. Thanks for that, too.
Thanks!
Thanks, I liked the ending especially.
MUSTDOS Thank you - amazing what control a camera, allegedly a recording device, gives you.
Thanks for this very informative video. I wish you'd make video about crop factor affecting camera settings like aperture. The general opinion is that M43 cameras aperture must be multiplied by 2 to get an equivalent aperture as a FF. I am quite confused by this as far as exposure is concerned. After all when a light meter is used to get exposure, there is absolutely nothing that takes sensor size into account. When the sensor is smaller the light falling on each pixel is the same as long as pixel density is the same compared to FF....So why multiply aperture by crop factor ?
Multiplying the aperture to get an equivalent for FF is for people who take their pictures with spreadsheets :-) An f/2 lens on Micro Four Thirds gathers the same light as an f/5.6 on FF or an f/16 on medium format. So what? is my reaction. Micro Four Thirds lenses don't fit bigger sensor cameras so the fact is redundant. Your instincts are 100% correct. An f/2 lens is an f/2 lens.
Very interesting as always
I love how m43 cameras can show the histogram in real time. I drag mine to part of the viewfinder where it isn't in the way of my view of the subject and slightly over-expose making sure I'm not clipping. It's easier to reduce exposure in post if you haven't burnt your highlights than increase exposure and introduce noise.
Some m43 photographers turn on the blinkies for identifying blown highlights, but I find them distracting...
And I always use an incident meter if I use flash.... continually adjusting camera settings or flash strength to get the correct exposure wastes the subject's time, plus I don't find the viewfinder particularly accurate for judging exposure.
+simianinc I don't like blinkies - in fact I generally like to keep the viewfinder as clear as possible when shooting stills or video. I used to use a Minolta meter in film days for flash, studio and location. Brilliant for fill-in. I'm old schooling that I use the viewfinder purely for viewing. I find I know what the picture will look like from experience before take it so I just make sure the framing and focus are right.
Super informative! And silly me, I've been doing center-weighted this whole time! Oh well, better late than never, lol!
Thanks! Center-weighted works well most of the time, as you'll have found. The newer systems just cope with difficult conditions better.
oh my god, thank you! i laughed out loud at the rembrandt joke. i take a lot of photos of dogs running about on the beach, wondered what metering mode would you use?. i thought at first spot but i dont always get the right exposure. does the metering stop once you half press the shutter? i have the most problems with black or dark brown dogs. i use a very slow g3 and was hoping to upgrade to a gx7 this year, maybe i should get an old gh3? whats the main difference between the bulkier gh and the smaller g/gx etc? thanks for your great videos, i thought i made a mistake going for mft but i feel a bit better about it now.
frontsideboy I'm glad you liked the video. Dark dogs running about on a beach are about as difficult a subject as i can imagine. My advice would be to train them on the command 'stop' to immediately stop wherever they are, in mid jump or full running mode, meter carefully and take the picture and then recommence whatever they were doing on the command 'go'. If you can't do that :-) and seriously, the best bet would be to have the dog(s) sit for a moment and take a picture with the dogs around the same size in the frame as they usually are in your action pix. Then, dial in +1 compensation. That should be around right but a few tries will tell you whether compensation should be more or less. The point is that you need to get the exposure correct for the dogs, the rest will have to take care of itself. The GH3 and GX7, the real difference for most photographers is in the feel and handling. In principle I'd go for the GX7 but the new G7 appears to encompass the best of both of them and is worth a look. I'm hoping to get one soon.
such a simple solution i feel a little silly having not thought about it myself. d'oh! the main reason im looking at gx7 or second hand gh3 is cash. i aint flush right now but im still wanting to do something interesting with photography. and i need a little extra performance. the tilting viewfinder feels so right for following action whilst staying as low as possible. also you can get a bigger eyecup add-on for the evf. it feels too shallow as standard and using a flip screen to track action is more awkward. id love to see more old photos and video from your professional days, looks real interesting, thanks for taking the time to reply david!
frontsideboy I don't have that much in the way of old photos, so much of my work was commissioned for newspapers and magazines and record companies. At the time it was just me earning my daily bread and I'd forget about a job as soon as I'd delivered the pix. Now, I wish I'd kept copies of everything.
The GH3 and GX7 thing is difficult but the more I think about it the more sense a GH3 makes. Same image quality as the GX7, but the flip out screen and much better viewfinder. Some bargains around on it now, think.
That was great! Thanks.
+brickthomas Thanks to you!
Wish it has multi-spot metering as the OM-4 with that lovely dotted scale on blue.
There's always something missing, Melvin. I have a feeling it is a law of photography :-)
Sadly modern digital photography has taken away the joy of the entire photo-taking process.... everything happens too quickly and the results too instant.
Sorry you feel that way. Digital has its good points but its true that the instant accessibility takes away some of the pleasure. Like Downloading MP3s on the spot instead of searching them out at the record shop!
Welcome back
paul botwright Thanks Paul. I always mean to do more but getting hold of gear is difficult and because of the way I do videos they take an age to make.
Does the camera change the aperture of the lens during metering? I found the camera will open up or close down the aperture depending where I aim it - bright lights or dark shadow. Is this normal?
If you are in Shutter Priority mode, the aperture will change to maintain correct exposure. It will alter it also, along with the shutter speed in Program mode. If you set Aperture priority, the camera will maintain the aperture set and change the shutter speed.
All central to modern camera operation and perfectly normal.
Hey David, I actually found out what's happening. It seems to be normal, but rather strange. Some call this rattlesnaking of the lens. Here's more on it. I was a bit worried as I was in A or M mode and thought I had full control of the aperture ...
www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3192081
Main thing is, nothing to worry about! Interesting though, thanks for bringing it up.
Hi David, what's the best affordable (cheap) image processing software for the modern Oly and Panasonic raw files? I currently use a very ancient P.S. Elements 8 and don't own any M43 gear. My current Fuji X-T1 jpegs have wierd-looking skin textures and eyes that have an unnatural look that's hard to correct. I never experienced that with Nikon files.
I convert all my RAW images to DNG which is more generic than the ORF or RW2 files, even though it is Adobe's. Paint Shop Pro will handle most RAW files, I believe. Having said that, few will be unhappy with Olympus's jpg output and Panasonic's is very similar in the newer cameras. I use Lightroom which is excellent but not cheap. Any recommendations, anyone?
Thank you kinkdly for your thoughts. I'll have a play with the Fuji and DNG files.
great video, was very helpful for me :)
+Deran Good to hear and thanks for telling me!
a lightmeter allows us to rapidly expose to the right to exploit the maximum dynamic of the captor: an incident measure with a systematic correction of +1.33 EV is the goal. So that your raw image will always have the less grany shadows possible in post processing.
Great video. As always. :)
I really thought I knew what I was doing until I saw this. Now I know why my spot metering always fails.
Glad it helped. Spot metering can work for you but it can work against you too. But once it is understood, it is a useful tool.
I cannot agree on Your spot metering verdict - rarely it does deliver the final exposure settings. Spot metering is meant to define the f-stop of the spotted area, thus if one decides that the sky should be 2 f-stops brighter than mid gray one has to add 2 f-stops on the resulting metering in manual mode or dial 2 f-stops of compensation in semi-automatic mode.
If there is a lack of dynamic range on the sensor one has to take a second metering for another crucial spot in the frame on the opposite side of the range and make a compromise - or even do a third one …
I am/was a working photographer so I write about what works in my experience. I tend to subscribe to Occam's razor where you prefer a more labyrinthine take on things. Neither is of itself right or wrong but I cannot help thinking that by the timer I'd finished doing the calculations you outline, my subject would as likely as not run for the hills :-)
Great!
😊😊
A light meter always looks good went you start waving it around
Yes. Mind you I'm not sure my Android App is quite as impressive. Cheaper, though!