Ive always used my histogram, instead of the exposure compensation display, to expose to the left or right (depending on whether I want to protect highlights or shadows.)
I'm a hobbyist photographer and I've always used the histogram+manual mode as well. I never liked the idea of not having full control over my camera, so as soon as I learnt about those I began using them all the time.
The camera is not attempting to get a "correct" exposure. As you stated, it is exposing for "middle gray" because that is the only thing it can reliably do with a reflective light reading. Anyone that relies on the camera for a "correct exposure" is going to be occasionally disappointed. However, it results in an acceptable exposure much of the time and for most camera owners that is good enough.
The brilliance of the Zone System and a spot meter was total control over exposure, including shadows and highlights. I still keep that in mind when shooting digital. Cheers!
@@FilNenna I highly recommend Ansel Adams’ series of books, The Camera, The Negative, and The Print. It’s still a relevant deep dive, especially if you’re into black and white. I used to shoot large format B&W, but a lot of the concepts still work with digital. Cheers!
Since moving to the mirrorless Nikon system last year, I have started using the additional dial on the lenses as exp. comp. The evf in z8 shows me exactly what I am getting. It’s particularly useful for shooting birds and for macro
@@Soundwave857 bought my first Praktika MTL3 forty five years ago. Sold X300 and X700 minoltas when I worked in a camera store in the 80s. So I’m fully aware of exposure compensation and bracketing. What I said was that I can see exactly how adjusting it is going to affect the picture in real time with just a little twiddle of the ring on the lens.
Interesting video, I guess helpfull to some, BUT and it is a big but... there are a lot of, well, at least not enough explained things that could confuse or mislead those whom the video is talking to. Incident light metering IS the best for setting the exposure right, but, there will not be many opportunities to use incident meter (and reflected meters tend to be on the expesnsive side). What you HAVE ALREADY in the camera is a reflective light meter, but since it is only a tool, you have to learn how to use it. When you have done that it will become one of your most valuable tools... and you don't have to pay extra for it (my advice is to always use it in spot mode, though). It gives you, not only the light that comes from the subject, but also from the background, foreground... you only need to know how to read it. And, if you carry with you a gray card (which is far more cheaper than the light meter, AND can serve few other purposes like white balancing) you'll have proper exposure readout from the camera's spot meter (reflected light meter) also without the need for the mathematics.
Ah... The "good old days" when I had a light meter seperate from the camera, still valid these days, 50 years later! Yes, I use exposure compensation a lot on my camera these days, only as I'm too lazy to go full manual! Another "on the head" video, Fil, great stuff.
Your video is like a bolt of lightning. It’s the stuff that a lot of us understand but never look at it the way you so clearly explain. I have nearly always used a hand held light meter or Sunny 16 regardless of the camera I use. I learned my photography on a battered Rolleicord and so find it difficult to trust inbuilt metering. A couple of years back I decided to polish or at least buff up my Sunny 16 skills and managed to get the accuracy of my metering to half a stop in no time really. I found this to be very liberating in removing another obstacle in the picture taking process. The obstacle being a lack of confidence in the cameras meter or me holding the hand held meter in a busy environment. Although I think most people assumed I was holding a mobile phone. Anyhoo, I hope your quotation fingers are healing up nicely.
Manual photography is SO simple...yet difficult to explain... you did a good job. We haver to get people to take back the control over the camera, and not automatic decide... Thanks for a great video. Tom
Back in my early film-only days, many of my film cameras (Nikon F, Nikon F2, Mamiya TLR, Mamiya RB67, Fuji medium format rangefinders, and 4x5 inch large format view cameras) did not have built-in exposure meters. To determine the correct exposure, I used a handheld light meter and/or the Sunny 16 Exposure Guidelines. My first batch of film cameras with built-in exposure meters Nikon F3, Nikon F4, Leica M6, Pentax Spotmatic, Contax G, and Fuji ST705) were not accurate enough for my taste. Many times, I still used my handheld light meter. In some cases, I did not even put batteries in the camera to activate the light meter. In the digital age, light meters had improved so much that I began to rely on them for the correct exposure.
100% spot on and couldn't agree more. I shoot full manual most of the time ( rarely I'll use Auto ISO in changable ambient settings during events ). For me having consistency of exposure from frame to frame is very important. Not only does it make a series of images look visually consistent, it makes for an easier post editing workflow where I can copy and paste settings from one image to the rest very quickly. I often use my sekonic meters with both my digital and film cameras to achieve this. The ability to utilise " live view " with overlayed histogram in the EVF has also made life easier since going mirrorless. I largely ignore the built in meter these days just glancing at it to ensure I'm not vastly over or underexposed ( particularly if I'm using a DSLR which I still shoot from time to time ). I've never used exposure compensation in a camera in all my time shooting either, the whole point seems rather redundant to me. I mean if I know my meter is reading zero in camera but that the photo needs to be say one stop brighter or darker to compensate then I just adjust either shutter/aperture or ISO to make that compensation myself so really what is the point of an exposure compensation button anyway? There's also the real chance you'll forget to reset it back to zero too resulting in your following frames being incorrectly exposed. I use flash quite a lot too, often in TTL if I'm shooting events. I prefer full manual flash for the same reasons I prefer full manual exposure but actually TTL flash works very well if your ambient exposure is controlled manually. TTL flash tends to get a bad rap but I think the poor results many experiance is because folk use it while using semi auto modes ( or worse full auto modes like P mode ). You really can't expect good results if you expect your camera to decide all the exposure variables along with flash settings to boot in a fraction of a second! Modern flashes like Godox also have the TTL to manual switch which allows the user to maintain the TTL setting to a fixed manual output. I get the benefit of TTL giving me a faster calculation which I can compensate for immediately then switch those settings to manual to maintain my flash output very quickly. I hear a lot of photographers stating that use of full manual means you'll miss photos faffing about and that modes like shutter priority and aperture priority are the way to go. I can see their point but honestly I rarely miss my exposures, I've been adjusting manually for so long now I'd say my exposure hit rate is higher than letting the cameras meter do the guess work in semi auto modes. As always keep up the great work 👍
@@TimGreig The point is very obviously to adjust exposure for the actual reflectance of the light falling on your subject, if you're using any of the automatic exposure modes, because the actual reflectance can vary widely from the 18% that the camera expects.
Your video is a real eye opener and also perfect timing for an upcoming project! I can never seem to capture both shadows and highlights in strongly backlit scenes. So I run ragged adjusting EV only to wind up with every frame slightly different as in your example of headshots. My question, how do you meter for "incident light" and is it appropriate for architectural photography with dark rooms and bright sun washing through the windows? Thx!
Strong backlight is a real test of your sensor's dynamic range. You can evaluate a test shot on your screen in conjunction with the histogram. Couple of ways to tackle architecture exposures. One is to merge two or three bracketed exposures, so you preserve detail in the highlights and the shadows. Or you can try and expose for the highlights in zone ix and deal with the shadows in post if you are a fan of the zone system, which might still be relevant in a situation like this. Or if time is on your side, wait until dusk or night and use available light and strobes.
I'd even won't think about centering the needle in M mode unless you told me some people do so :D M is for external metering or "i know what I'm doing" use cases. If I want to use in-camera meter, I use A mode and exposure compensation. or... is some cameras, like Nikon F85 using manual and deliberately offsetting the needle is much faster than using A and exp. compensation.
M, actually is more for an: OK camera, you tell me this, but I want THIS exposure... I come from a camera world, and when I don't have a zebra, waveform or false color (or a light meter - incident AND reflected) I use cameras spot metering a lot. LCD's can be pretty decieving, especially if you use a lot of different cameras in your line of work... and, unfortunately, histogram is not a good tool for me.
There are some famous photographers who knew nothing about exposure, like Jane Bown, but I agree that a lot of us can get some real enjoyment out of a deeper understanding.
"Sunny 16" is another concept in this area that beginners should know about for getting consistent exposures in sunlight and as a reality check on meter readings. It's more useful when shooting film where you can't check. But I have found it useful in planning a series of images in sunny conditions on digital. (quick explanation: for sunlight exposure, exposure will be correct at f16 with the shutter speed set to the same value as your ISO - 1/100th of a sec at f16 at 100ISO. Then go up one stop in shutter for every stop you go up in aperture, so 1/200th at f11 etc. To truly nail it, open up by 1/3rd stop otherwise you'll be very slightly underexposed). This reminds me of my first real experience of taking a lot of pictures. My Pentax MX shot manual only. But in those early days I'd just adjust shutter and aperture nearly randomly until the LED light for the meter read green-for-go and I'd hit the shutter. Now I still use manual a great deal - especially on my little mirrorless Fujifilm XE1 where I have a histogram in the finder and get an idea of the exposure from the finder image too. But now I know how the various manual settings affect the final image. I know the old tricks like spot metering next to the sun for perfect sunset exposure on film, exposing for white sand or snow, and finding middle grey in a colourful scene (green lawns or the red on signs for example). Manual is a very satisfying mode to use for planned and particularly consistent results. And it does ultimately teach you a lot about how all of the components, shutterspeed, aperture, and ISO create very particular results in photography. But yes, it's not ideal for rapidly changing scenes.
Absolutely. I've yet to find a good video on the zone system. There's good information out there, but it's not very digestible. I might try to do a version of that in the future.
Please do! The best zone system videos I've found have usually failed to actually demonstrate how to use it. Saying "average concrete is zone V" doesn't really help the end user.
Using manual exposure settings to me is just more freedom to chose how a scene is exposed - that may well be the same as the camera would choose - but I am normally half a stop or more under to take care of highlights. But shooting mirrorless makes it far easier as you can gauge results real-time, provided you have set your viewfinder/rear display to a realistic brightness. Good suff
Ansel Adams comes to mind. 18% grey for any reflective (not incident) meter reading taken. But for me when using 35mm film, a black with detail would be an exposure one stop under the meter reading taken for that part of the scene when I set the ISO for FP4 at 200 ASA. A white with texture would be an exposure two stops over that. Development time would vary depending on how many stops were between the two. All I have to do now is figure out the exposure latitude for my digital camera, and apply the same principle. Once I know how digital behaves in a certain brightness range, my exposure results should be consistent. As for image editing software, I haven't a clue. I'm going to have to learn (to me) a new thing.
I use the histogram. If it's daytime and there is any significant amount of white in the scene, then I expose to the right, to make that white as white as possible, without blowing it out. If it's daytime and there is no significant amount of white in the scene, then I expose to the middle. If it's evening, and there is a significant amount of white in the scene, I expose to the middle, to make the white look a bit grayish, because that is how white looks to our eyes in lower light conditions. If it's evening, and there is no significant white in the scene, then I expose to the left. If it's evening, and there are bright artificial/city lights I may expose to the right, or even blow out the highlights depending upon the effect I'm looking for. In short, I look at the brightest part of my scene, and I decide where I want it to fall on the histogram. If it's a landscape shot, and I have plenty of time, I relax my brain and simply take multiple exposures.
Yesterday using my Camera in manual maode and I couldnt get the exposure I wanted and the highlights were blown out. Serendippity you solved my dilemma for me!
I don't know what cameras you all are using, but in my camera, when I use the manual mode, I control the aparture, ISO and Shutter speed. The only thing that is not according to my settings is the display itself. It aitonadkjst for brightness even though this compensation is not reflected on my photo. Ironically when I am in Shutter or aperture priority mode, the display shows me the correct lighting. Which is why I often prefer to use the Shutter priority mode when using a manual lens.
I think you missed the point. Everybody adjusts aperture, ISO, and shutter speed when using manual mode on any camera. What matters is the exposure you get as a result of those settings, and a lot of the time the exposure will be wrong if you adjust everything to put that exposure display you see in your viewfinder right in the middle.
I just shoot in manual mode with auto-ISO these days. That way I can focus on adjusting the shutter speed and aperture as actual creative tools without worrying about getting the "correct" exposure.
Exposure compensation is just another value like shutterspeed, aperture and iso to adjust. I don't look at what value metering is at, i increase or decrease the exposure by looking at the live view and zebras. With exposure compensation i can tell the camera to adjusts shutterspeed and iso according to my set limits like min shutterspeed and max iso. Also ofc your metering will jump around like crazy if you only spot meter a white mug and then a black mug
Great video! I’ve often pondered about exposure. The incident meter is as you say a great tool in many situations for consistency, but I’ve struggled to figure out how to capture the “present” light in a scene. All exposure methods aim to get middle grey accurate. Sunny sixteen will give you an exposure for middle grey, as will incident metering or a grey card, but sometimes I want to convey that a scene is dark (say an evening scene), any of the methods mentioned will render a brighter result than the scene I saw ie turning every evening shot in to mid day shots. In such cases, I’ve arrived at the conclusion that i use reflective metering with compensation to obtain a more realistic result sooc.
I think we are in zone system territory here. In a dim light situation, you'd put the brightest parts in a middle zone like V, and see if you can still get detail in the shadows, presuming you want them.
There are quite a few things I disagree with in this video and I think you misunderstand the tech a bit. 1. Built in camera meters are amazing and have really made photography much better and easier (Nikon F prism meter or Nikon FA matrix metering) though they don't necessarily expose the way you want nor do they necessarily expose the way you want your FINAL picture to look (two very slightly different concepts). 2. The exposure over/under expose arrow doesn't have to stay in the middle when you are in fully manual mode, and indeed if you do that you are missing the point. Do many people shoot like this? Why, manual mode snobbism? As a pro I have shot most of my pictures for the past 30 years in aperture priority sometimes with some exposure compensation. Specifically on Canon which you use,, even in M mode and when using a flash. the TTL will give you basically an auto exposure result blending flash and scene lighting or, if that cannot be achieved in darker scenes, it will expose for your foreground. You have to go manual on the flash too to be in full control. 3. Incident light metering has issues too! It might give you the final image you want when you press the shutter but you could also lose details in the shadows or highlights if you do that. I keep my light meter mostly for film photography or if I have a film camera that only has spot or center weighted, rarely for digital. Back to the camera meter, sure it will try to get 18% grey in spot mode and wherever your spot is but it isn't like that that matrix metering works. In matrix metering it will average everything out (sometimes identifying the subject in more modern cameras, sometimes giving extra weight to the area of the imagine you are focused on... Later on Canon EOS film cameras) try to find a compromise between a decent final result and retaining as much detail as possible throughout the scene. I think of matrix metering as scanning the scene. It is probably the best exposure you can get if you edit your raw files to get the final result you want as not only you could get an exposure that looks like the one you got with your incident light meter but you would likely get that with better highlight or shadow details if your scene has wide dynamic range. Frankly, modern cameras have rendered almost useless both lightmeters and flashmeters. And yes, you can also use the histogram, I sometimes use the RGB one.... But even with an HDR scene, like a mountain picture with a lot of snow, I think more and more cameras now recognise snow and compensates for it automatically.
Lots of very thoughtful points made, and I agree with all of them. It highlights how many scenareos we might have to deal with. And there's a different tool for each job. No matter how smart/advanced a metering mode is, I have to understand what it is doing and rapidly evaluate if it fits my expectations. In portraiture, especially if there are multiple sitters in a row, I like the certainty of a fixed exposure. The points I tried to make were that it's more efficient to use Auto than blindly using Manual, and that the camera's meter is easily fooled by the brightness of the subject. So we should think more about incident light even if, like 99.9% of photographers, you dont have an external meter.
@@FilNenna we agree, using manual mode to pretend to be an advanced photographer and aiming at being in line with matrix metering is incredibly silly! Better use Av or Tv or the new supposedly new mode I forgot the abbreviation of but is supposed to offer the best of both worlds and I never use. But as I mentioned above and we also agree on is that incident light isn't a miracle exposure and doesn't always give the best result. But when I go out with an old camera I do an incident light metering above my head and in the direction of what I am shooting (well backwards) and I keep sorting like that until I change direction or a cloud comes along... And it is very easy and works pretty well. You must just remember to re-meter if anything changes. That and hyperfocal and you wonder why you need a new camera... I know the answer to that
I think it's a mug's game using exposure to set the lightness of your picture (lightness is how light or dark the picture looks, exposure is how much light energy - per unit area - at the sensor - people often confuse them). Best off setting the biggest exposure that you DOF and shake requirements allow (or you camera can accept) because that give you the best image quality. Then set ISO (pronounced 'eye-so', BTW, not 'eye-ess-oh' - it's not an initialism) so as to keep the highlights - or just let auto ISO do it for you. Then set the lighness in processing with the aid of feedback from a nice big computer screen. It takes out all the guesswork.
Really? I use manual because I was sick of the sky highlights blowing out, so I centre the meter on the sky first then recompose and fix everything later easier to recover shadows than fix highlights, for film that wouldn’t be as effective but with high speed sync flash I was able to take better photos of my kids growing up by metering for the sky, but it just seems that there is just another bit of gear that you ABSOLUTELY NEED to take good photos, without a light meter you can just bracket 10 photos and get at least one good photo, sure if you are a professional and by that I mean “WORKING “ photographer not a know it all who thinks that qualifies as professional because professional means someone who earns a living as a photographer even if they are mediocre, and you have the money or can claim it on tax by all means but for the enthusiast, with a digital camera taking 10 shots at different settings can yield at least one ideal photo, not talking about HDR either I don’t like HDR it looks unnatural but whatever. (Note I never read replies to my comments ever, regardless of the topic, so knock yourselves “professionals”.)
I much prefer cameras with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) No need to faff about the metering. But so far, only Samsung, Fujifilm, Sony, Olympus and Canon actually have usable WYSIWYG live view.
@@FilNennaAside the fact that the lcds are very unreliable and the picture on them depend on a lot of factors like ambient light, manufacturer, etc (which is a pain in the... if you are using different cameras in your work of which not all are yours) and the fact that they can get you in the ballpark but not give you critical exposure... Those lcds are in fact REFLECTED light tools, since they show light reflected from the subject and picked up by the sensor. And reflected light metering is good... think of the backlit subject, neon signs, led screens or lights in the background for example... And I agree 100% with you on the INTENTIONAL exposure. Assisted or not by the camera or any other meter.
Ive always used my histogram, instead of the exposure compensation display, to expose to the left or right (depending on whether I want to protect highlights or shadows.)
Great way to do it.
I'm a hobbyist photographer and I've always used the histogram+manual mode as well. I never liked the idea of not having full control over my camera, so as soon as I learnt about those I began using them all the time.
The camera is not attempting to get a "correct" exposure. As you stated, it is exposing for "middle gray" because that is the only thing it can reliably do with a reflective light reading. Anyone that relies on the camera for a "correct exposure" is going to be occasionally disappointed. However, it results in an acceptable exposure much of the time and for most camera owners that is good enough.
The brilliance of the Zone System and a spot meter was total control over exposure, including shadows and highlights. I still keep that in mind when shooting digital. Cheers!
Absolutely. I've never gone slow enough to deeply explore the zone system. Maybe this is a good time to do it. Thanks for the comment!
@@FilNenna I highly recommend Ansel Adams’ series of books, The Camera, The Negative, and The Print. It’s still a relevant deep dive, especially if you’re into black and white. I used to shoot large format B&W, but a lot of the concepts still work with digital. Cheers!
Since moving to the mirrorless Nikon system last year, I have started using the additional dial on the lenses as exp. comp. The evf in z8 shows me exactly what I am getting. It’s particularly useful for shooting birds and for macro
DSLR also have a EV compensation function. Even my super old Minolta SLR has that
@@Soundwave857 bought my first Praktika MTL3 forty five years ago. Sold X300 and X700 minoltas when I worked in a camera store in the 80s. So I’m fully aware of exposure compensation and bracketing.
What I said was that I can see exactly how adjusting it is going to affect the picture in real time with just a little twiddle of the ring on the lens.
Interesting video, I guess helpfull to some, BUT and it is a big but... there are a lot of, well, at least not enough explained things that could confuse or mislead those whom the video is talking to.
Incident light metering IS the best for setting the exposure right, but, there will not be many opportunities to use incident meter (and reflected meters tend to be on the expesnsive side). What you HAVE ALREADY in the camera is a reflective light meter, but since it is only a tool, you have to learn how to use it. When you have done that it will become one of your most valuable tools... and you don't have to pay extra for it (my advice is to always use it in spot mode, though).
It gives you, not only the light that comes from the subject, but also from the background, foreground... you only need to know how to read it.
And, if you carry with you a gray card (which is far more cheaper than the light meter, AND can serve few other purposes like white balancing) you'll have proper exposure readout from the camera's spot meter (reflected light meter) also without the need for the mathematics.
Ah... The "good old days" when I had a light meter seperate from the camera, still valid these days, 50 years later! Yes, I use exposure compensation a lot on my camera these days, only as I'm too lazy to go full manual! Another "on the head" video, Fil, great stuff.
I've still got my old Luna 6 meter. Still works perfect, and it does studio lights too.
Sorted.
I wouldn't call it laziness! These tools exist to fit different styles of picture making. Thanks for the comment!
You can buy a separate meter....stfu
Your video is like a bolt of lightning. It’s the stuff that a lot of us understand but never look at it the way you so clearly explain. I have nearly always used a hand held light meter or Sunny 16 regardless of the camera I use. I learned my photography on a battered Rolleicord and so find it difficult to trust inbuilt metering. A couple of years back I decided to polish or at least buff up my Sunny 16 skills and managed to get the accuracy of my metering to half a stop in no time really. I found this to be very liberating in removing another obstacle in the picture taking process. The obstacle being a lack of confidence in the cameras meter or me holding the hand held meter in a busy environment. Although I think most people assumed I was holding a mobile phone. Anyhoo, I hope your quotation fingers are healing up nicely.
Glad I'm not alone! It's cool your could trim your sunny 16 settings so accurately!
Fingers are going to be ok.
Manual photography is SO simple...yet difficult to explain... you did a good job. We haver to get people to take back the control over the camera, and not automatic decide... Thanks for a great video. Tom
I appreciate the encouragement! Thanks for your comment.
Great job. That will help a lot of folks. I've been an incident light meter user since 2012 and it transformed my way of working too.
It's amazing how even using a meter for a short while, the principles become clearer, and the process can be more rewarding. Thanks for the comment!
Back in my early film-only days, many of my film cameras (Nikon F, Nikon F2, Mamiya TLR, Mamiya RB67, Fuji medium format rangefinders, and 4x5 inch large format view cameras) did not have built-in exposure meters. To determine the correct exposure, I used a handheld light meter and/or the Sunny 16 Exposure Guidelines.
My first batch of film cameras with built-in exposure meters Nikon F3, Nikon F4, Leica M6, Pentax Spotmatic, Contax G, and Fuji ST705) were not accurate enough for my taste. Many times, I still used my handheld light meter. In some cases, I did not even put batteries in the camera to activate the light meter.
In the digital age, light meters had improved so much that I began to rely on them for the correct exposure.
For those of us across the pond....wondering if someone can explain what "FAF" is (@ 3:20)?
It sort of means "fuss". The saying "Faffing about" is similar to "Fussing around". I hope that helps
To me saying something is a faff is like saying that it's a pain in the neck, or we could say it's inconvenient.
Ha! I'm on your side of the pond, but there are old habits I can't shake off! Faff is unnecessary fiddling around.
100% spot on and couldn't agree more. I shoot full manual most of the time ( rarely I'll use Auto ISO in changable ambient settings during events ).
For me having consistency of exposure from frame to frame is very important. Not only does it make a series of images look visually consistent, it makes for an easier post editing workflow where I can copy and paste settings from one image to the rest very quickly. I often use my sekonic meters with both my digital and film cameras to achieve this. The ability to utilise " live view " with overlayed histogram in the EVF has also made life easier since going mirrorless. I largely ignore the built in meter these days just glancing at it to ensure I'm not vastly over or underexposed ( particularly if I'm using a DSLR which I still shoot from time to time ).
I've never used exposure compensation in a camera in all my time shooting either, the whole point seems rather redundant to me. I mean if I know my meter is reading zero in camera but that the photo needs to be say one stop brighter or darker to compensate then I just adjust either shutter/aperture or ISO to make that compensation myself so really what is the point of an exposure compensation button anyway? There's also the real chance you'll forget to reset it back to zero too resulting in your following frames being incorrectly exposed.
I use flash quite a lot too, often in TTL if I'm shooting events. I prefer full manual flash for the same reasons I prefer full manual exposure but actually TTL flash works very well if your ambient exposure is controlled manually. TTL flash tends to get a bad rap but I think the poor results many experiance is because folk use it while using semi auto modes ( or worse full auto modes like P mode ). You really can't expect good results if you expect your camera to decide all the exposure variables along with flash settings to boot in a fraction of a second! Modern flashes like Godox also have the TTL to manual switch which allows the user to maintain the TTL setting to a fixed manual output. I get the benefit of TTL giving me a faster calculation which I can compensate for immediately then switch those settings to manual to maintain my flash output very quickly.
I hear a lot of photographers stating that use of full manual means you'll miss photos faffing about and that modes like shutter priority and aperture priority are the way to go. I can see their point but honestly I rarely miss my exposures, I've been adjusting manually for so long now I'd say my exposure hit rate is higher than letting the cameras meter do the guess work in semi auto modes.
As always keep up the great work 👍
Thanks for the thoughtful comment! Yes - consisancy is critical for batch editing. I wish I had mentioned that, because it's really important.
Totally agree with this, especially the exposure compensation "dial". Just what is the point of that?!
@@TimGreig The point is very obviously to adjust exposure for the actual reflectance of the light falling on your subject, if you're using any of the automatic exposure modes, because the actual reflectance can vary widely from the 18% that the camera expects.
Your video is a real eye opener and also perfect timing for an upcoming project! I can never seem to capture both shadows and highlights in strongly backlit scenes. So I run ragged adjusting EV only to wind up with every frame slightly different as in your example of headshots. My question, how do you meter for "incident light" and is it appropriate for architectural photography with dark rooms and bright sun washing through the windows? Thx!
Strong backlight is a real test of your sensor's dynamic range. You can evaluate a test shot on your screen in conjunction with the histogram. Couple of ways to tackle architecture exposures. One is to merge two or three bracketed exposures, so you preserve detail in the highlights and the shadows. Or you can try and expose for the highlights in zone ix and deal with the shadows in post if you are a fan of the zone system, which might still be relevant in a situation like this. Or if time is on your side, wait until dusk or night and use available light and strobes.
@@FilNenna thx, great advice!
I'd even won't think about centering the needle in M mode unless you told me some people do so :D
M is for external metering or "i know what I'm doing" use cases. If I want to use in-camera meter, I use A mode and exposure compensation.
or... is some cameras, like Nikon F85 using manual and deliberately offsetting the needle is much faster than using A and exp. compensation.
"M is for external metering" . Spot on. Thanks for the comment!
M, actually is more for an: OK camera, you tell me this, but I want THIS exposure...
I come from a camera world, and when I don't have a zebra, waveform or false color (or a light meter - incident AND reflected) I use cameras spot metering a lot. LCD's can be pretty decieving, especially if you use a lot of different cameras in your line of work... and, unfortunately, histogram is not a good tool for me.
Thank you. I hope more people watch this video, because I know quite a lot of people who don’t understand metering and exposure.
There are some famous photographers who knew nothing about exposure, like Jane Bown, but I agree that a lot of us can get some real enjoyment out of a deeper understanding.
"Sunny 16" is another concept in this area that beginners should know about for getting consistent exposures in sunlight and as a reality check on meter readings. It's more useful when shooting film where you can't check. But I have found it useful in planning a series of images in sunny conditions on digital. (quick explanation: for sunlight exposure, exposure will be correct at f16 with the shutter speed set to the same value as your ISO - 1/100th of a sec at f16 at 100ISO. Then go up one stop in shutter for every stop you go up in aperture, so 1/200th at f11 etc. To truly nail it, open up by 1/3rd stop otherwise you'll be very slightly underexposed).
This reminds me of my first real experience of taking a lot of pictures. My Pentax MX shot manual only. But in those early days I'd just adjust shutter and aperture nearly randomly until the LED light for the meter read green-for-go and I'd hit the shutter.
Now I still use manual a great deal - especially on my little mirrorless Fujifilm XE1 where I have a histogram in the finder and get an idea of the exposure from the finder image too. But now I know how the various manual settings affect the final image. I know the old tricks like spot metering next to the sun for perfect sunset exposure on film, exposing for white sand or snow, and finding middle grey in a colourful scene (green lawns or the red on signs for example).
Manual is a very satisfying mode to use for planned and particularly consistent results. And it does ultimately teach you a lot about how all of the components, shutterspeed, aperture, and ISO create very particular results in photography. But yes, it's not ideal for rapidly changing scenes.
Super clear and useful!
Great to hear! Thanks for being a part of the channel.
I use Flexible Priority (Fv) on my canon R7. It is basically a manual mode with auto ISO plus exposure compensation.
I don't even own a camera, but I subscribed instantly
Thank you!
This is why I often meter the light falling on my hand and go one stop down.
Almost a literal rule of thumb....
Very concise. This video would make a great part 2 to any of the number of videos floating around about zoning and spot metering.
Absolutely. I've yet to find a good video on the zone system. There's good information out there, but it's not very digestible. I might try to do a version of that in the future.
Please do! The best zone system videos I've found have usually failed to actually demonstrate how to use it. Saying "average concrete is zone V" doesn't really help the end user.
Using manual exposure settings to me is just more freedom to chose how a scene is exposed - that may well be the same as the camera would choose - but I am normally half a stop or more under to take care of highlights. But shooting mirrorless makes it far easier as you can gauge results real-time, provided you have set your viewfinder/rear display to a realistic brightness. Good suff
Quality content!! Thanks
Much appreciated! Thanks for watching!
Fil's hair is glorious !
@FoarteMisto that's the comment I've been waiting for.
Ansel Adams comes to mind. 18% grey for any reflective (not incident) meter reading taken. But for me when using 35mm film, a black with detail would be an exposure one stop under the meter reading taken for that part of the scene when I set the ISO for FP4 at 200 ASA. A white with texture would be an exposure two stops over that. Development time would vary depending on how many stops were between the two.
All I have to do now is figure out the exposure latitude for my digital camera, and apply the same principle. Once I know how digital behaves in a certain brightness range, my exposure results should be consistent. As for image editing software, I haven't a clue. I'm going to have to learn (to me) a new thing.
I use the histogram. If it's daytime and there is any significant amount of white in the scene, then I expose to the right, to make that white as white as possible, without blowing it out. If it's daytime and there is no significant amount of white in the scene, then I expose to the middle. If it's evening, and there is a significant amount of white in the scene, I expose to the middle, to make the white look a bit grayish, because that is how white looks to our eyes in lower light conditions. If it's evening, and there is no significant white in the scene, then I expose to the left. If it's evening, and there are bright artificial/city lights I may expose to the right, or even blow out the highlights depending upon the effect I'm looking for. In short, I look at the brightest part of my scene, and I decide where I want it to fall on the histogram. If it's a landscape shot, and I have plenty of time, I relax my brain and simply take multiple exposures.
You are thinking like Ansel! Understanding the tones in your scene and identifying which zone they belong to. Love it.
Yesterday using my Camera in manual maode and I couldnt get the exposure I wanted and the highlights were blown out. Serendippity you solved my dilemma for me!
It was published at just the right time! Glad it helped.
Really well told, how long did you work on the script?
A few hours spread over a few weeks.
I use a “Kodak Greycard”.
Yup, thanks.
I've said for years that if you're in manual and still following the camera's meter then it's totally pointless being in manual!
I’ve been saying for years that if you simply center the needle manually, it’s the same as an auto mode. 🤔
Yup.
I don't know what cameras you all are using, but in my camera, when I use the manual mode, I control the aparture, ISO and Shutter speed. The only thing that is not according to my settings is the display itself. It aitonadkjst for brightness even though this compensation is not reflected on my photo. Ironically when I am in Shutter or aperture priority mode, the display shows me the correct lighting. Which is why I often prefer to use the Shutter priority mode when using a manual lens.
I think you missed the point. Everybody adjusts aperture, ISO, and shutter speed when using manual mode on any camera. What matters is the exposure you get as a result of those settings, and a lot of the time the exposure will be wrong if you adjust everything to put that exposure display you see in your viewfinder right in the middle.
@@suedenim9208 that's why the histogram is more important than this EV slider. It's just a general indication how overall exposed your scene is.
I just shoot in manual mode with auto-ISO these days. That way I can focus on adjusting the shutter speed and aperture as actual creative tools without worrying about getting the "correct" exposure.
Didn't know that AV was Shutter priority.
Av is aperture priority, Tv is shutter priority.
@@FilNenna Ah alright! Sorry I am new to photography.
@dj_mango8454 I haven't made one, but lots of good videos out there about these priority modes. They isolate one exposure variable at a time.
Exposure compensation is just another value like shutterspeed, aperture and iso to adjust. I don't look at what value metering is at, i increase or decrease the exposure by looking at the live view and zebras. With exposure compensation i can tell the camera to adjusts shutterspeed and iso according to my set limits like min shutterspeed and max iso.
Also ofc your metering will jump around like crazy if you only spot meter a white mug and then a black mug
Great video! I’ve often pondered about exposure. The incident meter is as you say a great tool in many situations for consistency, but I’ve struggled to figure out how to capture the “present” light in a scene. All exposure methods aim to get middle grey accurate. Sunny sixteen will give you an exposure for middle grey, as will incident metering or a grey card, but sometimes I want to convey that a scene is dark (say an evening scene), any of the methods mentioned will render a brighter result than the scene I saw ie turning every evening shot in to mid day shots. In such cases, I’ve arrived at the conclusion that i use reflective metering with compensation to obtain a more realistic result sooc.
I think we are in zone system territory here. In a dim light situation, you'd put the brightest parts in a middle zone like V, and see if you can still get detail in the shadows, presuming you want them.
There are quite a few things I disagree with in this video and I think you misunderstand the tech a bit.
1. Built in camera meters are amazing and have really made photography much better and easier (Nikon F prism meter or Nikon FA matrix metering) though they don't necessarily expose the way you want nor do they necessarily expose the way you want your FINAL picture to look (two very slightly different concepts).
2. The exposure over/under expose arrow doesn't have to stay in the middle when you are in fully manual mode, and indeed if you do that you are missing the point. Do many people shoot like this? Why, manual mode snobbism? As a pro I have shot most of my pictures for the past 30 years in aperture priority sometimes with some exposure compensation. Specifically on Canon which you use,, even in M mode and when using a flash. the TTL will give you basically an auto exposure result blending flash and scene lighting or, if that cannot be achieved in darker scenes, it will expose for your foreground. You have to go manual on the flash too to be in full control.
3. Incident light metering has issues too! It might give you the final image you want when you press the shutter but you could also lose details in the shadows or highlights if you do that. I keep my light meter mostly for film photography or if I have a film camera that only has spot or center weighted, rarely for digital.
Back to the camera meter, sure it will try to get 18% grey in spot mode and wherever your spot is but it isn't like that that matrix metering works. In matrix metering it will average everything out (sometimes identifying the subject in more modern cameras, sometimes giving extra weight to the area of the imagine you are focused on... Later on Canon EOS film cameras) try to find a compromise between a decent final result and retaining as much detail as possible throughout the scene. I think of matrix metering as scanning the scene. It is probably the best exposure you can get if you edit your raw files to get the final result you want as not only you could get an exposure that looks like the one you got with your incident light meter but you would likely get that with better highlight or shadow details if your scene has wide dynamic range. Frankly, modern cameras have rendered almost useless both lightmeters and flashmeters.
And yes, you can also use the histogram, I sometimes use the RGB one.... But even with an HDR scene, like a mountain picture with a lot of snow, I think more and more cameras now recognise snow and compensates for it automatically.
Lots of very thoughtful points made, and I agree with all of them. It highlights how many scenareos we might have to deal with. And there's a different tool for each job.
No matter how smart/advanced a metering mode is, I have to understand what it is doing and rapidly evaluate if it fits my expectations. In portraiture, especially if there are multiple sitters in a row, I like the certainty of a fixed exposure.
The points I tried to make were that it's more efficient to use Auto than blindly using Manual, and that the camera's meter is easily fooled by the brightness of the subject. So we should think more about incident light even if, like 99.9% of photographers, you dont have an external meter.
@@FilNenna we agree, using manual mode to pretend to be an advanced photographer and aiming at being in line with matrix metering is incredibly silly! Better use Av or Tv or the new supposedly new mode I forgot the abbreviation of but is supposed to offer the best of both worlds and I never use.
But as I mentioned above and we also agree on is that incident light isn't a miracle exposure and doesn't always give the best result. But when I go out with an old camera I do an incident light metering above my head and in the direction of what I am shooting (well backwards) and I keep sorting like that until I change direction or a cloud comes along... And it is very easy and works pretty well. You must just remember to re-meter if anything changes. That and hyperfocal and you wonder why you need a new camera... I know the answer to that
I think it's a mug's game using exposure to set the lightness of your picture (lightness is how light or dark the picture looks, exposure is how much light energy - per unit area - at the sensor - people often confuse them). Best off setting the biggest exposure that you DOF and shake requirements allow (or you camera can accept) because that give you the best image quality. Then set ISO (pronounced 'eye-so', BTW, not 'eye-ess-oh' - it's not an initialism) so as to keep the highlights - or just let auto ISO do it for you. Then set the lighness in processing with the aid of feedback from a nice big computer screen. It takes out all the guesswork.
OooOoooh this wont work for video
Don't use the needle. Use your own eyes, and then you will get the exposure that you want and not what the camera wants.
Can't you just set the spot metre?
Just use false colour. Duh. /j
all was good until you said to point the light meter at your light source.
Really? I use manual because I was sick of the sky highlights blowing out, so I centre the meter on the sky first then recompose and fix everything later easier to recover shadows than fix highlights, for film that wouldn’t be as effective but with high speed sync flash I was able to take better photos of my kids growing up by metering for the sky, but it just seems that there is just another bit of gear that you ABSOLUTELY NEED to take good photos, without a light meter you can just bracket 10 photos and get at least one good photo, sure if you are a professional and by that I mean “WORKING “ photographer not a know it all who thinks that qualifies as professional because professional means someone who earns a living as a photographer even if they are mediocre, and you have the money or can claim it on tax by all means but for the enthusiast, with a digital camera taking 10 shots at different settings can yield at least one ideal photo, not talking about HDR either I don’t like HDR it looks unnatural but whatever. (Note I never read replies to my comments ever, regardless of the topic, so knock yourselves “professionals”.)
I much prefer cameras with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
No need to faff about the metering. But so far, only Samsung, Fujifilm, Sony, Olympus and Canon actually have usable WYSIWYG live view.
Why not Nikon?
@@davidf6326
Nikon has WYSIWYG liveview?
Yes! Live view / evfs are changing our mindset back to incident light and intentional exposure. Great point.
@@FilNennaAside the fact that the lcds are very unreliable and the picture on them depend on a lot of factors like ambient light, manufacturer, etc (which is a pain in the... if you are using different cameras in your work of which not all are yours) and the fact that they can get you in the ballpark but not give you critical exposure...
Those lcds are in fact REFLECTED light tools, since they show light reflected from the subject and picked up by the sensor. And reflected light metering is good... think of the backlit subject, neon signs, led screens or lights in the background for example...
And I agree 100% with you on the INTENTIONAL exposure. Assisted or not by the camera or any other meter.
You spelled Panasonic wrong. :)