rogera

[rogera]

Can anyone give me some advice re: metering with my m8. I cannot seem to balance my exposures in situations where the center of the photo is very bright. My edges come out way too dark. What am I doing wrong?

[WPalank]

Hit the Set button, drop down to EV in the menu and push it up 1/3, 2/3 or a full stop. Problem is if there is important detail in the "bright" area, it may be blown out.

[Shootist]

Or try using the camera manually, IE setting the shutter speed yourself, and take two images. One at the normal meter reading and another at a lower, slower, shutter speed.
You can also do that when set to the Auto (A) mode by moving the metering area, center of the frame, to a darker part of the scene and pushing the shutter button down a little until you see a red dot in the center of the meter shutter speed reading in the viewfinder. That red dot signifies the shutter speed is locked at the current reading.

Once you have 2 images you can take the bright parts of one and combine it with the darker parts of the other, that are more properly exposed, to come up with a image that looks more evenly exposed.

[delander]

It is helpful to look at the metering pattern on page 105 of the M8 manual. In Leica's own words the metering has a 'strongly concentrated center-weighted characteristic'.

Jeff

[zeitz]

There is a limit to the dynamic range that digital sensors or film can record. Also the LCD on the back of the camera is not a true indication of what is recorded in the file. Check the histogram to see if the distribution is off the edge both right and left. If it is off to the left, overexpose using exposure compension to move the histogram as far to the right as possible without going off the edge. Camera Raw will then help you get both highlights and shadows.

Of course the other solution is to use auxiliary lighting to balance the light across the scene.