Spot metering with the X1

[ravinj]

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Would be interested to hear from other members if you use spot metering (not spot focus) and if so, in which conditions and what are the results so far as output is concerned.

 

I have used spot metering on a few occasions when the sky was overcast and I was having a hard time getting the subject to expose properly using WB settings. Setting WB to cloudy always seems to results in making the pictures very warm in the X1 with sort of a light golden glow - the effect is nice but a bit artificial (see sample attached). I didn't try setting WB using the X-Y axis that the Leica provides.

 

I then tried spot metering. It worked, but could be made better if Leica can update the firmware to configure to let the user decide how much weight to assign to the spot. Somewhat like a configurable center weighted system where the weight is user definable (example: assign 60% weight to the center, 40% to rest of the frame). Default could be 100% which I believe is the current setting for spot.

[Guest badbob]

This whole exposure thing can get very complicated when you add all those variables to the mix. I check exposure on the X1 screen, limited though it is, and if the WB is off significantly I select another setting that looks better. Then if I'm in doubt about the exposure I bracket up and down, and even shoot a dozen or more if it's a critical situation. Post processing is the only way you can ever be sure you have a keeper, short of shooting 100 frames at all different settings.

[tom0511]

I do use spot metering if there is high contrast and I would meter on a face/person and let the sky blow out.

Usually I use the presets for WB but I agree overall they seem a tad to warm for my taste so I often slightly correct them afterwards when converting the DNGs.

Today I sometimes prefer to blow out some area of the image if it is necessary to get other areas well exposed. Pressing to much contrast in an image often makes them look flat and artificial.

If I dont want blown outs I also have started to use fill flash more often which is a great feature.

[RichardM8]

With difficult lighting conditions like in this shot with the bright sky I dial in enough - EV compensation to (just) keep the sky from blowing or only a little. The I pull the shadows up in Lightroom. This gives me the best and most consistent results.

 

I haven't found settings on the camera that get a shot like this right in-camera without PP.

 

I only use DNGs.