Exposure Metering - what to use?

[Corius]

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Hi,

Basic question here, so go easy on me

What exposure metering do people tend to use for RAWs in general shooting situations, Multi-field or Highlight-weighted? I understand the technical difference but was wondering which to use given that I'll be editing in Lightroom.

I'm assuming that spot or centre-weighted are for more specific use-cases, but that assumption may well be wrong

Thanks for any advice as I continue to learn about my new m11.

[Kwesi]

That's actually a tougher question than you think.

Quick answer is go with center weighted. push down halfway on the shutter to hold the exposure in the area that's most important to you then recompose and continue pressing down to make the exposure.

 

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[SrMi]

Pick one and learn how the camera works with that metering. No metering mode is perfect by itself but relies on corrective help from the user.

[Photoworks]

I have been using Highlight-weighted for months and it is perfect for post production capture.

it is not very aggressive.

[dpitt]

6 hours ago, Photoworks said:

I have been using Highlight-weighted for months and it is perfect for post production capture.

it is not very aggressive.

Given that your M11 has such a large dynamic range and you shoot RAW, just make sure you do not blow your highlights. i.e. try to expose for the lightest part in your frame that is important for the picture. Highlight-weighted sounds good. Or use center weighted and expose for the light part, press halfway down and re-frame. Lifting the shadows should always be possible as long as you do not crank the ISO up too high.

Don't worry too much about exposure.  Apart from the creative part of the picture, I think focusing and keeping shutter speed high enough to avoid camera shake will be more of  concern with a 60 MP camera like the M11.

[THEME]

Metering Mode is actually what I use a function button for. Results can greatly vary, you'll develop a feel which mode is appropriate for what shooting setting. So the set function button makes switching between modes fast and easy.

[hmzimelka]

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I find highlight-weighted and multi-field metering still so unpredictable that I just use centre-weighted, which is very predictable when and where it over/under-exposes 

[Corius]

Thanks for the advice all.

Some differing views, but the common theme seems to be practice and experiment.

[lluvia]

Hi all, I just got my M11, and for the moment I have just took a few shoots to test the camera. I shoot indoors with lots of contrast situation and not a lot of light. The metering of the camera (in every option) is giving me very overexpose images. The difference between what my eyes are looking and the picture result is huge. To get what I'm looking I have to underexpose quite a bit. Any thoughts?

 

 

[SrMi]

14 minutes ago, lluvia said:

Hi all, I just got my M11, and for the moment I have just took a few shoots to test the camera. I shoot indoors with lots of contrast situation and not a lot of light. The metering of the camera (in every option) is giving me very overexpose images. The difference between what my eyes are looking and the picture result is huge. To get what I'm looking I have to underexpose quite a bit. Any thoughts?

Do not use the image brightness in EVF/LCD to judge the exposure. Use the histogram and/or blinkies.

Edited January 17, 2023 by SrMi

[lluvia]

I'm not. I transfer the images to Capture One.

[M11 for me]

vor 58 Minuten schrieb lluvia:

Hi all, I just got my M11, and for the moment I have just took a few shoots to test the camera. I shoot indoors with lots of contrast situation and not a lot of light. The metering of the camera (in every option) is giving me very overexpose images. The difference between what my eyes are looking and the picture result is huge. To get what I'm looking I have to underexpose quite a bit. Any thoughts?

 

 

I wonder: Do you shoot at daylight or is it dark and artificial light? 

[SrMi]

19 minutes ago, lluvia said:

I'm not. I transfer the images to Capture One.

You are not what :)? Not using in-camera histogram or not judging the brightness in EVF/LCD?

What do you mean by "overexposed." Highlights blown? Too bright? Are you shooting JPEG? 

[lluvia]

14 minutes ago, M11 for me said:

I wonder: Do you shoot at daylight or is it dark and artificial light? 

Dark and artificial light. I'm missing something?

[Henners]

I used to always use centre-weighted, it covers enough of the frame that I can point it towards the general subject area and manually adjust the exposure so the light meter is where I expect it should be for how bright my subject is.

I'm using multi-field at the moment just to play about. I'll probably use highlight metering in the summer for some locations and might switch to centre-weighted when I want things to be more predictable for me (while I'm getting used to multi-field) but it doesn't matter - any can be used at any point it's just what feels right for you.

FYI: Spot metering is like having a laser beam coming out of the lens, whatever it hits it'll meter off that ignoring everything around it. I've used it in the past a few times but basically never since it's not that useful. If you had a mid-grey cat in some snow then it might be handy I guess, you could meter off the cat and not have the snow affect the exposure but really it's a lot easier to just know your light meter and keep it on centre-weighted or whatever you like and just quickly adjust exposure to +2 stops or something for that kind of scene.

It doesn't matter what metering mode you use in the end, no software cares including Lightroom. It starts and stops with you and the camera, purely for helping you get an exposure that isn't too dark nor too light.

Edited January 17, 2023 by Henners

[lluvia]

1 hour ago, SrMi said:

You are not what :)? Not using in-camera histogram or not judging the brightness in EVF/LCD?

What do you mean by "overexposed." Highlights blown? Too bright? Are you shooting JPEG? 

Sorry, I meant I don't use the LCD to confirm exposure. Here are two examples (DGN's, centre-weighted, exported to JPEG ) The image overexpose is with the "correct" metering of the camera, the other one is me adjusting to what I saw. There is a difference of two stops. So is hard to be confident with the metering

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[Henners]

Most of that scene is dark but the camera doesn't know it's dark, it just thinks it's underexposed (as far as it knows you're outdoors on a sunny day). Since you know the scene should be dark, you can adjust a stop or two under what the camera light meter thinks.

That lamp will throw the metering around a bit as you get closer or further away from it though.

Edited January 17, 2023 by Henners

[SrMi]

1 hour ago, lluvia said:

Sorry, I meant I don't use the LCD to confirm exposure. Here are two examples (DGN's, centre-weighted, exported to JPEG ) The image overexpose is with the "correct" metering of the camera, the other one is me adjusting to what I saw. There is a difference of two stops. So is hard to be confident with the metering

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Use the LV histogram or your experience to adjust exposure. Automatic metering is not always appropriate.

[Ule]

When I got the M11 and the firmware update promised a working hightlight-weighted metering, I thought that might solve the problem I had with any in-camera meter in the later blue hour, namely that even a two-stop under exposure correction would still give overexposure. If the lightmeter goes by the highlights, so I thought, it might give me rather dark images. When I went into the shopping zone with lots of brightly lit shop windows, it worked for the windows themselves (without exposure correction), but not for street scenes where the windows lit bypassers and the street which was mainly in the dark. Same for Christmas market scenes. Still overexposed. So I switched to full manual for these kind of scenes.

If you are taking pictures of interiors, though, you could try the spotmeter mode, aiming for the most important middle grey values in the scene. Professionals carry gray cards for just this kind of situations. 

Edited January 17, 2023 by Ule

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[DenverSteve]

Why are you using center-weighted exposure to shoot a shot like this?  If you want to expose for the highlight and then bring up the shadows, then use highlight-weighted exposure and adjust for the shadows.  Both pictures are ever-exposed because you have blown highlights.  You would be better off using a fill flash and bringing up the shadows.  No camera can shoot outside of its dynamic range, and this is a good example.  Cameras need light to make a usable picture.  Shooting in the dark with one highlight will always render a photo based on the parameters YOU input.