Light metering strategies

[Warton]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

24 minutes ago, hmzimelka said:

I've given up.

I'm forcing myself to guess exposure and use M manual exposure more and more. Either that or Centre Weighted metering. 

My results with Multi-field and Highlight Weighted Metering has been less than adequate. For something that appears as intelligent metering, it pretty much sets the bar for dumb these days imho. I haven't experienced this much inconsistent or unpredictable multi-field metering since the days of the Nikon D80.

I guess it's all good in some way; I was pretty decent with guessing light levels shooting Rolleiflex cameras some 10+ years ago, and this good training again.
Nikon matrix metering in DSLRs over the last 10+ years has made me very lazy.

That's why I have a film M-A, no frills, nothing except ISO, and shutter dials. No electronics, everything is mechanical. 

I guesstimate  the exposure pretty well with my M11 and M10-R after shooting 10 rolls in M-A.

[charlesphoto99]

It was a revelation some years ago when talking with some press photographers at the Sundance film festival. I was there to shoot fly on the wall stuff with my M9, they were all shooting Nikons and Canons with flash. Many of them actually use their flashes in manual mode, not TTL. That way there's no second guessing by the camera, the last thing one wants in a high pressure situation. I've alway felt the same about auto exposure and autofocus.

And modern digital cameras actually make it way easier to learn the ins and outs of exposure due to instant feedback. The few times I've tried auto on my M's (or even Nikons for that matter) I've always been invariably disappointed and caught out, usually only a few frames in. Learning the basics of the zone system is a starter. Not in the sense of Adams and Weston and the technicalities of the darkroom and developing, but in the basic sense of knowing how light corresponds to tone and density, and how to set the camera for the image that one envisions, and not let the 'dumb' camera envision it for you. 

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[ianforber]

I just use highlight weighted metering with minus two-thirds of a stop dialled in. Occasionally I’ll reduce that to minus one-third if i think I might need to send  ooc jpegs to people immediately after taking the shot. 

[Chris_Jenks]

I‘m afraid I chimp quite a bit in uneven lighting and if I don’t like what I see I use LV and spot metering, which generally nails it. 

[Jewl]

vor 22 Stunden schrieb SuperPuppet:

I didn’t see one comment suggesting the use of a hand held meter.   During the years I owned my studio, on location, I used a Minolta meter for every camera. From Hasselblads to Canon EOS IDSII, various Leica’s… etc.  It was my normal mode of operation. Meter every shot.  Very little effort and nailed every frame.  I’ve been out of the game for some years… sold every camera… took all my photos on my phone.  Tomorrow my M11 arrives… with 3 lenses.  I’m guessing I’ll be tracking a meter down next.  I’ll see how the camera handles it… but I’ve never found them to be reliable so we will see.

This might work if you have an unlimited amount of time to nail the shot but if you are on the run and you are in a very fast situation, I do not see myself leveraging a separate light meter as the shot might be missed then anyway. And, that's what I really want to avoid, having tons on stuff with me just to take an acceptable photo. I agree, back in the days this was necessary due to the limitation of technology but tbh, today, I don't want to go down this path...

[DadDadDaddyo]

Heh heh... I use a handheld meter whenever I'm using any of my cameras that don't have a built-in meter. On a simple numerical basis, these outnumber my digital cameras. 

But the spot meter setting on the M series lets me apply the old, comforting habits of scene analysis whenever time permits or mood suggests it. 

I've heard folks discuss their exposure compensation settings with each other, "I use highlight metering and -1 in these situations but averaging and +1 in those situations."

By the time they've thought about this and set their metering mode and exposure compensation to what it needs to be to give them what they want, they could just as easily have been using spot metering and manual exposure!

Instead of fighting to influence the programming, they could simple take direct control and base their exposures on their own determination about how to handle accurate information.

But folks will do what they want to do and that's good. The best thing is to use tools that support that, whatever it is. 

[tom0511]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

For me M11 is better than all previous digital Ms in this regard.

All others I had usually on -0,3 as a starting point, except in artifical light. If the scene was contrasty it was allways trial and error when using autometering.

In my experience the M11 is much better in this respect, specially when shooting landscapes with bright sky.

I also use higlight weighted metering  very often.

 

 

Edited January 19 by tom0511

[Derbyshire Man]

On 11/15/2023 at 5:57 PM, fenykepesz said:

jaapv, you remind me of my old Olympus OM-4 Ti i owned some >35y ago : zone system, multi-spot metering, you name it !

And the Canon T90 released in 1986. I simply took several spots, brightest, shadow, subject, knew the dynamic range and adjusted to taste with the little triangles on the scale on the left. It took until the 1V before it reappeared on autofocus cameras. 
 

Having said that I’ve had no trouble with exposure. Use a setting for the circumstance. Mostly highlight priority but also spot or good old fashioned manual and meter off the scene changing as the light changes. Yes it’s not perfect all the time but the amazing dynamic range and flexible files mean an image is very unlikely to be lost. 
 

The info is like to see in the optical view finder is shutter speed, arrow for exposure and a small discrete histogram as an option. 
 

Happy as is so far though. 

Edited January 19 by Derbyshire Man

[SrMi]

When shooting raw with M11, the goal of metering would be to maximize the exposure (least noise) while avoiding clipping relevant highlights.

The quickest way to accomplish that with M11 is to turn on LV and use blinkies and/or the histogram to set the exposure.

[Tailwagger]

In my world, 95% of the time I combine the use of center weighted with my mental assessment of the scene.  My internal meter simply assesses whether or not to dial in EV to protect highlights (less frequently shadow) if the scene dictates. There's more than enough latitude in the files (assuming one avoids trashing highs or lows) to obviate any need for more precision. Working in this way keeps me more consciously engaged in the moment to moment decision making which feels more in keeping with the simplicity and self-reliance that the M affords.  In the rare instance where the scene is truly complex or of ultra high contrast, I'll move over to spot metering for my initial assessment, but otherwise I'm perfectly happy using CW.

[Luke_Miller]

I must be missing something.  Having grown up with primitive in-camera metering I know that light sources or bright backgrounds will result in underexposure.  Normally I am in Aperture priority and often Auto ISO.  I stay in center weighted metering with my M240 (I don't find the Advanced Metering useful, but assume it is better on the newer bodies). When I compose the shot and see there will be underexposure due to light sources or a bright background, I move the camera to eliminate the element causing the underexposure, lock the exposure with a half press of the shutter, recompose and complete the shutter press to take the shot. The result is a correct (or nearly so) exposure of the subject without trial exposures or settings changes.  As an event photographer I don't have time for a different approach.  Does not the M11 allow the same technique?

[Overgaard]

On 1/24/2024 at 11:19 AM, Luke_Miller said:

I must be missing something.  Having grown up with primitive in-camera metering I know that light sources or bright backgrounds will result in underexposure.  Normally I am in Aperture priority and often Auto ISO.  I stay in center weighted metering with my M240 (I don't find the Advanced Metering useful, but assume it is better on the newer bodies). When I compose the shot and see there will be underexposure due to light sources or a bright background, I move the camera to eliminate the element causing the underexposure, lock the exposure with a half press of the shutter, recompose and complete the shutter press to take the shot. The result is a correct (or nearly so) exposure of the subject without trial exposures or settings changes.  As an event photographer I don't have time for a different approach.  Does not the M11 allow the same technique?

Yes, you can do the same, point and lock the exposure with the Leica M11 and Leica M11-P.

[Ule]

I'm an M11 user. During the day, I use highlight weighted centered metering with a -2/3 compensation. I don't bother with other compensation adjustments because it takes too long. I started out with a Nikon FE 40 years ago and developed my method for precisely exposing slides by pointing the camera where I felt the right middle gray would come together and then locking time and reframing. That was fast and effective and is something I still do, albeit with objective validation from the live view (with shutter button plressed) or even a test shot. 

In this time of the year, however, more than not I'm on the street in the urban blue hour, which means bright lights from shop windows illuminating street scenes. There, forget the AE! I'm using fixed 1600 ISO 1/250s and varying apertures, 5.6 for the bright shop windows, 4 to 2.8 for the street scenes. If it gets darker, I switch to 1/125th or crank up the ISO. Since I can always check the image on the M11, at least for burnt out highlights, I can adjust. I'm still learning about what I can pull out of the shadows, but so far I learned that that's a lot.

[Stevejack]

 

Yes you can get used to how the different metering modes react to the lighting in a scene, but it won't ever be as true to your vision for the photograph as manually setting the camera. As others have mentioned there are tricks you can do like under exposing to give yourself a safe zone, but it's rare that the lighting is changing so much second to second that you can't take a reading for the brightest parts of the environment, a reading for the shaded areas, and work out which you want to use based on what you're photographing. 

I think a big issue with digital is that we're are afraid of over exposing highlights. I understand why, and depending on the scene it does need to be taken into account, but sometimes that's exactly what you want to be doing - and to avoid it becoming a distraction (with portraits for example), the shot just needs to be composed so that those over-exposed areas aren't a problem visually. 

 

[david strachan]

Isn't it years of experience to tell best way of metering for different scenes, even if based on new cameras?..Knowing which editor you're going to use.

That's the way I work anyway...or just shoot and hope to fix later 

...

Edited February 3 by david strachan