What is Important to Understand From the Concept of Spot Metering?

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john

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Many SLR cameras and some hand-held meters enable you to take a reading from a very small area of the subject - typically from some 5 per cent of the total field of view, down to just 1 per cent (with professional-grade cameras). For work on location, spot metering has two major advantages: first, it allows you to be highly selective in choosing the key tone; and, second, even when you cannot approach your subject, it allows you to take a reading as if you were close up.

The easiest way to use a spot-meter is to decide which patch of colour or tone in the subject should be exposed normally, which should be the mid-tone, in other words. Then you simply take a light reading from that area and ignore the rest of the image (as far as exposure is concerned). Some authorities suggest taking several readings - of highlight, shadow, and mid-tones - to determine the mid-point. Indeed, some cameras will automatically make the calculations for you. However, not only is this time-consuming, multiple readings do not deliver results that are any more reliable than those from a single reading.

However, multiple spot metering is useful for determining the luminance range of the scene -its span of brightness values. You can take a reading from a shadow area with detail and from a highlight area with detail and see by how many stops they differ. If this difference is less than 2 stops, you can comfortably record the entire scene. If, though, the subject luminance range is greater than 3 stops, then because of the film's or sensor's recording limitations, you will need to decide to sacrifice some subject details in the shadows or in the highlight values of the scene. The only other option is to adjust the lighting ratios to reduce the luminance range, if lighting is under your control.

Willis J. Watson is a freelance writer since 2006, living in United States and he writes about his great passion...digital photography for about 4 years.
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Re: What is Important to Understand From the Concept of Spot Metering?
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2010, 04:39:24 PM »
this is very informative especially to amateur photographers out there, thanks for posting.