How does metering work in manual mode

If this is pretty clear to you, then get Ansel Adams' book "The Negative" or one of the fine books on the Zone System and read it about 5 times If this isn't clear to you It may initially seem counter intuitive to increase exposure when metering a light subject or decrease it for a dark subject SCL , Feb 1, You should always meter.

But by being in manual mode, you are already saying that you want to use the meter as a suggestion, not a law. If you never meter, you will get some pretty "off" shots, but if you meter, and then base your expsosure on that reaading you will be fine.

I think a lot of begining photographers use the meter as a bible, they always follow it, always. But its not alwasy right and as time goes on you will get a feeling for when you should trust it, and when you should interpret it. Douglas, I second Galen's comment. Regardless of mode, I use a meter reading as a first guess. Use the histogram on the LCD to see whether the camera's guess was reasonable.

If not, use exposure compensation or manual settings to fix it. Spot metering is very useful, and one of my few regrets about my XTi is that it does not have it. My old Canon FTb had only a spot meter, and I found it great. You can choose what areas you want to meter, and you can compare different regions of the scene. I sometimes used used the spot to meter off my hand, using the old rule of thumb that an open palm is about one stop off.

With my XTi, I more often than not use partial metering. But regardless, just take a reading, check the histogram, and change it if you need to. That's one of the great things about digital: you can see immediately if you have the wrong exposure and redo the shot. Doug, I can only add a little to the good advice already given.

Meters can and often are fooled by many lighting situations. Experience will eventually be your guide. All experienced shooters know this. The meter will get me close so I don't waste time, but the final outcome that I desire will often force intervention by the photographer. It wasn't that long ago that there was nothing but "Manual" on the camera controls. It'd be wrong if it saps your confidence, or if you completely did not understand what the controls meant.

As long as you can set the camera to do what you want to generate the results that you want, basically, you are good to go.

For example, there is no big commercial "bonus" paid out for making a great shot on Manual. You might take a ribbing from your fellow photographers for too many "Program" shots; that's about it; they just want to encourage you to learn about how to use the equipment properly. I would think that metering would be very relevant in manual mode. At least it is for me. My evaluations and measurements of what I think is important in the scene is part of why I use manual equipment.

I use that so heavily that I found out a camera I have been using for the past nine months has an aperture-priority and shutter-priority mode. I didn't know; I had just never set the thing to the right conditions; I found out about it accidentally after a mirror lockup malfunction sent me back to the user's manual.

As far as spot meters go, I love them. Now that I finally have one, I think they are so important that they should come very soon in someone's career. Not to say that other light meter designs are inferior; but I have tried these, and they helped me a lot. You can create highly effective high contrast images with spot metering. All you need is a bright subject and dark background or surroundings. The moon only takes up a small percentage of the frame, so in matrix metering, the meter would try and expose for the dark background and the moon together.

So put your camera into spot metering to create high contrast images. A window used to light a person from the side is a great opportunity to try out spot metering. Everyone has a window and curtains at home — so all you need is your camera and a helpful model and you can try spot metering out for the first time!

In this example, spot metering has been used to throw the curtains into shadow. The strong light coming from the window would overexpose the subject with matrix metering, but setting the metering to spot has meant the subject is well exposed. The result is a high contrast and striking portrait. Dappled light — spotted light, usually found filtering through the gaps in trees — can be extremely tricky to properly expose for. This is made even trickier if you have a subject moving through the trees.

This can be really troublesome as the subject interacts with the light — the overexposed areas can cover parts of the body or even faces, completely ruining your shot. So, use spot metering. First of all, you can keep the image that way, with a dramatic high contrast look see our guide to chiaroscuro lighting for how effective this can be.

Secondly, you can plan to lift the shadows in post-processing — if you do this you can achieve a more even exposure through digital manipulation. There has been a growing trend over the last ten years or so within photography for people to create dreamy, almost overexposed portraits. To achieve this look, spot metering is key. To achieve this, expose for the subject with natural light filtering through trees behind — or, a window works just as well — and when the rest of the frame over exposes a little, go with it!

The metering modes determine how your camera calculates the exposure. The end result is almost the same: a properly exposed photo just like our light meter told us it would be, with the triangle hovering above the zero , but this image has much more noise and grain than the previous one. Notice how the tree in the background just behind the berries looks speckled and grainy instead of silky smooth, which is what usually happens at high ISO values. Thus, raising the ISO might not be the best way to get the image I want even though the photo itself is properly exposed.

Once again the result is a photo that is properly exposed, but the depth of field is much wider — see how the background is not quite as smooth and blurry as before? Shooting in manual and using the light meter as your guide is a good way to ensure that the image you see in your mind is exactly what you end up with when you click the shutter. If you are shooting fast-moving subjects like cars or sports, you would want to start with a fast shutter speed and adjust the other settings until you get that little triangle to hover above the zero.

If you are taking portraits and want a shallow depth of field with nice blurry backgrounds, keep the aperture wide and change the shutter and ISO until the exposure is correct. Shooting in manual was the only way to capture this photo.

By reading the light meter while carefully adjusting my exposure settings I got precisely the shot I was aiming for. Understanding the basics of the light meter is really just scratching the surface, though.

Using manual mode and reading the light meter might seem like a complicated way to take photos, but remember that you know better than your camera what kind of picture you want to take. Now start changing the aperture, shutter, and ISO values and watch what happens to the light meter. Is your image going to be overexposed? Lower the ISO, raise your shutter, tighten the aperture, or try a combination of all three.

Is your image going to be underexposed? Do the exact opposite. The more practice you get, the easier it will be and soon you will feel much more comfortable shooting in a mode that might have seemed hopelessly confusing before. Do you shoot in manual?