*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with David on Instagram and Twitter @DavidBergman. LATEST UPDATE: David opened up new IGTV episodes where you can ask him questions live! find out more at http://www.AskDavidBergman.com
New Yorker and photographer David Bergman with Adorama TV is going to talk about your camera’s metering modes and why you really don’t need them any more.
“When we talk about metering modes it’s all about getting proper exposure so that your images aren’t too bright or too dark. Most cameras have a light meter built right in, which reads through the lens and turns your exposure up or down based on whatever it sees. Well that technology is pretty darn cool, the camera doesn’t always know what it’s looking at, and can’t possibly know exactly what you want. To help the camera out, we can set the metering mode that the cameras light meter will use, and most modern cameras have some variation of these three – evaluative, center-weighted and spot.”
“Evaluative looks at the entire frame and evaluates the light it averages out the bright and dark areas and gives you the best settings for the overall scene. This is a really good starting point, and can work well when you want to just grab a picture quickly without taking the time to make any adjustments.”
“Center-weighted looks at the whole image, but assigns more importance to the center of your frame, and works really well if you put your main subject right in the middle. If you’re taking a picture of people in front of a bright or dark background, this mode will help you get your friends exposed properly, while not worrying too much about the background behind them.”
“Spot metering however only looks at one tiny little area in the middle of the frame and completely ignores everything else. This is the way to guarantee that your exposure won’t be thrown off by the light on anything, but that also means you have to constantly make sure to have that little spot exactly in the right place, the whole time.”
“Now that you know what the metering modes do I say you can forget all about it and never have to think about it again! Why? Because these only affect your exposure when you’re shooting in an automatic mode where the camera is picking at least one setting. That includes everything from aperture priority and auto ISO, all the way to full program, we now have the ability to try an exposure, look at the photo on the back of the camera, and then adjust as necessary.”
“I challenge you to learn to shoot in full manual use your eyes and your brain to determine what’s important in the frame. Set your exposure and shoot way, once you get used to doing that you won’t care anything about metering modes ever again!”
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