Gear Talk > Lighting

When do you use spot metering?

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JR:
I am curious to learn for what situation people use spot metering.  In particular, since i do mostly portrait, do any of you use it for portrait when shooting without a flash?

I usually do not play with metering myself but by mistake i took a few portraits with spot metering inside without flash and actually found the skin tone better this way.  Just not sure if i risk overexposing too much other part of the picture if i use this consistently...

Thank you for your insights...

ruuneos:
I like to use spot metering when taking macro's and want nice dark background.

paul13walnut5:

--- Quote ---I usually do not play with metering myself but by mistake i took a few portraits with spot metering inside without flash and actually found the skin tone better this way.  Just not sure if i risk overexposing too much other part of the picture if i use this consistently...
--- End quote ---

Thats exactly the situation where spot metering comes into it's own.   However it sounds like you have been lucky with the correct rendition of the skin tone.   I would use spot metering in conjunction with exposure compensation.
If you take it that the camera meter is calibrated for 18% grey then you may need to shift the metering by a stop or so either way depending on your subject.

Don't worry so much about over or under exposing other areas.  Meter for whats important and let the rest fall into place.  If you have people who are very pale, or people who are very dark then you will need to compensate from what the meter gives you, as it may try to render very dark or very white skins as midtones, which would be wrong for the subject and wrong for everything else as well.

The great thing with DSLRs is that you can preview or immediately check.  Have an assistant stand under the same light source, take a few test shots.  I would even be tempted to use manual exposure...  once you've set it up for the light it will be right for all your subjects of any colour or hue, provided the light is uniform.

And bear in mind the meter can help, but it can also be wrong. Especially if your subject is far removed from midtone.

jabbott:
I use spot metering for photographing singers at a concert, or for photographing high contrast objects such as the moon.  Although lately I have found myself increasingly using manual mode for times when lighting is tricky, as well as reviewing the histogram afterwards to ensure proper exposure.

sleepnever:
I used it heavily yesterday at an air show with cloudy to sunny skies, where otherwise I was getting great skies and heavily shadowed jets when using the default Evaluative. Was definitely tricky to use though when you're tracking military fighter jets up close and only that center dot.

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