Introduction to Metering Modes
The following post on Metering Modes was submitted by Trudy - a regular DPS reader.
Early last year when I bought my digital camera the sales assistant told me that it had different ‘metering modes’. At the time I was too embarrassed to ask what that means and bought the camera without knowing. It took me a while to work it out but once I did I realized that it was really important. I thought I’d write up what I learned.
Learning to use the different metering modes on your camera is a skill well worth knowing as it puts in your hands more control in how your camera approaches capturing a particular scene.
Every time you point your camera at a scene it needs to take a guess at what is important to you in the picture and which part you want to be exposed optimally. The metering mode you have your camera set to will signal to the camera how you want it to approach this task.
Let me explain further by highlighting three main metering modes that you’ll find on many digital cameras (note - not all cameras offer this choice although all DSLRs do and many point and shoot cameras do):
1. Overall Metering (Multi Segment/Zone Metering)
In this mode the camera attempts to take into consideration everything in your frame. Most cameras will have numerous metering zones around the frame (for example the Canon EOS 5D has 35 points that it takes into consideration).
It assesses overall lighting from all these zones and takes a best guess by averaging them to decide on how to expose the shot. This mode is the one I used to leave my camera set to most of the time and it did give great results. However, at times the camera guesses wrong and it’s useful to know how to use the other metering modes below to give your camera a little more information about what you’re trying to achieve.
2. Spot Metering
This mode tells the camera to do it’s metering from a very small ’spot’ in the scene. Instead of taking information from all 35 zones, the 5D hones right in on one - ignoring all others. This is a very useful mode for tricky lighting conditions where the whole scene is either darker or lighter than the point that you want to be exposed correctly.
For example in a back lit situation where you’re taking a portrait of someone whose face is a little too dark. Without spot metering in this situation you might end up with a silhouette and not be able to make out the features of your subject. Spot metering gives you very exact control when there is a very specific (and small) part of the scene that you want to get right.
3. Center Weighted Metering
On the spectrum between overall metering and spot metering we find the Center Weighted Metering mode which takes a little from both ends of the spectrum and tells the camera to focus it’s metering decisions upon the center of your image (although a wider area than spot metering).
In Center Weighted Metering the camera will take information from numerous metering points around the frame but will give more weight to those in the center. Like spot metering, this is good to use in tricky lighting situations where you don’t need to identify very small parts of the image to meter on.
I’m still learning about Metering Modes and how to effectively use them however I do know that since venturing a little more out of ‘Auto’ and experimenting with the above modes that my photography has improved a lot. If you’ve got any other tips to add to what I’ve written I’d love to learn from you.
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January 30th, 2008 at 1:38 am
A nice clear explanation.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Thank you for a very interesting and informative article. I generally leave my metering on auto and get pretty good results. Will have to try the other modes now.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:55 am
What this could do with, perhaps as a follow on, is three example shots of the same scene taken with the three different modes.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:55 am
In most of my shooting I find it is easiest to ignore the meter for the most part and just set exposure from the histogram. This technique can require taking a couple exposures before you get it right and probably isn’t to everybody’s taste, but I find it the easier way to get an accurate exposure quickly.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:26 am
This is a great introduction.
As other people, i used mainly the MultiSegment zone, but its a very interesting practice use the spot/center metering when you take portraits, with a light or black background. I used to set this metering too when i want to catch the light of a sunray in a leave or a plant in the middle of the forest.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Cool, was thinking about this the other day actually - saved me from having to go search for what the differences are!
January 30th, 2008 at 3:05 am
Thanks for posting this. It’s probably the simplest and easiest-to-understand explanation of metering that I have found so far
January 30th, 2008 at 3:45 am
Thanks for sharing your information. I bet there are a lot of people out there who don’t understand metering but were also afraid to ask.
January 30th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Another feature of “spot metering” that my camera has is the following: if I have the auto focus zone set to “selectable”, the spot metering will be done on the zone I have set to focus on. So if using the rule of thirds, and focus is set to one side, spot metering will be on that side as well. As a result, I usually leave it on spot mode except for landscape shots.
January 30th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Very informative article. Thank you and I can’t wait to test it out.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:17 am
FYI some Canon dSLRs behave a little differently if you manually select focus points. On the Rebel XT/350, if you manually select a focus point in Multi-zone Metering, it actually acts more like Center Weight. Give it a try and see for yourself!
January 30th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Nicely written .. simple enough to understand for a novice like me.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Thank you for this! I didn’t really grasp what the metering options were for and now I’ll know how - and when - to play with them.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I always use spot metering, and if the going is tricky, I look around various parts of the scene, and then expose to something that is going to give me what I want to achieve. However, if you’re not using manual mode, there isn’t much to be gained from using spot metering - other than in very tricky situations with Av or Tv, but I still find manual to be better then.
Switching to manual, and spot metering, really taught me loads about what the on-board computers are doing in evaluative mode, which is in itself very useful.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Let’s notice that nowadays the “matrix metering” or “multizone metering” does not always just takes an average metering of the multiple metering cells, but compares them against a set of recorded situations. The indboard computers then tries to guess which situation matches best to give you the metering information.
For example, let’s say you shoot portrait against dark background, the computer recognizes the setup and does not try to overexpose to compensate for the dark background, but meters for the central cells (where the face would be).
Of course, that does not work all the time, and the computer may be wrong.
The spot/center metering acts exactly as a lightmeter would, and this is very convenient.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
I’ve been planning to learn more about metering modes for quite some time. This tutorial is excellent.
Thanks for sharing this.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Some example shots would have been nice.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:09 am
Also note that spot metering is useful when using filters with more than +- 1 EV step. Very strong filters can disrupt matrix metering.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:27 am
i like using the spot metering and turning off the auto focus. that way i can focus on one really dark spot and apply that metering to the rest of the picture. this is only good if you like the exposure to look blown out, which i do sometimes. i get way more vivid contrast in b&w this way.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:20 am
Thanks for bringing this up. Something that has been bugging me for a while, but was too lazy to look up!
I agree, some sample pictures would be very handy. Just to illustrate when each metering mode would be best applicable.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:30 am
I usually shoot in Manual and leave my metering to spot. This way, as I move my spot around the frame, I can see, using the levels, what the computer thinks about the environment I am shooting.
Then I will set my settings accordingly. At first it takes some time, but that’s how I learned to eyeball a lighting situation and make good guesses as to how to set my exposure.
Please note that some cameras don’t have a “Spot” meter. Some “Spots” are larger than some. Read your manual to find out what size your spot meter is. It is usually referenced in terms of percentage of your screen. For example 2%. So if a camera has a spot of say 9%, then it’s already more center weighted than spot.
I believe that Center Weighted also evaluates the whole frame, but weighs the center heavier in calculating exposure. Whereas Spot only measures the spot, whether large (9%) or small (2%).
These spot coverage figures are important to know if you want to use your meter well.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:36 am
Nice, clear, simple, tp the point.
Great job! Thanks!
January 31st, 2008 at 4:15 am
Thanks for the info. You have taken some of the mystery out of metering for me.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:19 pm
this article is very informative….thanks
February 1st, 2008 at 3:54 am
Thank you for this information. Now I’m ready to go experiment with my camera.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:08 am
In Nikon when you use point metering and a flash the cemara get in the i-TTL mode automaticly, this is very useful when you woork wish flash, the ilumination is very nice.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:15 am
Awesome !Thank-you very much!I had been wondering..as recently i photographed a company picnic/sports day..
..there were huge trees/shade ..and extreme lighting conditions..ie from hot sun ect…this was / is so helpful ..for future events photograpghy…now I UNDERSTAND METERING BETER and i will certainly have more confidence now..when using this feature!
February 1st, 2008 at 5:57 am
In difficult lighting situations I like to use manual mode so I can see the results.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:13 am
nice! it took me a while to figure out how to use these metering modes, but once i did it really showed in my photos.
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:59 am
My camera has three diffrent metering modes. It has three little icons. left/middle/right. I have played with them some.
If only I could think quick enough to change them when I need to…I am just learning
thank you
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:17 am
Nice clear explanation. What i really want to know with regard to using them though is can you spot meter from anywhere but the center?
February 6th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Thank you for this topic.
I’m still learning about Metering Modes. It’s really very important to know how control on them. So Thanks very much.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:11 am
What if we want the correct exposure in all areas? I think there is no such an advanced camera that can do that, in this case I take one shot for every different lightning area and copy-paste on photoshop.
This way you can get blue skies on pictures where the main subject was under a dark shadow and see both perfectly.
Don’t forget the tripod.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:17 am
After leaving the above comment I made some research and discovered HDR, I recommend the site http://www.mediachance.com/hdri/