I use spot metering a lot. I feel it is vital.
Before stating why I feel it is vital, let me clarify something. In the zone system 10 areas were spot metered ranging from what was to be white on the print to what was to be black. This gave the dynamic range needed to record the scene. The negative was then developed to produce the required dynamic range by varying the developer, development time and development temperature. The reason for the middle tones, was when the development was varied from specified standards the linearity of the tonal range varied. The mid-tones were used to fine tune the development process.
In a digital negative we do not have this latitude in changing dynamic range, but we still need to deliver the scenes dynamic range. To do this one needs to spot meter the scene. These readings can then be used to determine what Grad value needs to be used, or to determine the bracket size for HDR images.
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