learning spot metering vs eval metering

[praline3001]

Hi again folks! I think I am ready to jump into spot metering vs the evaluative metering I keep my camera on.

I had some photos that really could have benefited from spot metering but wasn't exactly sure how to do it correctly. Anyone know any good articles (like strobist for lighting) or books that explain spot metering in the easiest way possible (such as metering for dummies)?

I am no techie! Before photography anything that was techie I handed to hubby to let him figure it out! Since I am the photographer I need to learn this stuff rather then hand it over to hubby HA HA

Many times when I read things here its WAY over my head in the techie department. I get lost more times then not when trying to understand what folks are getting at with techie terms and gear

I don't want to sound like an idiot but I want to learn!!! So was hoping there was some good easy to understand reading material I could start with and then if I still don't understand ask my questions

[BigFuzzy]

This seems like a decent basic description of Spot Metering..

Spot Metering

Lots of stuff found when I googled "what is spot metering".. might be other basic easy to understand stuff there which will allow you to ask your follow-up questions (if any).

[mrteacherdude]

Wow! I didn't even know the T3i could spot meter - cool. The earlier Rebels couldn't do that. There are probably several different ways/methods to spot meter, but this is the typical way I use it: set my camera to spot metering mode (it is the icon that has just a small dot in the middle of the square when you go to the metering mode in the menu); point my camera on the spot that I want it to use for metering and lock the exposure (the little SEL button on the back of the camera should accomplish this); recompose if necessary and then shoot.

I hope I got this right

One would think it doesn't make a difference what mode you are in if you are shooting in manual, but I haven't played around with that yet. Unfortunately, I posted this before I followed BigFuzzy's link or any of the numerous links that came up when I googled it...

Edit: I just remembered a way that I use spot metering when shooting manual; I sometimes use it to get a good idea of what my exposure settings should be for the scene or different parts of the scene if there is a lot of dynamic range. That is, I put it into spot metering and start pointing different directions and watching my meter to see how each part of the scene affects my exposure while I play around with the other settings (aperture or shutter speed depending on what is most important for me to control precisely at the time) to see how it affects (theoretically) the exposure. That way I (hopefully) choose settings that will properly expose the part of the scene I am most interested in at the time. This is assuming I don't have a lot of time to blast off a couple of test shots and see how they came out to make adjustments that way.