For my tastes I find metering off the face alone (caucasian) produces a degree
of
underexposure. I try to take a spot reading off the subjects hair as well,
especially the shadow area around the ears. So I usually take one spot reading
of
the face and one of the hair, or sometimes just one of the hair.
Alternatively, I sometimes spot meter the face and the clothes, so long as they
are
darker than the face.
I very rarely use the exposure compensation dial at all. I find it quicker to
just
bias the exposure by use of extra spot readings. If, for example, I was doing
a
portrait of a bald caucasian wearing black, I might take two spot readings of
the
face and one of the clothes.
I use spot metering a lot and have found the 0f my shots with good exposures is
far higher than when I used another brand of camera with just centre weighted
metering.
I have found the use of a spot meter has been a tremendous learning tool which
has
made me think about the lighting and elements of a scene far more than I used
to
previously. As a consequence, I reckon I could go back to my old centre
weighted
only camera and get a far higher 0f good exposures from it using the exposure
compensation dial, or more likely, using it in manual mode.
I do not use the hi-lite and shadow buttons much. However, when I have done
they
have worked very well. In the Oly Gallery I have a shot of a doorway. This
photo I
took not long after getting my 4Ti. I wasn't too sure about the exposure but I
knew
the one effect I did want was of an inky black shadow through the partialy open
door, so I spot metered that area and pressed the shadow button. I have used
the
hi-lite button when photographing a white car in bright sunshine. I wanted the
car
to come out white so hey presto.
Giles
Skip Williams
wrote:
> 1. I find myself constantly wanting to take portraits, often side or
> backlit. The CW metering gets confused in these situations. A quick spot
> reading off the face of my subject and a flick of the memory-store lever
> >and/or highlight/shadow control. I'd be interested to hear from those that
> >regularly use these functions what techniques they've adopted and how
> >successful they are. Am I alone in using the C-W metering and occasional
> >exposure compensation with this camera? Although this works for me most of
>
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