Time-Lapse Photography: Art and Techniques by Higgins Mark

Author:Higgins, Mark [Higgins, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785002106
Publisher: Crowood
Published: 2016-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

Your camera’s metering system

Understanding what your camera’s metering system is programmed to do will enable you to decide whether to follow what it is telling you or ignore it, but use it as a reference. Coming back to the modes, the camera is ultimately choosing the exposure of your images if you are in program, shutter or aperture priority. The only time that you are fully in control is when your camera is in manual mode, with manual ISO set.

In manual mode you still have the camera’s meter to tell you whether it thinks it is too bright or too dark, but you can choose to ignore it and sometimes you may have to. If you are getting images that you feel are too dark and the meter is on the zero, you will just have to change your settings and overlook the meter. The camera is programmed to do a job and it does it well, but it cannot be subjective like you can and it does not have a creative brain.

Middle grey and the grey scale

The metering system on your camera will always try to do the same thing: it will adjust elements of the exposure triangle, if the camera is controlling them, until most of the frame is middle grey. To understand how the camera is making this decision we need to look at the world in black and white – this may sound strange but it’s how the metering system sees.

If the camera is choosing the exposure it will look at the scene monochromatically and make adjustments to the exposure so that the majority of the frame is middle grey. Most of the time this is an effective way to get a good exposure. However, there are times where you need to the take control from the camera in order to get the images that you want.

We have considered how the meter works, but just because it is on the zero doesn’t necessarily mean that the exposure is how we want it to look. If the meter is on the zero then the camera is happy that the average of your frame is middle grey; we will explore some examples of when you’re metering system might not give you the result you want.

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