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Paolo Piazza
06-06-2009, 10:37 PM
when do you use spot metering in bird photography?

WIlliam Maroldo
06-06-2009, 11:06 PM
Practically always when not shooting manual. Use to meter the bird only. I do consider the background exposure, but if the exposure isn't right on the subject, the background exposure doesn't matter. If I have a firm grasp of lighting conditions(like the sun isn't likely to pop out from behind a cloud, I will go manual (pick ISO, shutter speed, aperture). Actually this works best most of the time. regards~Bill

Alfred Forns
06-07-2009, 04:08 PM
Hi Paolo practically never !!!! :)

William has a great point in the bg issue but it has little to do with the metering method, its the manual metering that does it !!! Same can be done with Evaluative or Multi Matrix.

Spot and incident are used by some with great effect, do need to know what you are doing. I feel you become a better photographer if you know and can use all the metering modes/methods. It all boils down to what are you comfortable.

Before the digital days I did a lot of B&W and used a Pentax one degree digital spot meter modified by Zone VI ... it would take into account IR light emitted by green foliage late afternoon. I Don't think the in camera meter will be same since the circle you are metering will vary with focal length. Might want to look at Artie's book and check out the chapter in metering !!

Dave Taylor
06-07-2009, 05:11 PM
As an alternative, I've been having a lot of fun using a Sekonic L-558 hand held meter. I use the ambient dome and aim it in the direction of the sun (which meters to protect hi-lights). It also has a 1% spot meter (but doesn't zoom like a zoom lens would for more accurate metering over a narrower area). I've used the Sekonic now for bird photography and whales - it has been amazingly accurate every time. It's also plenty fast, I always have a base exposure set in it with the ISO I plan on using. Just point the dome and click. I just keep it hanging around my neck.
Otherwise, I use either center weighted for subjects that are large in the frame, spot when they are small or evaluative when the lighting is even.
I also must admit to not using a meter for landscape work - just using LiveView with the histogram and cheating a whole lot:)

Octavio Campos Salles
06-07-2009, 05:31 PM
I use it whenever I'm photographing in manual mode, which is when light is stable. With the spot meter I can point to the brightest area in the scene that I don't want to blown out and meter from that. It's pretty quick and easy once you practice a bit with different tonalities. All the other tonalities in the scene will then fall in its right place. If they don't it means the latitude of the scene is too much to be captured with the camera alone.
Either wait for a better light or use a flash, grad ND filter, etc...

WIlliam Maroldo
06-07-2009, 10:38 PM
Good point Al. Looked at my camera and it appears I should have said center weighted. Actually most of the time I take a few test shots, look at the histogram, make sure its shifted to the right with no blinkies(no blown out whites). Thats about it. I also have, through practice, gotten a pretty good idea what settings are appropiate for the lighting conditions. I guess that might be considered cheating, like Dave with his landscapes. regards~Bill