best setting

[blacky]

i have a canon 40D took some what thought were good shots of avocets but looked to bright i was told use spot meter but still looks you might call it burned out. is there right setting

[Keith Reeder]

Only "the right setting for that shot", Blacky.

The thing with Spot metering is that if the spot is on the black of the avocet, the camera will try and bring that up to 18% grey, which will blow the whites unless you add some -ve EC: but if you meter on the white, the camera will try to being the whites down to 18% grey making everything dark unless you add +ve EC!

Spot metering needs real accuracy.

I'm using Evaluative pretty much all the time now, even though I was a big fan of Spot, and it's working out well. I still have to add or subtract some EC sometimes, but it makes life a bit easier.

[blacky]

thanks kieth that a big help this all new to me

[Keith Reeder]

Yeah, it's a useful little snippet of information that's worth keeping in mind.

This "quirk" of Spot metering catches people out all the time, and you often see postings on photography forums asking "why are these two pictures so different?" which is usually explained by where the metering spot was in each picture.

It's certainly caught me out enough times!

;)

[IanF]

I've been spending a bit of time with the Avocets that we have locally this year. I'm still using Spot Metering. The only real variation I'm using is that on sunny days it takes -0.6 EV and when it's cloudy none at all in order to keep the detail in the whites and blacks.

I'll have give evaluative metering a go to compare the results.

[Keith Reeder]

On the strength of those pictures Ian, I wouldn't bother - they're excellent!

;)

You do make a good point about only really needing to juggle EC on sunny days - that's my experience too.

[Duck_Pond]

Interesting... shall have to try this myself.

Managed to blow out some whites on some zoo birds at the Living Coasts attraction in Torquay recently, which was a shame, as the chance to see birds like avocets up close was fantastic. The amount of pooh produced by the Inca Terns, as shown on the back of my shorts that day, was not so wonderful...

[Keith Reeder]

It's kinda counter-intuitive to add EC to handle highlights while keeping the rest of the picture properly exposed (I used to rail against the idea!) but it's quite logical, really.

As I say, if the metering spot is on white, the camera will "under-expose" to make the white 18% grey and keep the highlights.

So adding EC actually brings the white back to white and stops the shadows being badly under exposed.

[blacky]

thanks every one i will try both ideas