Shooting without the aid of the exposure meter

[Vaccam]

All,

I'm just curious if anyone shoots without the aid of the camera's exposure meter, or any other meter, as a means for learning what settings work for a particular situation (ISO, f-stop, SS)? Strictly as a way to train your eye, not meant to be your normal shooting technique.

Also, it would be nice to hear of any other methods you use to train yourself to do things without needing to rely so much on the camera doing everything for you.

Hope this is not the wrong forum for this. I mostly stick to this forum.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have,

Michael

--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130745324@N06/

 

[dread_tai]

yes, but still rely more heavily on histogram.

 

[Chuck Yadmark]

In the old film days, and without benefit of instant feedback, we used to use the sunny 16 rule in case the meter was broken.

f/16, iso 100, 1/100. All could be adjusted from there

 

[Vaccam]

yes, but still rely more heavily on histogram.

Yes, that goes along with my thoughts. Learning to shoot without the meters, but using the histogram to confirm.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[T O Shooter]

All,

I'm just curious if anyone shoots without the aid of the camera's exposure meter, or any other meter, as a means for learning what settings work for a particular situation (ISO, f-stop, SS)? Strictly as a way to train your eye, not meant to be your normal shooting technique.

Also, it would be nice to hear of any other methods you use to train yourself to do things without needing to rely so much on the camera doing everything for you.

Hope this is not the wrong forum for this. I mostly stick to this forum.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have,

Michael

--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130745324@N06/

There's something called the Sunny 16 rule that on a typically sunny day for any particular ISO that the shutter speed will be 1/ISO at f16. This may vary by a stop or so depending on where you are, and there are variations such as Overcast 11, which would be one stop less so 1/ISO at f 11

This works as follows, assume ISO 100

1/100 f16 , 1/200 f11, 1/400 f8, 1/800 f5.6, 1/1600 f4 , 1/3200 f2.8 and so on, with all of those combinations equalling the same exposure.

Here's the first one that showed up on Google search

http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/1606/are-there-more-rules-other-than-the-sunny-16-rule/

Basically what anything other than Sunny 16 is doing is making a stop, two stop, three stop exposure compensation for different typically lighting situations. With a little experimenting and checking your histogram you can adjust this for your local area.

Sometimes I use it as a fast guide to get me in the generally ballpark shooting in M. A check of the histogram and a quick adjustment and I'm where I want to be.

It's kind of a "get you in the ballpark rule" and should be thought of more as a guideline than a rule

Edit: If you understand the scene, the camera meter is very good anyway. You would just need to learn to + or - on exposure compensation for different situations such as a dark bird against a bright sky background. You'd need to add exposure compensation from a matrix or centerweighted meter reading to prevent from having the bird too dark.

--
A Canon G5 and a bit of Nikon gear.
The trouble with normal is it always gets worse - Bruce Cockburn

 

[M35G35]

All,

I'm just curious if anyone shoots without the aid of the camera's exposure meter, or any other meter, as a means for learning what settings work for a particular situation (ISO, f-stop, SS)? Strictly as a way to train your eye, not meant to be your normal shooting technique.

Also, it would be nice to hear of any other methods you use to train yourself to do things without needing to rely so much on the camera doing everything for you.

Hope this is not the wrong forum for this. I mostly stick to this forum.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have,

Michael

 

[David314]

All,

I'm just curious if anyone shoots without the aid of the camera's exposure meter, or any other meter, as a means for learning what settings work for a particular situation (ISO, f-stop, SS)? Strictly as a way to train your eye, not meant to be your normal shooting technique.

I'm a big fan of Chuck Gardner's white towel method.

Basically have a white textured object in the frame and judge exposure from the histogram/blinkies

then remove towel

i've had good success with flash and portraits with that method

also out doors where there are white things in the same light

i usually get pretty good a judging sunny skies and backlit conditions and can set manually just from experience

 

[T O Shooter]

All,

I'm just curious if anyone shoots without the aid of the camera's exposure meter, or any other meter, as a means for learning what settings work for a particular situation (ISO, f-stop, SS)? Strictly as a way to train your eye, not meant to be your normal shooting technique.

I'm a big fan of Chuck Gardner's white towel method.

Basically have a white textured object in the frame and judge exposure from the histogram/blinkies

then remove towel

i've had good success with flash and portraits with that method

also out doors where there are white things in the same light

i usually get pretty good a judging sunny skies and backlit conditions and can set manually just from experience

Very good tip. A quick and dirty method, and I can see it being particularly good for anything that's "set up" Outdoor stuff I check for blown highlights ( blinkies ) as a matter of routine anyway.

 

[Murray Bowles]

Yes. On a stage lit by pure red spotlights, metering is completely useless (except perhaps the new highlight metering). "Guessing" and looking for the blinkies is the only way.

 

[David314]

All,

I'm just curious if anyone shoots without the aid of the camera's exposure meter, or any other meter, as a means for learning what settings work for a particular situation (ISO, f-stop, SS)? Strictly as a way to train your eye, not meant to be your normal shooting technique.

I'm a big fan of Chuck Gardner's white towel method.

Basically have a white textured object in the frame and judge exposure from the histogram/blinkies

then remove towel

i've had good success with flash and portraits with that method

also out doors where there are white things in the same light

i usually get pretty good a judging sunny skies and backlit conditions and can set manually just from experience

Very good tip. A quick and dirty method, and I can see it being particularly good for anything that's "set up" Outdoor stuff I check for blown highlights ( blinkies ) as a matter of routine anyway.

--
A Canon G5 and a bit of Nikon gear.
The trouble with normal is it always gets worse - Bruce Cockburn

once you start looking around, you will find there are a lot of white things just laying around

you don't need to bring your own white towel

so the key is finding white things and looking for blinkies on them

that will set your white as white on the right of the histogram and expose things that aren't white properly if they are in the same light

 

[Flashlight]

All,

I'm just curious if anyone shoots without the aid of the camera's exposure meter, or any other meter, as a means for learning what settings work for a particular situation (ISO, f-stop, SS)? Strictly as a way to train your eye, not meant to be your normal shooting technique.

Also, it would be nice to hear of any other methods you use to train yourself to do things without needing to rely so much on the camera doing everything for you.

Hope this is not the wrong forum for this. I mostly stick to this forum.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have,

Michael

 

[grazuncle]

In the old film days, and without benefit of instant feedback, we used to use the sunny 16 rule in case the meter was broken.

f/16, iso 100, 1/100. All could be adjusted from there

 

[soloryb]

In the old film days, and without benefit of instant feedback, we used to use the sunny 16 rule in case the meter was broken.

f/16, iso 100, 1/100. All could be adjusted from there

 

[FBoneOne]

I carry around a Leica IIIg in my bag, no meter, manual focus. It is good practice around the sunny 16 rule that others have mentioned and take advantage of the exposure latitude of chromogenic B&W film. It also forces a lot to work with zone focusing and understand the impact of aperture on DOF.

I do carry a light measure app on my iPhone for challenging light conditions but for the most part I try to shoot 5 or 6 pictures on tart camera every time I go out to shoot with highly automated cameras. It also forces me to slow down big time which is a good habit to have to concentrate on the picture to be taken.

 

[InspectorHud]

I'm sorry, but this is a topic that temps me into a rant occasionally. I've been doing photography in one form or another for the better part of my life. I can recall buying cameras because of very advanced exposure metering systems that were "life changing". I learned after some time that there is no such thing and never will be. I do use the metering system just to get me in the ball park quickly, but I rarely if ever blindly trust it. I've used hand held incident meters and it gives much more useful information about the light, but it still tries to make the world eighteen percent. If I'm shooting at dusk I do not want it to look like noon. Yes, a lot can be fixed in post, but a lot can be fixed when you press the shutter too. I laughed out loud to hear a pro photographer tell how he one day discovered the exposure meter in his camera after shooting trial and error style for perhaps years. I could not imagine someone making a living doing photography and not knowing his camera had an exposure meter. This is on a Kelby instructional video in case you don't believe me.

 

[Petruska]

and never really had bad exposure since. I shoot mostly weddings and this target saves me a lot of work in PP. I use the mid-size target that folds up really small, and carry it in my pocket.

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www.photovisionvideo.com

Watch the 3 videos (green buttons) he does a great job of explaining why the camera metering isn't up to par and why the camera histogram doesn't work well with no white in the scene.

Bob P.

 

[Kitacanon]

Never had a meter in an SLR until I got a Dslr...40 years with the bare naked Nikon F....

Sunny 16 rule is adjusted like this.....set camera to "P"
shutter speed is the reciprocal of the chosen ISO...i.e. ISO 800 = shutter speed of 1/800

F16 for direct sun-lit subject
F11 for sun at right angle to subject
F8 for sun behind subject or sun whose location is visible behind a cloud
F5.6 for sun behind cloud and not visible...or on an overcast day...

From these settings in "P" mode, change either shutter speed or aperture depending on the need for speed or depth of field and the exposure will remain the same.

How do you know to increase the exposure when looking through the viewfinder? I would go by the HEAT of the sun on the back of my neck.

...and that's about it...

 

[breivogel]

For the D750, you can just set your camera to the desired shutter speed and f-stop, leave Iso at 100, shoot raw, and adjust exposure in post. On sunny days, you need to be aware of clipping in raw - so you might default to sunny 16 (F8, 1/400. Iso 100). Under other situations (like dusk/night/indoors) you need a minimum shutter to stop action and aperture for DOF - for instance F5.6 1/60).

 

[Nexu1]

Does the question pertain to those of us who use the semi-auto modes like A (aperture priority)?

I shoot 99% in A and virtually never look at the exposure meter. I know what the camera is going to try to do (18% gray) and know when to use exposure compensation. I also check the histogram and blinkies. Because of these methods I feel no use for the exposure meter.

 

[Nexu1]

For the D750, you can just set your camera to the desired shutter speed and f-stop, leave Iso at 100, shoot raw, and adjust exposure in post. On sunny days, you need to be aware of clipping in raw - so you might default to sunny 16 (F8, 1/400. Iso 100). Under other situations (like dusk/night/indoors) you need a minimum shutter to stop action and aperture for DOF - for instance F5.6 1/60).

For some reason this is making no sense to me. Certainly you aren't saying that if your exposure is off by 2-3-4 stops that it doesn't matter, you can adjust the RAW in post and get the same result as a properly exposed photo, are you?