What is your normal exposure metering method?

With my SD Quattro I use the liveview histogram to balance the exposure as best as I can. I know it's for jpegs but as I use the camera regularly I know what I'm going to get based on what the histogram is telling me, it works well for me. I also do the same with my DPXM's, I normally leave all of them in matrix metering mode. For those that might say the histogram is not particularly accurate, I never get an exposure I'm not happy with using this method, first time. I rarely have to change the exposure at all in post, unless I've deliberately under-exposed with a view to tweaking it in post.

Depends entirely on subject, light and intention.

Metering in the last generation of film SLRs and in today's better digital offerings is so sophisticated that I see no merit in "I always shoot manual" unless using only an external meter.

I use A or S  depending on whether depth of field or camera/subject movement is an issue, and if in doubt bracket the exposure ..........

Greetings

I use 4 different metering methods depending on what I'm shooting

1. Spot meter and bracket 3 shots -3 right on +3

2. Spot meter splitting the highlights and shadows in the exposure circle

3  Hand held light meter

4 Meter off my hand and open up 1/2 to 1 stop.

Have fun

Roger J.

I shoot aperture mode 99% of the time.  I used the histogram more to avoid overexposure than under and I frequently bracket 3-5 shots with a tendency to go lower rather than higher on exposure.  Blown highlights are my greatest fear.

xpatUSA wrote:

absquatulate wrote:

With my SD Quattro I use the liveview histogram to balance the exposure as best as I can. I know it's for jpegs but as I use the camera regularly I know what I'm going to get based on what the histogram is telling me, it works well for me. I also do the same with my DPXM's, I normally leave all of them in matrix metering mode. For those that might say the histogram is not particularly accurate, I never get an exposure I'm not happy with using this method, first time. I rarely have to change the exposure at all in post, unless I've deliberately under-exposed with a view to tweaking it in post.

Thanks for responding, Abs.

To anyone that claims that "the histogram is not particularly accurate", I'd comment that they do not understand histograms.

Maybe the words „not accurate“ are not really correct in a semantic or literal way here. Maybe „not representing the RAW data“ would be better in this respect. As far as I understand, the histogram shows the distribution of brightness from the resulting in-camera jpg. I accept that some people use the words „not accurate“ in this context based on the assumption that they do the RAW development in SPP and not with the actual settings in-camera.

xpatUSA wrote:

Scottelly wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

absquatulate wrote:

With my SD Quattro I use the liveview histogram to balance the exposure as best as I can. I know it's for jpegs but as I use the camera regularly I know what I'm going to get based on what the histogram is telling me, it works well for me. I also do the same with my DPXM's, I normally leave all of them in matrix metering mode. For those that might say the histogram is not particularly accurate, I never get an exposure I'm not happy with using this method, first time. I rarely have to change the exposure at all in post, unless I've deliberately under-exposed with a view to tweaking it in post.

Thanks for responding, Abs.

To anyone that claims that "the histogram is not particularly accurate", I'd comment that they do not understand histograms.

I guess my noisy mosquito example wasn't convincing, huh Ted?

I'm glad you were joking Scott!

Otherwise, I'd have to ask you to explain exactly how this histogram of your posted review image is inaccurate:

Especially when ImageJ's histogram of your original image is almost identical (see bottom right):

And, with only a bit of noise in the dark area selected at top right, I'm not sure why you called the image "noisy"! To me, a SNR of about 50 in such a dark area is pretty good - SPP must have been quite busy, LOL.

I think this is a good example. Do you really think that the two histograms are almost identical? But maybe the imageJ histogram uses a different y scaling. And you show the histogram in SPP, not the in-camera histogram. I didn‘t test it, but I assume the SPP histogram already reflects the settings in SPP, not what you see in-camera.

FDecker wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

absquatulate wrote:

With my SD Quattro I use the liveview histogram to balance the exposure as best as I can. I know it's for jpegs but as I use the camera regularly I know what I'm going to get based on what the histogram is telling me, it works well for me. I also do the same with my DPXM's, I normally leave all of them in matrix metering mode. For those that might say the histogram is not particularly accurate, I never get an exposure I'm not happy with using this method, first time. I rarely have to change the exposure at all in post, unless I've deliberately under-exposed with a view to tweaking it in post.

Thanks for responding, Abs.

To anyone that claims that "the histogram is not particularly accurate", I'd comment that they do not understand histograms.

Maybe the words „not accurate“ are not really correct in a semantic or literal way here. Maybe „not representing the RAW data“ would be better in this respect. As far as I understand, the histogram shows the distribution of brightness from the resulting in-camera jpg. I accept that some people use the words „not accurate“ in this context based on the assumption that they do the RAW development in SPP and not with the actual settings in-camera.

The thing is, if you're using a jpeg histogram in camera, and you position it as you see fit, you know you will always have more latitude when it comes to processing the raw. The trick is to understand where the distribution of brightness is on the histogram and how to use that information to give you the exposure you are aiming for. People have a tendency to over-complicate this, but it's really quite simple in practice,

absquatulate wrote:

FDecker wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

absquatulate wrote:

With my SD Quattro I use the liveview histogram to balance the exposure as best as I can. I know it's for jpegs but as I use the camera regularly I know what I'm going to get based on what the histogram is telling me, it works well for me. I also do the same with my DPXM's, I normally leave all of them in matrix metering mode. For those that might say the histogram is not particularly accurate, I never get an exposure I'm not happy with using this method, first time. I rarely have to change the exposure at all in post, unless I've deliberately under-exposed with a view to tweaking it in post.

Thanks for responding, Abs.

To anyone that claims that "the histogram is not particularly accurate", I'd comment that they do not understand histograms.

Maybe the words „not accurate“ are not really correct in a semantic or literal way here. Maybe „not representing the RAW data“ would be better in this respect. As far as I understand, the histogram shows the distribution of brightness from the resulting in-camera jpg. I accept that some people use the words „not accurate“ in this context based on the assumption that they do the RAW development in SPP and not with the actual settings in-camera.

The thing is, if you're using a jpeg histogram in camera, and you position it as you see fit, you know you will always have more latitude when it comes to processing the raw. The trick is to understand where the distribution of brightness is on the histogram and how to use that information to give you the exposure you are aiming for. People have a tendency to over-complicate this, but it's really quite simple in practice,

I agree and as you may see from my answer, I know this.

FDecker wrote:

absquatulate wrote:

FDecker wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

absquatulate wrote:

With my SD Quattro I use the liveview histogram to balance the exposure as best as I can. I know it's for jpegs but as I use the camera regularly I know what I'm going to get based on what the histogram is telling me, it works well for me. I also do the same with my DPXM's, I normally leave all of them in matrix metering mode. For those that might say the histogram is not particularly accurate, I never get an exposure I'm not happy with using this method, first time. I rarely have to change the exposure at all in post, unless I've deliberately under-exposed with a view to tweaking it in post.

Thanks for responding, Abs.

To anyone that claims that "the histogram is not particularly accurate", I'd comment that they do not understand histograms.

Maybe the words „not accurate“ are not really correct in a semantic or literal way here. Maybe „not representing the RAW data“ would be better in this respect. As far as I understand, the histogram shows the distribution of brightness from the resulting in-camera jpg. I accept that some people use the words „not accurate“ in this context based on the assumption that they do the RAW development in SPP and not with the actual settings in-camera.

The thing is, if you're using a jpeg histogram in camera, and you position it as you see fit, you know you will always have more latitude when it comes to processing the raw. The trick is to understand where the distribution of brightness is on the histogram and how to use that information to give you the exposure you are aiming for. People have a tendency to over-complicate this, but it's really quite simple in practice,

I agree and as you may see from my answer, I know this.

It wasn't really directed specifically at you, just for others who may not realise it.

xpatUSA wrote:

tagscuderia wrote:

A RAW histogram, whilst undoubtedly still useful, has less utility with Foveon because of the extreme 3x3 colour matrices. The current in-camera histogram used as you say is logical and most practical.

@Ted, with my SD1M I shoot Manual and spot-meter significant areas of the scene, taking an exposure decision from there. With my DP3M I use intelligent ETTR via the histogram. I AEB everything because... well why not

Thanks. Much as I, but what is AEB?

Automatic Exposure Bracketing.