Metering Modes Pt. 1

Please check out our videos about light meters so you know how they work and what we're on about before you start learning about metering modes.

Your camera will have several metering modes to help you get the correct exposure and create the look you're after. That could be dark and moody or bright and breezy.

Before you can begin using your metering modes effectively you have to get your head around the whole 'mid grey' concept because that's what your camera thinks the world looks like. If you're metering from something which isn't equal to mid grey the camera will set the wrong exposure.

So the place to begin when choosing which metering mode to use is to visualise the image you're about to take as black and white. Then you can choose where you think the closest tone to mid grey is in the scene and meter for that area. This is especially true when using spot metering. More on that in part 2

Imagining a scene without the colour isn't easy until you've had some practise so here in metering modes 1 I'm going to show you how to do it.

In Metering Modes (pt2) we'll explain all about spot, centre weighted and evaluative metering modes so you'll know which one to chose for the situation you're in.

And if metering modes are a foreign language to you, start to get to grips with them with my Masterclass in Photograpy course..!

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