This is an awesome series of challenges where the focus is on learning more about your camera settings... this particular challenge focuses on the different settings available from your camera's internal meter... these affect how much light is used to capture the image...
The above four shots were all taken in aperture priority at f/4.5 with the knight (you may need to look at this large to see him ;p) as the focal point... focal length was 26mm and using ISO100... In Lightroom, I set the white balance, did the lens correction thing and added some clarity and vibrance - I applied the same settings to all four images... i also did a very small crop to get to letterbox dimensions...
The only difference between the four images is the shutter speed, and this was determined by the metering mode...
top left: 8 seconds - evaluative metering
top right: 10 seconds - centre weighted average
bottom left:13 seconds - partial metering
bottom right: 15 seconds - spot metering
And now I am stumped as to which I would choose to use and why... ;p
Nice job. I think for this particular shot that the evaluative worked best as it has more contrast. However, if you moved the knight to a darker area in the shot and focussed and used spot metering, you would see the shot should I think more difference. I think that's what Brendan was saying... focus in a light area of the shot, then move your spot metering to a darker area and take the same shot again. I came across this last night too, funny how it ties into the challenge... http://digital-photography-school.com/using-backlight-in-nature-photography ...
@ozziehoffy yeah... i know i still need to do that part... i had an idea for a shot that would let me get both light and dark like that, but decided i didn't like it in the end and so the knight happened again... ;p
I love how you showed the difference between all of them! I know nothing about metering so I'm looking forward to learning a little about it this week. As for the shot itself, I love the composition. And I actually am partial to the way the centre weighted one came out. But then again, like I said, I know nothing about metering! lol
I love how you showed these all together so we can see the difference. This is a CSC I definitely need to have a go at. It's something I haven't studied nearly enough!
Northy, your brain gives me a headache!! ;-> You work so hard on these. . .I think you must have the most accomplished set of skills; just the way you take these challenges and run with them is always so impressive. Thanks for the well shot set, the information about what you did and for going to the trouble to work through this.
@lyno you are so sweet Lyn... i like problem solving of all kinds, and i tend to view these things as just another problem to solve :) in many respects, it's not all that hard - i promise!!!
Interesting to see the difference.
I had a similar play with this last year and decided it didn't make much difference in most case and I use evaluative metering to get me in the ball park and then exposure compensation to get the effect I want.
I like the spot metering one best here because of the brightness of the light source.
This is quite interesting, I always user spot metering, never ever change it. But here, top left looks better to me, because of the better contrast. Maybe I should play more
Very awesome job showing the difference in the settings :) I like the spot or partial because I really love the mysterious glow from behind the door :) (I'm imagining a dragon blowing fire behind him :)) hehe yeahh.... I don't think I got enough sleep last night..... :) hehe
I need to investigate the metering system closer. I set it up once and read about it, but never changed it since. I always use evaluative but should research further.
Evaluative metering seems better to optimize the light calculations and use less shutter time.
Is this correct?
I had a similar play with this last year and decided it didn't make much difference in most case and I use evaluative metering to get me in the ball park and then exposure compensation to get the effect I want.
I like the spot metering one best here because of the brightness of the light source.
Great job illustrating the differences!