Doug's "No Name" Theater/Gaming Room - Page 2

Originally Posted by kezug

Originally Posted by kezug

I know! But I just dont want to put forth the extra cost for a lens to get the CIH.

Auto Exposure

The camera manufacturers have come up with all sorts of ingenious metering systems to try to help, there are now multi mode metering systems, which give you a choice of centre weighting', 'spot metering' or multi spot metering' on many of the better cameras, but none can guarantee to give you what you want every time.

The temptation to think that your camera knows what it's doing' is great, even for more experienced photographers, which is my main complaint against automatic cameras. It's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security, switch your brain to more interesting things and end up with a pile of rubbish.

Tip - using auto exposure to your advantage.

If you have a modern camera, the chances are that the default metering system is centre weighted average', which means that, although it takes an average reading of the whole scene, it takes more notice of what is in the middle of the frame. Which is good news for us. The other good news is that it takes this reading at the time when you take first pressure' on the button to take your picture. When you push it halfway down and it beeps at you, not only is the focus now set (on an auto focus camera) but the exposure reading is taken and the aperture and shutter speed are set. So, if your main point of interest is not in the centre of the frame, it's a good idea to put it there temporarily while you focus and take your light reading, then move the camera whilst still holding the button halfway down and compose the picture the way you want it to be. A common use for this technique is when you are taking a close up shot of two people and there is space between their heads, if you're not careful the camera will focus on the wall or trees behind them. If the background is very dark or very light this can alter the exposure significantly and result in faces that are too dark or too light.

Skin tones are what most meters are set up to consider an average tone', they are also usually the part of the picture that we most want to get right. If I am photographing a group of people in difficult circumstances, like bright sunlight for instance, I will often move close in to the group and take a light reading from someone's face or, if we are all standing in the same type of light, I will take a reading from the back of my hand. This is no good, of course, if the subject is in bright sunlight and I am in the shade. Brown parcel paper is also an extraordinarily accurate surface to take a light reading from.