Metering for white or gray object?

[bolbolito]

Help

Im just newbie and would appreciate your inputs about my problem...

Im using spot metering:

1. How do I meter properly? Do I have to look for white objects (like clouds) in the viewfinder, lock the exposure and accordingly adjust the EV compensation cos the camera is suppose to interpret the locked clouds as grayscale?

or will I just look for objects nearer to gray color and meter from that?

2. Is setting up the white balance serves also as metering?

Thanks!

bolbolito

[catchlights]

Originally Posted by bolbolito Help Im just newbie and would appreciate your inputs about my problem... Im using spot metering: 1. How do I meter properly? Do I have to look for white objects (like clouds) in the viewfinder, lock the exposure and accordingly adjust the EV compensation cos the camera is suppose to interpret the locked clouds as grayscale? or will I just look for objects nearer to gray color and meter from that? 2. Is setting up the white balance serves also as metering? Thanks! bolbolito

your questions are not specify limited to Pentex, are rather general...

anyway, reply to your questions...

1a, yes, you can do that way, meter white object and dial +2, so it will render as "highlight with details"
1b, yes, if you know what mid tone looks like, and it does not limited to gray tone, green or red are fine, as long it close to mid tone.

2. no, WB is WB, exposure metering is exposure metering, it is not the same. WB is telling the camera what color temperature you are shooting with, exposure metering is telling the camera what lighting condition your are shooting with.

[flowerpot]

Originally Posted by bolbolito Help Im just newbie and would appreciate your inputs about my problem... Im using spot metering: 1. How do I meter properly? Do I have to look for white objects (like clouds) in the viewfinder, lock the exposure and accordingly adjust the EV compensation cos the camera is suppose to interpret the locked clouds as grayscale? or will I just look for objects nearer to gray color and meter from that? 2. Is setting up the white balance serves also as metering? Thanks! bolbolito

1) understanding the zone system will help you, spot metering suppose to put it in zone V of middle grey or 18% grey... but seems like our camera metering is calibrated slightly off... example u spot meter a model face, but our face usually is in between zone VI to VII, so ppl +0.7 to 1 EV to get the right exposure depending how accurate the metering is and also how the camera is calibrated... if u talk about a general scene, then u must visualize ur scene and place our all the 9 zones and identify ur zone V, spot meter that and u will get the correct exposure, or compensate accordingly... how to noe which zone ur camera spot meter at, make sure ur scene is 2 distinct object, example a small piece of paper or any object other than black on top of a black background, spot meter the paper/object and shoot, look at the histogram, u should see a spike at the center or slightly to the right of the center... so bottom line is, what u spot meter will appear at the center or off center in the histogram, looking at the scene, identifying which is the zone V then u will get the right exposure, or if shoot ppl, just remember human face is usually zone 6/7, spot the face and +EV accordingly... btw, pentax camera spot metering is accurate, but i hardly use it, cos my subject keeps changing...

2) i dun think white balance will do anything to metering...

[bolbolito]

catchlights and flowerpot

thank you for the inputs! I appreciate it very much and very informative indeed!!!

[bolbolito]

by the way, im using Pentax DSLR...thanks guys!!!