Some questions regarding exposure compensation...

[SNAG]

Hi there all!
I am reading the Magic Lantern Guide for F80 (it's available in the library!), and there's a part in the guide regarding exposure compensation that baffles me:

"You will want to set a plus compensation factor for bright or white subjects and a minus factor for dark or center-weighted metering..."

huh?
I have always thought that you should undercompensate for bright objects, and overcompensate for dark objects?

please advise... Thanks a lot!

 

[majere2sg]

Originally posted by SNAG
Hi there all!
I am reading the Magic Lantern Guide for F80 (it's available in the library!), and there's a part in the guide regarding exposure compensation that baffles me:

"You will want to set a plus compensation factor for bright or white subjects and a minus factor for dark or center-weighted metering..."

huh?
I have always thought that you should undercompensate for bright objects, and overcompensate for dark objects?

please advise... Thanks a lot!

If I am not wrong, when you meter on a bright object, the camera might underexpose the surrounding objects or background, so you should set a plus compensation so that the background is not underexposed ??

 

[Jedian]

When your camera meters a white object, it is fooled into thinking that the object is too bright and hence will want to underexpose the object.

To solve this problem, you will need to over-expose by 1 stop or more.

Conversely, when you camera meters a black object, it is fooled into thinking that the object is too dark and hence will want to over-expose the object.

To solve this problem, you will need to under-expose by 1 stop or more.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tweek]

SNAG, Jedian is right, most metering systems determine exposure for 18% gray. Say if your subject is bright or white, your camera will try to make it 18% gray, thus making it darker than what it really is, thus = underexposure. Therefore, you should dial in +ve compensation to correct the underexposure. The converse applies for dark/black subjects.

 

[Zerstorer]

Another way of looking at it is to always try to meter tones that are supposed to look like "midtones".

Never try spot/centre weighted metering on something that isn't a midtone colour.

When using matrix/evaluative, sometimes the camera might just be able to guess it right.