viewfinder d70, metering

[noelle]

hii ;p

currently using a D70, inside the viewfinder, there is something like this, excuse my illustration :embrass:


i usually focus my subject within the semicircle and 3 "horizontal" rectangles... What's the 2 "vertical" rectangles for?


also, for images such as below

i.e. sky bright and subject turns out dark, did some reading, does centre weighted metering solve the problem? would centre weighted metering also solve the problem where you want to take a photo of a person who is in a tall building maybe like taipei 101 (indoor and fairly dark) but also want to capture the outdoor scenery (bright, sunny)? hope i make sense!

thanks!

 

[Redsun]

hi the side vertical line is like different focus points i believe
If subject is standing to the side you can use those focus pts to focus on them

As for the picture,the camera is exposing for the backlit background
it thinks that the area is very bright.FOr backlit subjects you can use flash for fill light

 

[airfins]

You can try spot metering on the subject thought it will overexpose the background then. Try out partial or center weighted too to see how your camera metering system works. Check out your manual to find out how many % of the area the metering system uses for the various mode to calculate the exposure.Using a flash to act as "fill in" will solve the problem too.

 

[catchlights]

the five rectangles boxes is your AF focusing point.

for your photo here

this is a backlite situation, you can use spot focus metering or center weighted metering to get the correct exposure for your subject, but do note the sky will be over exposed.

If you want the subject and background to be correct expose, you need to bring the exposure of these two closer via using fill flash.

Hope this help.

 

[Squid]

........i.e. sky bright and subject turns out dark, did some reading, does centre weighted metering solve the problem? would centre weighted metering also solve the problem where you want to take a photo of a person who is in a tall building maybe like taipei 101 (indoor and fairly dark) but also want to capture the outdoor scenery (bright, sunny)?

See example shown at this link :

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/enjoydslr/p_3_012.html
Refer to the statement "(Spot metering) limits most of the metering to a small target area. Often used in backlit scenes where there are very bright and dark areas. And spot metering, usually found on professional cameras, measures an even smaller area of the scene for pinpoint metering."

 

[sammy888]

hii ;p

currently using a D70, inside the viewfinder, there is something like this, excuse my illustration :embrass:


i usually focus my subject within the semicircle and 3 "horizontal" rectangles... What's the 2 "vertical" rectangles for?


also, for images such as below

i.e. sky bright and subject turns out dark, did some reading, does centre weighted metering solve the problem? would centre weighted metering also solve the problem where you want to take a photo of a person who is in a tall building maybe like taipei 101 (indoor and fairly dark) but also want to capture the outdoor scenery (bright, sunny)? hope i make sense!

thanks!

Those rectangles you see are your Auto Focus "HOT SPOTs". The D70 have 5 of them as you can see by what you drew. When you select manual AF mode, by moving the round dial selector in the back of your D70 you can actually select which one of those rectangles to be the active AF hot spot use to target priority focusing. If you are on AF dynamic mode then all those 5 hotspot rectangles will be control by the camera's internal programming to try to aid you in focusing espcially moving objects. You can find more details by re-reading carefully your D70 manual.

Centre weighted refer to that general circular area you drawn in your illustration. It will be abit more "bias" to metering for exposure reading in that area but that also depend on how large or small you adjust that centre weighted radius in your D70 setting.(page 145 of your D70 manual) Now the smaller the radius you select in your D70 setting, the more accurate and bias it is to the centre of your subject.

For example your picture ended up being too dark due to the white sky background. As the white background in ratio to your model's form, it is too over whelming so your camera metering decided to adjust exposure to help get your sky from being over-exposed..which in the real world you can see does not help you. But then you have to understand that your camera has no artificial intellient hehe..so it can not tell that you wanted to illuminate more your model then the sky. In this case yes centre weighted would help but as I say it all depends on how small a radius you set so that when when the camera look at the zone of your centre weight area it will use the light reflected there to adjust it's exposure. It can still be wrong..it is not perfect science. Why? Well what if your model wear a white dress? It again can cause what result you get in that picture you attached here. OR..if your model wear black ..again your camera might over compensate and try to brigthen the scene too much. So yes the centre weight would help but you need to play with your D70 abit to know what to let the camera set and what you need to take some control to fine tune it further.

This is where you might also want to learn to use Spot metering which is basically the smaller tighest spot for reading light deetails. AND here is where it gets interesting. So where is this spot meter? It is usually the centre rectangle you ask above. Now some people might know this and some have forgotten. But all those 5 rectangle not only help with AF but it also double as your spot meter area too. So by selecting any one of those for your AF and you choose spot metering mode, not only will that particular active rectangle be use to priorities your focusing but it will take light reading from that place too. Which is great to help you not only get shaper picture but also help you get better exposure. Notice I say better and not correct. As I say, it also depends on what lighting bias is at that spot..eg..what your model is wear in terms of light and dark colours, shine..etc. This are I would say minor stuff but it can throw off your final result. So what is the best thing to do? Read up and get that infor into your head and then go out and practice.

Okay someone cover fillin flash so I will leave that alone.

Hope I got that all right lah heheheh...You got lucky as I was just reading my manual to check something and I came across your message hehe...

 

[airfins]

:thumbsup: Comprehensive !!! Exposure Lock will come in handy if the AF point is not where you want the meter to take the reading from. Lots of things to take consideration into....and who says SLR is easy :sweat::sweat::sweat:

 

[noelle]

thanks all, esp sammy888!

actually borrowed this d70 and it doesn't come with manual, guess i will upload one online and have a read when i have time!

 

[Redsun]

:thumbsup: for Sammy888 for the detailed explanation