Do you ever use Spot Metering on a bird/animal?

Crotal Bell

Crotal Bell

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Keith
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Tried it a couple of times today and found it quite interesting. Panasonic G9 and 100-400 Lens. SS1/1000 and trying it in poor light.
With multi metering the same image is darker all over than the one below, although the ISO seems to go up with spot metering on the bird.
It was a bit jumpy too, ISO anything from 1000 - 1600 and slight differences in brightness of the image.
Early experiments, but wondered if anyone spot meters on wildlife and when you use it?

Spot meter.jpg
 
I do use spot from time to time, it will push ISO up as you're metering the dark side of the bird, it would be the same if you lifted EV comp' manually.

Spot meter can be handy for subjects with bright backgrounds as it can take some of the EV comp' 'guess work' away from the image making.

The jumping in values will be due to your body movement and the size of the 'spot' in relation to the size of the subject, all normal, spot metering on the brown wings or grey breast will affect results.

Keep playing :)

Just remember to switch back for open scenery as it'll mess with its expo'
 
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I have a controversial view that ‘all’ metering modes are exactly the same.

That’s because in order for them to work, you have to understand what you’re metering. Some might be more suitable sometimes, but all of them are crap sometimes and you have to know when.

So if you’re using CW, eval or spot, you need a grasp of what it’s measuring and where that is in relation to 18% grey. Likewise it’s unimportant if you’re shooting M, TV,AV or P. You just need to understand what it is you’re controlling.
 
I (almost?) never use spot metering anymore... I have my current Nikons set to underexpose automatically by using highlight weighted metering.

But they are set to underexpose by lowering the ISO, which isn't really exposure (light); and the cameras are essentially ISO invariant (as is your G9).
 
Gav-canon said:
I do use spot from time to time, it will push ISO up as you're metering the dark side of the bird, it would be the same if you lifted EV comp' manually.

Spot meter can be handy for subjects with bright backgrounds as it can take some of the EV comp' 'guess work' away from the image making.

The jumping in values will be due to your body movement and the size of the 'spot' in relation to the size of the subject, all normal, spot metering on the brown wings or grey breast will affect results.

Keep playing :)

Just remember to switch back for open scenery as it'll mess with its expo'
Click to expand...
That's very helpful Gav thank you.
 
Phil V said:
I have a controversial view that ‘all’ metering modes are exactly the same.

That’s because in order for them to work, you have to understand what you’re metering. Some might be more suitable sometimes, but all of them are crap sometimes and you have to know when.

So if you’re using CW, eval or spot, you need a grasp of what it’s measuring and where that is in relation to 18% grey. Likewise it’s unimportant if you’re shooting M, TV,AV or P. You just need to understand what it is you’re controlling.
Click to expand...
Very interesting, much appreciated Phil.
 
sk66 said:
I (almost?) never use spot metering anymore... I have my current Nikons set to underexpose automatically by using highlight weighted metering.

But they are set to underexpose by lowering the ISO, which isn't really exposure (light); and the cameras are essentially ISO invariant (as is your G9).
Click to expand...
Thanks Steven, this is all very interesting stuff and helps me on my learning curve.
 
Not for Birds , its to hit and miss , would be next to useless for Birds in Flight , i use. manual, and just alter the iso to obtain the correct exposure, modern sensors are so good now. you dont have to be that accurate.
 
mav said:
Not for Birds , its to hit and miss , would be next to useless for Birds in Flight , i use. manual, and just alter the iso to obtain the correct exposure, modern sensors are so good now. you dont have to be that accurate.
Click to expand...
Yeah I kinda guessed it wouldn't work for BIF. It was suggested once that it could help on Egrets to tone down the white and protect highlights?
 
Don't do birds or that sort of thing, but...
Use it sometimes with variable light on a scene to get the exposure I want and lock it in
 
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Crotal Bell said:
Yeah I kinda guessed it wouldn't work for BIF. It was suggested once that it could help on Egrets to tone down the white and protect highlights?
Click to expand...
Sure, spot metering, highlight weighted metering, and -EC will all cause an underexposure to protect highlights (ETTL). If the Egret is large enough in the frame center weighted and multi metering may "underexpose" as well. And as long as you are reducing the ISO to accomplish that there is no real penalty with your G9.

This is a Great Egret image taken with my Z9 using highlight weighted metering (as imported)... as you can see the scene is underexposed by about 3 stops and the egret (whites) were placed about middle of the histogram. Some will say I didn't do this correctly because I didn't place the highlights at the right side of the histogram... but since the camera is essentially ISO invariant, and because the underexposure was done by lowering the ISO, that makes no difference whatsoever.

Screenshot-2023-03-24-at-10.13.46-PM.jpg


This is the image after selective recovery/edits...

Screenshot-2023-03-25-at-9.40.14-AM.jpg
 
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sk66 said:
Sure, spot metering, highlight weighted metering, and -EC will all cause an underexposure to protect highlights (ETTL). If the Egret is large enough in the frame center weighted and multi metering may "underexpose" as well. And as long as you are reducing the ISO to do accomplish that there is no real penalty with your G9.

This is a Great Egret image taken with my Z9 using highlight weighted metering (as imported)... as you can see the scene is underexposed by about 3 stops and the egret (whites) were placed about middle of the histogram. Some will say I didn't do this correctly because I didn't place the highlights at the right side of the histogram... but since the camera is essentially ISO invariant, and because the underexposure was done by lowering the ISO, that makes no difference whatsoever.

View attachment 384784


This is the image after selective recovery/edits...

View attachment 384785
Click to expand...
Very informative thank you. Love your finished image.
 
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