Sony highlight metering vs zebra setting query

[NPUK]

Hi.... I have a Sony RX100 vii and am a bit confused by the highlight metering. I haven't posted in the specific RX100 thread because I assume the same metering is used by other Sony cameras so someone using those may also be able to offer advice. The issue is as follows....

When I use highlight metering, my understanding is that it exposes correctly for the brightest area of the scene and then I can apply positive exposure compensation as I feel appropriate.
I also have the zebra setting activated and set to 100+ which if I understand correctly means that any highlights that are actually blown out will trigger the zebras.
Also relevant is that I have DRO set to off and I am using aperture priority.

What I'm finding is that I'm watching the histogram and because of a high dynamic range scene (eg. landscape with light grey sky in the background) I'm trying to expose to the right using positive exposure compensation, but before I get towards the right hand end of the histogram, the zebras are flashing, even to the point that I'm having to apply negative exposure compensation.

Surely if my metering is set to "highlight" then I should never be having to apply negative exposure compensation to satisfy the zebras.

What am I misunderstanding.... highlight metering or the zebra highlight warning ?


Thanks

Dean

 

[Phil V]

I think you’re just being too trusting of the cameras intelligence.

I think that the zebras warn that something ‘may’ overexpose, I think that highlight priority tries to expose to the right as best it can.

But neither of those things have your human brain interpreting the scene in the viewfinder.

At the end of the day; your cameras metering system is amazing compared to previous generations, but it’s not yet a replacement for the human brain.

Unless your meter understands every single tonal value in the image, and exactly the importance of those parts of the image to you, it can only advise (as it is doing) rather than dictate with 100% certainty.

Your only misunderstanding is that you’re expecting too much of the technology.

You can either:
Trust the zebras
Use highlight priority metering
Or just use your gut and matrix metering and ettr

They’re all trying to do the same thing in slightly different ways.

And I’ve wasted too many words to remind you there’s no such thing as ‘correct’ exposure.

 

[LeeRatters]

I use zebras. And for how I shoot and edit I usually push right up to them. On the A7Riii there are extra 'plus' settings and it's pretty accurate imo. On the A7 (and the mini 2 drone) the zebras kick in a bit to early before complete loss. Run some test shots at each third of a stop over zebras and see at what stage you lose detail in the RAW images. I can't recall what the A7 is now, I usually just judge it tbh, but I know on the Mini 2 video I can go a stop past zebras.

 

[NPUK]

And I’ve wasted too many words to remind you there’s no such thing as ‘correct’ exposure.

When I say "correct" exposure, I simply meant a metered exposure with zero compensation.

I think that highlight priority tries to expose to the right as best it can.

Your only misunderstanding is that you’re expecting too much of the technology.

Assuming you're right in thinking the highlight metering tries to expose to the right rather than identifying the brightest part of the image and exposing for that and ignoring the rest of the image, then I have very much misunderstood how it works.
When I first got the camera and tested that mode it seemed to be basing the exposure purely on the brightest pixels.

One thing I have read online since I posted the question is that the zebras are actually based on the in camera jpeg rather than the information that would be available in the raw file, so I guess as long as I shoot in raw I can use both the zebras and the histogram and know that I still have a bit more leeway.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

 

[Ed Sutton]

my understanding is that it exposes correctly for the brightest area of the scene and then I can apply positive exposure compensation as I feel appropriate.

If Sony's is anything like Nikon's highlight priority that's correct. Nikon's will actually under expose the highlights to some degree (dependent on the scene) - rather than give it the maximum exposure without blowing the highlights. You can increase the exposure quite a bit before the highlights will blow.

 

[the black fox]

As phil said there’s no substitute for the human eye and brain .. as an example I now tend to use Birds Eye I.d where the camera puts a frame round the bird then round the eye .. it’s correct 95% of the time .. BUT I’m tending to find it rather boring and preferred getting the target point on the eye manually as of old .. but us humans being lazy by nature dictates that I’ll probably let the algorithms do the hard work for me .. work out what works for you and you will probably continue to use it ,that’s human nature

 

[Phil V]

When I say "correct" exposure, I simply meant a metered exposure with zero compensation.


Assuming you're right in thinking the highlight metering tries to expose to the right rather than identifying the brightest part of the image and exposing for that and ignoring the rest of the image, then I have very much misunderstood how it works.
When I first got the camera and tested that mode it seemed to be basing the exposure purely on the brightest pixels.

One thing I have read online since I posted the question is that the zebras are actually based on the in camera jpeg rather than the information that would be available in the raw file, so I guess as long as I shoot in raw I can use both the zebras and the histogram and know that I still have a bit more leeway.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Apologies; I was being quite general.
All I meant was that it’s 3 different ways of protecting highlights but making the most of the exposure.

As per the discussions though, both highlight priority and zebras are a little timid and err on the side of caution.

In my world, there are highlight values I’m comfortable with blowing, if the sun is peeking from behind a cloud etc. And one's I;m absolutely not - brightly backlit blonde hair. That's where the human part of the decision comes in. There's no way a camera could know the difference.

But admittedly I’m likely happier with that because historically I’m used to cameras with less DR than we now have.