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Five Ways To Deal With Common Metering Errors When Shooting Photos

6/8/2013 7:12:55 PM

There is no need to have a sophisticated device or complex lighting techniques to capture photos which are bright enough.

Below are some guidelines to avoid five metering errors that are most commonly encountered by photographers to get the shots that match their "intentions".

1.     The black or white subject turned into gray

The metering system of the camera often sees the brightness of the scene as the standard midtone. The photo may have very bright or very dark areas, but the average brightness lies in in between these areas. Therefore, if you shoot a very bright subject at full frame, for example, winter landscapes or a dazzling sandy beach, the camera will reduce the exposure to take that as the midtone and it leads to the fact that white subjects often turn gray. In the other case, if the camera's metering system gets confused and take black object as the midtone, it will result in that the black can also be turned into gray.

White subjects often turn gray

White subjects often turn gray.

The solution is quite simple. You just need to use the exposure compensation control to increase the exposure higher than the value suggested by the camera to make the white “truly” white, or reduce the exposure to make the subject and dark again. Just follow the histogram displayed on the screen and drag the bar to the right of the measure to increase the exposure or drag it to the left to reduce the exposure. However, do not increase too much exposure and leave a large peak at the top of the chart to the right, which avoids many of the brightest spots from being "burned".

Another way to avoid this error is to place a gray cardboard in front of the camera lens and in the same light as the main subject is. Then, set the camera to manual exposure mode and set the spot-metering mode. Please note that you should let the gray cardboard fill the spot-metering area and adjust the exposure of the camera as proposed. Next, take the gray cardboard out of the frame and the photo position according to the adjusted exposure, then press the shutter button. Then, the camera will have the correct gray balance with the environment in which you are shooting and the colors will be more accurate.

2.     Choosing the wrong ISO setting

If you want to shoot indoors in low light conditions without a tripod, you should adjust the sensitivity setting (ISO) at the highest level. Then, you will see the camera suggests a very high shutter speed while the aperture is very small.

If you want to shoot indoors in low light conditions without a tripod, you should adjust the sensitivity setting (ISO) at the highest level.

If you want to shoot indoors in low light conditions without a tripod, you should adjust the sensitivity setting (ISO) at the highest level.

If the camera is set to automatic mode or semi-automatic, in some cases you may not be able to shoot as you may exceed the maximum shutter speed or the minimum aperture setting is not small enough.

The ideal ISO sensitivity is recommended when shooting outdoors or in conditions with much light of 100 or 200, whereas the appropriate ISO for shooting indoors is 400 or 800. The ISO levels from about 1600 or more are only appropriate where there is a very weak light condition and often also causes grain (noise).

3.     The speed ​​too slow "to catch" the move

When trying to adjust the exposure to keep all of the bright areas and the dark areas that have noise, it is easy to forget that the shutter needs to be adjusted fast enough to capture any motion in the scene.

It is easy to forget that the shutter needs to be adjusted fast enough to capture any motion in the scene.

It is easy to forget that the shutter needs to be adjusted fast enough to capture any motion in the scene.

This problem is especially common when shooting indoors in relatively low light conditions or shooting a music concert. In some cases, you just need to adjust a bit more aperture for faster shutter speed, but usually you need to increase the ISO setting. Many photographers are often afraid to use high ISO settings for fear of image noise, but if you adjust the sensitivity range of the camera and do not use any other extended settings, that does not matter. Remember that it is better that photos have noise rather than are blurry.

Another solution is to use a flash to add more light and will also increase the shutter speed faster. This method is often used for portraits of friends and family home. But to capture the musical performances, you have to use high ISO settings and a large aperture.

4.     The subject is backlit in low light

When the subject is lit from behind or darker than the surrounding background, the camera can easily be confused when trying to expose the most important part of the photo while trying to balance the exposure of the entire frame.

A backlit photo

A backlit photo

The easiest way to get the correct exposure for the backlit subject is to switch to the spot-metering mode or center-weighted mode.

The center-weighted mode focuses more on exposing the center part of the frame accurately. Meanwhile, the spot-metering mode only focuses on the brightness of the object under the selected spot-metering exposure settings.

5.     Clouds in landscape photos are too bright

This error occurs when there is a lack of balance between the brightness of the sky and the ground in landscape photos. However, in this case, the camera's metering system has the priority for the foreground and adjusts the exposure, which makes the brightest part of the sky "burned". This problem can be solved by using the ND Grad filter to balance the exposure of the scenes or applying modern digital technology to create high dynamic range photos.

This error occurs when there is a lack of balance between the brightness of the sky and the ground in landscape photos.

This error occurs when there is a lack of balance between the brightness of the sky and the ground in landscape photos.

The best HDR method is accomplished by coupling two or more photos taken with different exposure settings for each, one set for the sky and another set for the ground. Then the image can be bonded with an image editing software or a dedicated HDR app. Because the two images need to match each other so it is important not to move the position of the camera, it is best to set the camera on a solid tripod.

Some cameras today are equipped with a built-in HDR feature, so you can capture directly on the camera without having to use any additional software to edit the photos for your lifestyle.

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