Today’s tip is about spot metering! We decided to record this video of lightroom to show the photographs in order to better explain the technique. Hope it helps!
- Anna and Spencer
Anna and Spencer Photography
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About the author
Anna and Spencer are married full-time wedding photographers together based in Atlanta and have been shooting for over five years. While based in Atlanta, Anna and Spencer travel quite a bit for weddings - some of the locations include France, Italy, the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Virgin Islands, and all along the East Coast of the United States (NYC, Charleston, Hilton Head, Sea Island). They enjoy a challenge, new locations, and love what they do (and love that they can create outstanding imagery of weddings together).
Anna and Spencer are regular speakers locally and nationally on a wide variety of photography topics ranging from lighting to getting published..
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This one is a little more complicated.
I found the Spot Metering and the AE-L.
Just not sure if I’m using it correctly..
Can you move around the spot metering or does it always stay in the center of the photograph??
Also do you mostly us this in more dim locations?
Can’t wait for your next tips
I’d be interested in how you use your flash, whether you diffuse, bounce, etc. I noticed some photos in your portfolio that looked like you had someone hidden holding on off-camera flash or maybe used a stand.
Enjoyed your tips. I’m a former photojournalist, and I’m thinking about getting into weddings and portraits.
Rob – it depends on the situation. 50% of the time or so, we’re bouncing, or ‘foofing’ flash off of a wall. The other bit of the time, we’ll be firing wireless flash using off-camera flashes & radio poppers. We might be bouncing these lights or shooting through an umbrella. Rarely, we’ll set them up 200 feet away or so and have direct flash from the wireless flashes (usually 430 EX II’s).
No assistants here though, typically. So, I usually have the flashes on a stand, somewhere high, or somewhere low, in a guests hand (that we know previously) … just depends on the location and what we want to get.
Christine – I’m assuming your using a Nikon if you have an AE-L button… With Nikon if you are using a single focus point the camera will do spot metering on whichever focus point is selected. If you are using a Canon I believe it always uses the center of the frame for spot metering.
Thanks Spencer for the video! I think Robs on the right track, you guys should do a video on off camera lighting!
Hey! I am tryin to find the spot metering on my camera and cant seem to find it. I have a nikon d-80. Do you know how i can spot meter on this camera? Thanks so much!
Hi Heather!
If only i knew Nikons really well. It should be near the top right – near a collection of four buttons or so. However, I’m just not sure. My best advice – look up spot metering in your manual.
It will definitely be in the index.
Great website and photography and I love the tips! Thought I would add my 2 cents regarding Evaluative metering which I use in addition to Spot metering, especially when the scene is changing quite a bit (usually due to the subject moving) and I do not have time to meter then recompose (e.g. sports and candids). Evaluative metering, at least on Canons, does average in more of the entire frame but it uses the selected (active) autofocus point from which to average the exposure, giving greater weight to the light directly surrounding the active autofocus point. This is especially effective when shooting people at shallow depths of field and you are focusing on the face.
I have a Canon T1i…just want to see if I understand spot metering… I will place the “spot” on the area that I want to be metered, then press the AE-lock button (*) – I am not pressing my shutter release button at this time, correct? After I have locked in the metered spot, then I press the shutter halfway down on the part of the subject/picture that I want in focus, keep holding this shutter button halfway down, recompose picture, then press the shutter button completely. Is this correct?
Lisa – that should be correct. However, the Canon Rebel series doesn’t have Spot Metering (Spot Metering is considered a pro-level feature). It does have center-weighted metering. I could be off about this, but I am relatively sure they haven’t changed this. So, you won’t get a true spot but mostly the center. You have it down though. Just practice at it and it’ll become second nature.
Thanks for the quick reply! I know you both are extremely busy. I pulled out my camera to check the metering modes and it looks like I do have spot metering…at least it shows up as an option when I go to the mode selection. Hopefully, it works – I’ve never tried it yet:) So assuming it works, I had one more question about spot metering: How close to my selected “spot” do I have to be to lock it in? Do I lock it in at the same distance that I will focus the shot?