If you want to take light readings the 'old fashioned way' -- by using a hand held spot meter or the meter built into the camera -- you need to be able to recognize the middle gray, or middle toned, areas in a scene from which the meter can assess the light. The spot metering mode is used to read the light bouncing from a small portion of the composition into the lens and hence striking the meter's sensitive light receptors. In this picture of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, I've identified several areas in the scene that would produce an accurate exposure. There are more than this, but it's important to choose a part of the picture that is large enough so a one degree spot meter and/or the spot function in the camera can read it and not be tainted by tonal values in the adjacent areas that may or may not be middle toed. Note that the areas I've selected aren't all gray. The issue isn't the color -- it's the tone. A light meter simply looks at the brightness level of the area being read. The color is irrelevant.
4 Comments
Sep 26, 2015, 6:23:23 AM
Jim - Hi Barbara,
Yes, that's correct. But if you have a one-degree hand held spot meter or if you are using a telephoto lens on the camera, you can take the same light reading from several (or many) feet away. You don't really have to walk up to the spot. If your meter can read a narrow angle, such as a one-degree spot meter does, then you'd get the same results from further away.
Sep 24, 2015, 8:23:32 PM
Barbara Vickers - Hi Jim,
This is fascinating. If I were there now, would I go right up to any of the spots you have
circled, take a meter reading from say, one foot away and expose with that reading? And
that would be the correct exposure? Thanks for your reply.
Barbara
Sep 24, 2015, 12:00:37 PM
Daniel Reynaud - Howdy, A long time ago, when using an old Minolta, I learned to take a reading from the light falling on the palm of my hand. Would that still work as well with our now computerized gear ? Thank you.
Sep 24, 2015, 11:25:25 AM
Jim - Hi Daniel,
I never subscribed (or used) the principle of taking a light reading off my palm. The skin tone on my palm is not middle gray, and that's true for most people.