Spot metering.

[jeffkohn]

when i change my metering to spot meter, how do i expose on the subject after that? when i look in the viewfinder there are 5 points of focus - and i can use the dial pad to change the focus from one area (top) to another area (right)

On all the Nikons I've used (I assume your D50 would be the same, but might want to check the manual), the currently-active AF sensor is also the spot metering point.

This can pose a problem if you want to focus on one area of the image and meter on another, unless you've set things up so you can lock exposure separately from AF (and even then it can be error prone). For this reason, I only use spot-metering when I'm shooting in Manual mode. That way I can do my metering, set exposure, then change the AF sensor to wherever I need it without having to worry about my exposure getting messed up.

[Duffy Pratt]

About the Fred Miranda article. Take a look at the baseball picture above. When spot metering this, you might want to take a reading of the back of the catchers head, the blue shirt, the catcher's grey pants, the batters white pants. Let's say that your camera gives you a six stop dynamic range. When you have metered these, you can make a decision about where you are going to put the exposure. Do you want more detail in the batters pants, or in the back of the head of the catcher.

This process takes some time and deliberation. Fortunately, in this game setting, the uniforms won't change and the lighting wont change much, so you can get a good handle on the exposure for that position and then use it for each batter.

The idea is to keep as much that is important within the dynamic range of your camera, and to have the stuff that you want to be middle grey come out that way.

As a technical matter, I would hestitate to use a spot meter if I was shooting anything but manual. I suppose you could train yourself to be effective using one in Av or Tv modes, but I think it would mean a lot of clunkers until you started to get the hang of it, and it would be more trouble than it was worth except in some limited situations. (For example, if you were shooting some steel grey airplanes at an air show, I could see using a spot meter in an auto mode to shoot them, and leave the cropping for later.)

Duffy

Duffy

[Tapper]

Spending a little time learning about the zone system really helps bring spot metering understanding into focus (pun).

It's a lot easier to learn working in black and white, I think.

[cwford]

Here is a short explanation for the 30D with pics

http://www.bobatkins.com/photography..._review_5.html

I believe that with the 30D the spot is always at the center of the frame and the 1 series can be tied to the AF point

[laawaaris]

thanks guys,

i just took some test images and see how it works on my camera

it seems to be a pretty powerful tool - i think i am going to practice with it a lot more ...

thanks again