Metering Mode Canon EOS 550D

[Friso]

<p class="MsoNoSpacing"]Hi,
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"]Can anybody tell me the differences between the &ldquo;Metering
Mode&rdquo; on the Canon EOS 550D.<span> On the
camera you can choose between:
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"]<span><span>-<span>
Evaluative metering
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"]<span><span>-<span>
Partial metering
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"]<span><span>-<span>
Spot metering
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"]<span><span>-<span>
Center-weighted average metering
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"]
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"]When do you change your metering mode?

[neuroanatomist]

This article might be useful:


http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&amp;articleID=2666


Personally, I use evaluative metering most of the time (since I shoot RAW, I can afford to adjust the exposure a bit in post-processing if necessary). I use spot metering for wildlife and stationary birds, especially when they are in shadow.

[Richard Lane]

Here's another one.


I believe Canon's "Evaluative Metering" is most similar to Multli-zone/Matrix Metering in this particular article.


http://www.ww.photozone.de/Technique#basics





Rich

[Sheiky]

I personally use evaluative mode 99% of times.


But then I also shoot a lot in M-mode where none of these modes really matter.


A good example which you can try at home is to put a person in front of a window in the middle of the day. That way you will have a very bright background. In evaluative metering this background will cause the entire photo to be exposed a little darker than you would like it to. In other ways, your subject most likely will be underexposed.


If you had used the spotmetering, you would have metered on your subjects face and since your subjects face has the right percentage of grey, which the metering modes are calibrated on, your image will look a lot different. Your subject will be exposed correctly and your background will most likely be blown out or at least be overexposed.

When do you change your metering mode?

Not too often, but there are instances where I use other shooting modes than the M-mode and it has it's purposes. For instance airshows, where you'd like the airplane to be exposed correctly against a bright sky. Spot-metering or at least center-weighted would do a better job than evaluative. At least if you keep your subject in the center []


Also if you have a dark/black dog, the evaluative mode will probably have difficulties exposing it correctly.


I advice you to try out some of these modes and you'll probably see the uses of them yourself.


Good luck,


Jan