Image Courtesy Canon
Image Courtesy Canon

Post by Rick Sammon

Heres an important thing to think about when comes to seeing the light (the key to getting a good exposure): you can control what your cameras meter sees.

Basically, digital SLR cameras, and even some compact cameras, have at least three metering modes: spot metering, which measures the center spot of the viewfinder; partial metering, which measures the central area of the frame; and evaluative/center-weighted average metering, which measures most of the frame but puts the emphasis on the center part of the image.

For my monk photograph, I chose the partial metering mode because the monk was surrounded by a large, dark area which would have fooled the cameras meter into overexposing the monk had I chose the evaluative/center-weighted average metering mode.

Check out the metering patterns on the right and keep them in mind when you are composing your pictures. Choosing the correct metering mode could make the difference between a right-on exposure and a poor exposure.

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