*DUMB* noon questions about metering with a Canon 400d..

Forgive me in advance if these question(s) are really dumb, but I am really
working my head around trying to understand photography and my DLSR ( canon
400d).

Oftentimes, people will say " meter the light " from your camera , or "
take a meter reading" from your camera...

how exactly do you do that? where on my camera would this information be
displayed? is my camera capable of outputting light readings?

also, I know the 400d offers 3 metering modes..evaluative, partial and
centre-weighted?

Sometimes I see people's photos posted online with technical data attached
that shows metering as 'matrix' ...I have no idea what this means..


my only real understanding of metering is that the exposure is based upon
what the metering modes are selected..

again, please forgive me if these are really dumb questions.

Thanks!



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

the_niner_nation wrote:

Forgive me in advance if these question(s) are really dumb, but I am really
working my head around trying to understand photography and my DLSR ( canon
400d).

Oftentimes, people will say " meter the light " from your camera , or "
take a meter reading" from your camera...

how exactly do you do that? where on my camera would this information be
displayed? is my camera capable of outputting light readings?

I'm not familiar with Canon but probably if you adjust exposure
compensation +/1 you will see a volume type meter in the viewfinder
indicating how far above/below 'correct exposure' you are. Certainly
this will show in manual mode, and probably in A, S & P mode.

My old Canon AE1 film camera had a needle that swung back & forth in the
viewfinder. I'd set the aperture & adjust shutter to center the needle.
It was pretty easy really.


also, I know the 400d offers 3 metering modes..evaluative, partial and
centre-weighted?

Sometimes I see people's photos posted online with technical data attached
that shows metering as 'matrix' ...I have no idea what this means..


my only real understanding of metering is that the exposure is based upon
what the metering modes are selected..

again, please forgive me if these are really dumb questions.

Thanks!





--
Paul Furman Photography
http://www.edgehill.net/1
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

Oftentimes, people will say " meter the light " from your camera , or "
take a meter reading" from your camera...
how exactly do you do that? where on my camera would this information be
displayed? is my camera capable of outputting light readings?

When you half press the shutter, you see the aperture and shutter speed
displayed in the viewfinder and on the LCD. This, in effect, is the meter
reading. So you can point the camera at something and see what the correct
exposure should be for, say, somebody's face. It might be useful to get
close to something in a difficult scene and take a reading like this because
when you back up and look at the whole scene, the camera may get the
exposure wrong. This is when you'd go into manual mode.

If you do the half press in manual mode it's a bit different, by the way. To
get a correct reading, you have to adjust the aperture and/or shutter speed
so the pointer in the display moves to the centre of the scale.

Androo

On Jun 4, 11:08 am, "the_niner_nation"
wrote:
Forgive me in advance if these question(s) are really dumb, but I am really
working my head around trying to understand photography and my DLSR ( canon
400d).

Oftentimes, people will say " meter the light " from your camera , or "
take a meter reading" from your camera...

how exactly do you do that? where on my camera would this information be
displayed? is my camera capable of outputting light readings?

also, I know the 400d offers 3 metering modes..evaluative, partial and
centre-weighted?

Sometimes I see people's photos posted online with technical data attached
that shows metering as 'matrix' ...I have no idea what this means..

my only real understanding of metering is that the exposure is based upon
what the metering modes are selected..

again, please forgive me if these are really dumb questions.


If you want to get a meter reading, just set the exposure level to A,
S or P and record the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. That's it,
basically. The trick is to know exactly what's being measured.

'Evaluative' is usually what you want to use. The camera takes
readings from a large number of small areas in your frame, then does a
complicated statistical analysis to determine the correct exposure.
Nilon's 'matrix' metering is essentially the same thing.

'Center weighted' reads the incidental light from the entire frame, as
well as the reflected light from an imaginary circle in the the center
and averages the result with more "weight" placed on what is in the
circle.

'Partial' (I believe) reads only the reflected light in an imaginary
circle. This is useful when you're in mixed lighting situations,
because you can get a reading off a grey card (green grass or old
asphalt works fine if you don't have one) and get a perfectly correct
exposure.