Page 175 - Friedman Archives

Metering Mode 175

This technique of dividing the frame and evaluating the exposure is
commonly known as “Matrix Metering” (Nikon terminology) or
“Evaluative Metering” (Canon terminology), or “Multi-Segment Metering”
(Sony) (Figure 5-33b). It tends to succeed in getting the right exposure
under a wider set of circumstances than the standard, center-weighted 18%
grey method. The earliest versions (Nikon) divided up the viewfinder into
5 segments; earlier Sony cameras had 40 segments, and your camera
(because the metering is done via Live View) breaks the Live View image
down to over 1200 metering segments.
Old professionals disliked Multi-Segment metering at first, because they
had invested a lot of time understanding their 18% exposure meters and
knowing intuitively when they will make bad recommendations and when
(and how much) to override them. In their minds, the problem with Multi-
Segment metering (and this was quite relevant in the days of shooting
slides) is that you can’t possibly know how much to set your exposure
compensation to since you don’t know how the camera’s meter is choosing
to handle a difficult, non-average composition. (“Should I overexpose this
picture of a bride in her white dress, or did the Evaluative metering already
take that into account?”) And so, for these folks, camera manufacturers left
the old Center-weighted metering system in the camera as a selectable
option.

With the advent of digital, and especially full-time live view, you’re not
working blind anymore, plus the Multi-Segment metering algorithms have
a great track record of making the right choices in a wider set of
circumstances. That’s why I keep my camera set to Multi-Segment
metering all the time. And when the composition is really non-average,
like a predominantly dark scene, I temporarily switch to either Spot
metering (explained in the next section) or manual exposure. I never use
center-weighted.