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Understanding Metering Modes & Histograms

Lesson 30 from: Build a Family Photography Business

Jules and Joy Bianchi

Understanding Metering Modes & Histograms

Lesson 30 from: Build a Family Photography Business

Jules and Joy Bianchi

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Lesson Info

30. Understanding Metering Modes & Histograms

Next Lesson: Wrap Up and Q&A

Lesson Info

Understanding Metering Modes & Histograms

people have asked me. Okay, so how does the camera even know why I picked F Stop? How did it know what shutter speed it's knowing by. So I used to carry around a light meter with me all the time. Measure the light. Right now, the camera measures the light coming into the lens, and the media ring modes that you choose allow the camera to know the types of, like where in the photograph you want. It's exposure of choices to be made, so everybody find on metering modes she got. It's the very 1st 1 on the far left, it looks like a box looks like that. That's how you change to the metering mode when your cameras in program or aperture priority or shutter priority, it will use one of those modes to consider the amount of light that's coming in and make some choices. When you're manual mode, it's not gonna make any difference at all because you're making all of the joint words that makes sense. All right, look on clicking on Here's a little bit more of example of what I mean. Evaluative meteri...

ng will measure all the light that's coming into the lens, and technically, that's fine. I think, actually, the cameras are very intelligent and a lot of times, really. You don't need Teoh Move on from that. Just keeping your camera in evaluative of mode is for most situations, pretty good. Camera's pretty smart, but it will like Gretchen was saying earlier. If you're trying to back light, they will see all of this light coming into the lens and it will think, Okay, that's too right. I needed averaging here, so it's gonna make the camera make the image darker. And then you'll think, Well, I I was trying to shoot her face in our faces really dark, So I'm sometimes a solution. For that might be spot metering, choosing spot meter only 1 to 5% of light coming into the frame. But the problem a lot of hands of cameras is that it literally is in the center we're evaluating, and so maybe if you're doing rule of thirds, you want some of the cameras now, Will will take into consideration which focusing point you're choosing. But I often will just focus in the center and then recomposed. I didn't make a difference, so that's something to think about? I actually, myself. Don't use the metering modes ever. I used the history, Graham, and I'm going to talk about history. Um, even though I know that a lot of times tens of you very over people's heads, I still want to touch on it and we're gonna talk about that. But before we do, we're gonna talk about the exposure compensation dial. Remember earlier aggression when you were unable to move the dial in the back? Cannon has a little safety feature and exposure compensation dial is turned on and off by the little lever in the back. Um, show you there's some examples without it. And just rolling your exposure Compensation del up. I think the next 10 yeah. Here we go. Some pictures. Boop. That's where he's talking about the little dial there in the back on turned the camera on and then on on to the little lens will turn the dial on. So oftentimes, if you can't get something to work, check and make sure that the dial is actually on. Sometimes we so frustrating realized Oh, yeah, and then the you'll see the exposure. Compensation in your back menu corresponds with this up in the top. So what I want you to do is to put your camera in either aperture priority or shutter. Priority doesn't matter or program even. But this won't work. You'll see it. Move it. It doesn't work the same way in manual. And I'll tell you why in a second. But if you then have your back dial on, just roll it back and forth. You should see this little line moving back and forth, everybody. You see that? You get it. You see back there? That's fine, I think. Is it on for you? Oh, you mean that? Yeah. OK, well, that's movie. Yeah, Moving for everybody. Moving, moving, moving. How funny and shutter priority. It changes your eye so And changers your shutter speed. Because I have it so fast. Very nice camera. So I'm most cameras will only allow you to roll your exposure Compensation dial up or down to stocks. I've seen some with three. Oftentimes, when you're getting into three, they want you just to make some other change like changer. So our change your choice in aperture But I'm so let's go drop you down. Oh, yeah, Lindsay, we're looking for that, see how zero it's It's taking into consideration all of the light coming into the lens. If you have something, it's backlit so that the faces air dark and you roll. You say I want this over exposed by a stop or two. Then you would roll it towards the plus sign and you'll see that it will indicate that the one thing to know it, to be sure to put it back when you're done because I've had people like everything, it's too dark. Why? And they'll realize that my exposure compensation has been rolled down to stop. So Thedc Amra think so? You said I wanted to be to stop New York. Oh, definitely. And Snow, you would want to bump it up. Do you understand? Why, though? Because you're getting a lot more reflection? No, because the camera sees so much light it thinking, Oh, this is way too bright. So you have to tell it. No, no, it's not too bright. It's supposed to be like that. You actually compensating for it. So you go to the right. Yeah, for snow and brighter. You got a great and then you go to the left if you're shooting into the sun. No, no, something, something like that. One picture with the woman did. That's what she was dark. So you're telling the camera the camera stopped down because it sees all the light coming into it and thinks that it's too bright, but you want to see her face. So you tell the camera No, no, no. Opened up a little bit. So that'll blow out the back right. That's good to know to. This is this is the thickest your family that, like shading themselves, right? So if you don't want to do it manually and you're an aperture priority, you gonna roll the compensation, dial up a stop or two, and then and then now what will happen? And this is why we say, Be sure not only shooting in front of white is the back one then will blow out the white parts because it you know it's not. And this is a little Nikon one. Often time, you'll see that button to plus or minus, and you want to press that button and then roll the competition. That's not canon thing. That's a Nikon thing, right? We don't have plus or minus two way. So with where the brighter is shooting at the more plus you want to go, you have a brighter yes. Oh yeah, that's a good way to remember, I said. I used to carry a light meter with me. Now I don't I actually rely on history, which is basically the cameras light meter. So the back of your camera, we'll have a little information. This tells all of the information that you shot, picture win and hissed a gram. So I want to look a lot of times canon. You have just look at one of the images you just shot and then press info. There's Mr Brand, and you should now see it sort of in this mode, where you'll see a tiny so you need to be in a picture, find a picture this past your play button got and then press the info info. So when your does everyone have that now where they see a tiny picture and then they have should look like this. Okay, so that then allows you to see your history ram The reason that it's important to just sort of start studying your history and understand what it looks like it is because I always say it's not It's not that smart it to just rely on the LCD screen and back alone because you'll notice if you're inside in a dark place, in image might look awesome. And then when you go outside in bright sun, anything owner that's to darker it's to Ryder doesn't look right. Like when you're in different lighting situations, the back of your Kim will look different, and plus you have the ability to just brighten up or darkened down just the screen itself, which isn't gonna represent the actual image itself. So brightness is something you can choose for just looking at the screen, too. So it's important to look at the history Graham and kind of at least get a sense of what it's telling you. And I'm gonna explain that now I should say that there is no like a good history. Ram will be like a nice fat mountain, and I'm gonna show you that next. But they had their There is a learning curve because they take into consideration all of the information. So if it's a safe, a picture of a lot of brooms, men then really the only bright parts or maybe their faces in their hands. So it's gonna look like a really dark it's remember, but and yet it may still be properly exposed because you're exposing for a certain piece of it, and it's sort of representing a whole image. So the best way to read history, my worst explain is Remember that right is white. So anything to the right is what all of the lighter, lighter pixels are represented on the right side. The history arm is broken up into the five bars, but the pixel learned distributed evenly, so they're kind of climbing this way. It's not. Although there is 255 pixels, it's not. They're not broken up evenly amongst them, so and then the faces shouldn't blink. Basically, what that means is, I know in the newer cameras you can choose to have the highlight indicator on or off, irritating when you shooting with the highlight indicator. Never know what the highlight indicator is in. If you shoot into the light, let's all take a picture into suit into the light. Whoa, you'll see a little something blinking the very brightest part if you're in that info mode. The very brightest part should blink. Black like that just did. And it basically represents blown out pixels in some of the cameras in the menu mode. It's called the highlight Alert. You could enable it or disable it if you don't want to see those blown up. I like to have mine enabled, so I know what's getting blown out. I don't think that having blown out pixels and necessarily a bad thing like in the case of this one, you just want to make sure that their faces aren't blinking. The important part of the image isn't blinking, but her veil and some of the highlights it's okay for those things blow out. So typically, when I'm shooting, oh, shoots. When I did this particular picture, I'll say I wanted to shoot at F 3.2. So I shot one image in aperture priority, choosing the F stop that I wanted to shoot at, which was 3.2. And then I look in the back and I look at the History Ram. I see if their faces air blinking or if they're not and and I A lot of information was a little bit shifted to the left to the darker pixels. So typically for me, each bar represents stop. So if the camera told me an aperture priority that this image is properly exposed at 250th of a second I because I want to shoot at 3.2, I keep my aperture there. But then slow the shutter down Teoh 1 25th So one stop, and it should shift all of the information by by one of those bars. I did not have that slide, but that's a sort of a rough way to think about. It does that That kind of makes sense. Two people I don't have history am questions. Sometimes I think it's good to shoot in that info mode as opposed to having your whole image in the screen, just to get used to seeing your history and understanding like we're it, Spike. So when a picture is really blown out, how all the pixels are shoved over to one side or something really under exposed how the pixels are shoved over to the other side. In fact, we could do a test if you want to take a picture in that info mode and then try. If you put your cameras in manual load and then try just changing things by one stop and see how the mountain shifts, it kind of is helpful. What would you do with flash Flash pops up that will add in some extra element of light altogether while they're looking. Is there anybody who's ask questions? Yeah, if you could just repeat their Maggie gem, and a couple of other folks are asking if you could repeat that last example about the stops moving the hissed a gram over. Um, the easiest way to describe it is that each of the bars represents a stop. So if you want your big mountain of information to shift more for the lighter side towards white like this, So, for example, you shot this 13.2 in aperture priority, and it sees all the light coming in. Right? So it was too dark. The initial images too dark because it sees the light coming into it stops down the shutter speed. The huge slow speeds up the shop. So you tell me I didn't left light because this is the new Tell it. I skipped that part, I shoot one image in aperture priority, and then I make the I look at the history Ram and I make the adjustments in manual mode and then switch to manual mode and slow the shutter down by one stock. And she It would be easier tomorrow when I'm doing a shooting. But this way you could see their faces and you're exposing for your faces because you're telling the camera what you're actually exposing. All right, that's what joy I think. So I didn't finish that part of the example. But it's an easy way to do it quickly because the camera you have it almost correct, right? Right, So that's what she's saying. So it's an easy way to do it quickly, so I'll do one shot, an aperture priority. See what the cameras telling me? Look at the history. Graham put my camera in manual mode and then adjust it from there. So if the camera says I think a perfect exposure is 3. 250th of a second and I see it's too dark than in manual mode, I'll keep my aperture at 3.2. But rather than going by the cameras advice of 2/50 of a second. I slowed down so that more light can come in and allow you look confused on the other thing, too, is if that's when the eso comes in a place like I probably machine it s a cause it's really bright here. But if I I wanted to shoot, say I didn't want to shoot any slower than 1 25th then I would want my eyes so up to allow more like because my goal was to allow a little bit more light so we could expose for their faces. I know history is a little bit anything else, Jen Danielle asks when you change by one stop. What does that reduce the shutter speed by? I'm Did she say, If I change the aperture, I think so, Yeah, when you change by one stop and and I think it's the relationship between the aperture and shutter speed and what's the math behind that? Well, whatever that is saying is that I would keep my my aperture the same. And by changing the apple f stop slowing it down by one stop, it actually allows more light in. So I'm not doing like it's not all reciprocal. I was just a new one shot, an aperture priority just to get like a baseline and then make the adjustments manually based on the history. Graham. I don't know how to articulate in any better than that. I mean, maybe Did she mean if she wants to keep the exposure the same but changed that change? One stop. Oh, maybe that's what she's saying. Actually, that's all that Lisa to Nothing. So So Okay, so I've made my perfect exposure. We're exposing for their faces as long as I'm still in the same place like a basically 100 and 80 degrees and the sun is still in front of me. Say, say that they want Mom, Give me. We'll do this. I think I understand what she's asking. So say my exposure is 3. and I have to then 1 25th of a second, right? So then there's two people there, so the depth of field is relatively shallow and say, now we're doing family portrait there, and now suddenly we have a group of 10 people and I want my depth of field to be deeper so that we can have more people in focus. I don't want just the front row. I want also the people in the back to be sharp. So I wanna have you have the exposure to be the same. Exposure is gonna be the same, right? So I wanted to maybe switch from 3.2. I'll say one. I usually just count 12345 So now I'm at 5.6. I've made my f stop five stops smaller. So all you have to do then is slow your shutter speed down by five stops. 12345 And I was like, Oh, that's 1/40 in a second. I'm not going to hold my camera that slow. So what I could do is like, I really want to shoot a 5.6 years. I want that the field. I don't want it to be 1/40 of a second, but I know that's the right exposure. The only other thing I can do now is Aiken, But my night so up so I can take my s o and maybe change it like 123 and then I could make it three stops faster that I can also then bring my shutter speed three Selves faster. Now it's in a bit of a second. So now the exposure is 5.6 at an eighties of second. But it will look the same. What will change somebody? Tell me. Well, the only thing be that changes it will be a little more grainy and dip right. We'll have a deeper depth of field. But as far as the history Ram, it looked the same. That's why should do all this life like you got it. Does that make sense? That is the question. Okay, Yeah, let's do that. And we're all picking exposure. And then if I want to change SLR, just I'll just count, account and compensate. So if I'm making my f sub smaller by three stops that I have to allow so less like and come in now So I need to slow that door down. So I'm gonna make the shutter three stops slower. And then if I was like and then in fact, as I work and that's too slow and I bump up the I so that I could make this shutter speed a little faster. That's how they all kind of work together. Any other questions we say, some nodding in some wrinkled brows. Yeah, it does take a lot to that. That's another reason why it's good to do have a daily project in some contact with big team and a focus on shutter speed gonna be insured a priority all day, and everything I do is gonna be above the shutter. And then the next day, I'm gonna be an aperture priority, and everything I do today is gonna be that my ex stop. And then tomorrow I'm gonna just have play around the eyes so and everything we're going to do about that and then slowly putting them together. So, like I said earlier, like blurring language, kind of building up slowly and then learning to use it and be ableto to know more quickly When I change this, I need to also change that

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Really nice job. Comprehensive and generous. Talented and giving as always. Thanks Jules and Joy.

a Creativelive Student
 

I love the workshop so far!! Tons of great ideas for my new business.

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