couple q's...

[brians4671]

when metering with my nikon d40 should i spot meter or center-weight meter? and should i judge exposure using the in camera histogram?

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Yes, Yes, and Yes. Different situations and personal preference call for a different metering modes. Which you use depends on your surroundings.

 

[BlueCorn]

It's mainly personal preference and the mix of lighting in your frame. I always use spot metering but really as long as you're getting good results it doesn't really matter. Learning to correctly interpret the histogram (and adjust exposure as necessary) is really the key.

 

[brians4671]

thanks guys. ive gotten over a few issues today. experimenting with aperture, shutter priority. metering then viewing the histogram and compensating. it feels good to getting to this point. its been mostly reading now i feel i need to commit some time with the camera to practice and edit.

 

[BlueCorn]

That's the beauty of digital. No one needs to know how many didn't turn out right.

 

[brians4671]

yes, if i was to give a percentage of adequate frames i would say fiveish haha.

 

[IPT]

I feel except if you have a certain smallish area you need to keep detail in (ie a Bald Eagles head) that spot metering just causes me problems (it is just too small of an area usually). I tend to use centerweighted metering and bracket often for some added insurance. That's just me though.

 

[BlueCorn]

It also depends on how you shoot. If you're in an automatic or semi-automatic mode then spot metering probably isn't what you want.

I use spot metering and manual exposure. It takes practice and you have to learn how to identify the tones in the scene to get the correct exposure.