Your DSLR camera has a built in light meter that helps you work out the correct exposure.

when you point your camera at something to take a picture your camera meter calculated the exposure.

Most DSLR cameras have a number of metering modes you can use that are something like this…

Evaluative metering mode

This is a general-purpose metering mode suited for portraits and even backlit subjects. The camera sets the exposure automatically to suit the scene your pointing your lens at.

Partial metering mode

Effective when the background is much brighter than the subject due to backlighting etc. Partial metering covers about 9.4% of the viewfinder at the center.

Spot metering mode

This is for metering a specific spot of the subject or scene. The metering is weighted at the center covering about 2.3% of the viewfinder area. When spot metering is set, the spot metering circle will be displayed in the viewfinder.

Center-weighted average metering mode

The metering is weighted at the center and then averaging for the entire scene.

Hope you enjoyed the information in this post. There are lots of similar posts throughout the site if you want to check out more. Thanks for taking time out to visit us. I also undertake one to one tutorials at my studio in Warrington and have more online tutorials. Subscribe to my “learn photography newsletter for more info” below.

I have just completed my online video photography tutorials for beginners, which covers the  basics and is aimed at anyone who has just purchased an DSLR camera and wants to better understand it. I have done lots of one to one tutorials at my studio in Lowton and in doing so have come to understand what people generally want when they get themselves a new camera.

So I have crafted a number of video photography tutorials that take viewers through each stage of the learning process so that they have a clear path to their goal of getting more from their camera and to understand the important aspects of photography so they get consistent results and basically know what they’re doing, rather than relying on the camera to work it out for them.

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