What are the common camera metering methods in photography?

When shooting with a modern camera, there is usually no need to use an exposure meter. Because the camera has a built-in metering device, and the photographer can choose the most suitable metering method from a variety of metering methods. In the same scene, different photometry methods are used to get different exposure effects.

1, evaluation photometry evaluation photometry is also called average photometry or matrix photometry. As shown in the figure below, its photometry logic is to divide the picture into many small areas, then photometry each area one by one, and finally average the photometry data of each area, and take the average value as the reasonable exposure value of the whole picture.

(evaluation photometry)

(Photometric area for evaluating photometry)

2. Partial metering Partial metering is also called area metering, and its metering area is only a part of the center of the picture, not covering the whole picture, as shown below. Moreover, there is no averaging operation, and the photometric data obtained in the central area will be directly applied to the exposure of the whole picture.

(Partial measurement)

(photometric area in partial photometry)

3. Spot metering Spot metering is a metering method with a small metering area. Similar to partial metering, spot metering is also used to measure the part of the picture, but this range is much smaller than partial metering. As shown in the figure below, the area occupied by the face in the picture is actually relatively small, so using spot metering to measure the face can obtain more accurate metering results. For some cameras, the metering area of spot metering can change with the change of focus position, which is called spot metering linkage. For cameras without point measurement linkage function, the metering area of point measurement is fixed in the center of the picture.

(Spot metering)

(Measurement area for field measurement)

4. Center key average metering Center key average metering, as shown in the figure below, is a special metering mode. From the range of metering, the metering area of central focus average metering covers the whole picture, which looks like evaluation metering, but there are actually only two metering areas, one is located in the center of the picture, and the other covers all areas except the central area, as shown in the following figure. The name of central key average photometry is "average", but in fact, it will not average the data obtained in these two photometry areas, but focus on the data obtained in the central area of the picture, giving priority to ensuring the accuracy of the central exposure of the picture. Under this premise, the overall exposure should be adjusted appropriately to adapt to the exposure of other parts around the picture.

(central key average measurement)

(Metering area of center key average metering)