Practical application and performance effect of spot metering and partial metering in photography

At present, there are many metering methods for digital cameras, but in fact they can be divided into average metering, center focusing metering and spot metering.

Average photometry takes the average of all the light intensities of a picture as the photometric value, which is characterized by not considering the subject of the picture. For a picture with average illumination, photometry is more accurate, which is suitable for occasions with uniform illumination and weak contrast. There are many methods for data collection and calculation of average photometry, such as Canon's "zoning evaluation photometry" method, which divides the picture into 35 parts for evaluation photometry. In fact, this is also an average metering, but it can make the calculation result more reasonable.

Center-focused photometry is to calculate the values of the pictures in the center and the vicinity of the picture as photometric values according to different weighting coefficients. The center has the largest weight, and the closer it is to the edge of the picture, the smaller the weight. This is a moderate metering method, which takes into account both the overall brightness within the framing range and the fact that the subject is generally located in the central area when shooting, and is suitable for occasions where the subject is prominent and the background needs to be taken into account.

Spot metering is a professional metering method, with the area of the center of the picture accounting for 1% as the metering area. This is an extreme photometry method, which is suitable for situations where the light is complex or the light ratio is strong, and it is necessary to highlight the main body and create special artistic effects (this post comes from Zhongguancun online products).

Spot metering is often used when taking photos that need to highlight the subject, such as portraits and macro. For example, when taking portraits, we usually aim the light at the model's face to get the correct exposure.

When using spot metering, it is necessary to pay attention to the measurement method, measure as close as possible to the subject or object, and avoid the interference of other light. At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention not to block the light and avoid metering errors.

The above is just a brief introduction to several metering methods. The actual shooting environment is complex, so all kinds of metering methods should be used flexibly. In the process of shooting, it is necessary to browse the photos in time in order to understand the exposure degree and adjust the exposure to get the best effect.