Spot metering

(discussion taken from Yahoo! FZ10 forum)

strat (FZ10 gallery)...

I shot some black bears last Sunday at the zoo and switched to spot meter since the bears are black and I wanted detail in the fur. Well, the bears were in bright sunlight so my shots look terribly washed out and the fur looks too light too.

Harold Owen...

If when using `spot mode' you have metered off the bears you would end up with the equivalent of an `18% grey tone' in that area which would mean any highlights would burn out, due to the bears being black.

Using a spot meter is slightly more difficult than using other metering.

If anyone is interested there are some decent websites which discuss using spot metering : --

http://www.simvideo.com/articles/using_lightmeter.htm

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/af9/af9SpotMeters.shtml

http://www.planetneil.com/colourzone/exposure-spotmeter.html

Vernon L Rogers `Fotabug' (link to Fotabug's album) (Yahoo! FZ10 forum, 5 April 2004)...

I use spot metering {by} picking a middle tone for exposure and focus and locking the reading by depressing the shutter button halfway. before fully depressing the shutter button. object. at a white or black object. As for the metering area, the only indication of its size is the brackets in the viewfinder. isn't hard to learn. accurate meter reading you need to center on something that is middle tone.