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Foreign. Hello again and welcome to another podcast. Now, what we're going to look at in this podcast is the kind of situation where your camera tells you exactly what to do. The exposure looks right. Nothing's flashing in the viewfinder or on your screen at the back. You take your picture and it's no good. The exposure is all wrong. So this finalizes this little series of three podcasts which are looking at issues with exposure. And just to remind you if you haven't listened to the previous three, or if you have the first one, we were looking at exposure lock and how important that is and how it can make your make it really easy to actually overcome issues where the camera is exposing for the wrong subject. And I'm going to go back to this at the end of the podcast. Last time we looked, last week, we looked at how we can see a scene, but when we shoot with the camera, we've got something different. And now we're going to flip it the other way. So we're deferring to the camera, we're deferring to the meter, and it still manages to mess up. So what's going on there? Now, before I dive into that, my name is Graham Elliott. Please remember to like and subscribe. If you're finding the podcast useful, you can even support the podcast. That'd be lovely. Okay, so what's going on here? Well, the situation that I'm sure we've all experienced, because I've certainly had this when I was certainly when I was learning, and every now and again because I forget, something happens. What's going on? So you've set up your exposure, you're looking at your subject. So typically you've got a subject, you've got a background of some sort, and everything that's good through the viewfinder, as I've already described, you hit the shutter button and the exposure is all off. And you. You may not have lost the shot completely, but it's definitely not correctly exposed. And the whole purpose in looking at exposure as a subject and devoting three podcasts, there have been others as well. Where I've spoken about this in is that if you get the correct exposure, you can do an awful lot with your image. It does open up a lot of the creative options that you have with post processing particularly. But if you get it wrong, that can be severely limiting. And not only that, it's really disappointing because you may well be on a trip of a lifetime. It might be just something you've been looking forward to for a long time. And you Take your photographs, and they are just a huge disappointment, and that's not what we want to have. So the whole. Another purpose for doing this is to make sure that when you do have those kind of experiences, if you are photographing wildlife and this might be that big trip of a lifetime, you come back with images that really work for you, that you can be really proud of and you're excited to show other people your results. So what's the situation? So this is where you have deferred to the meter. Why we do that? Well, we do it because we stop trusting our eyes. And last time I spoke about what can go wrong when we do trust our eyes. So this isn't to take away anything from what I said last time, but it is to look at the opposite situation, and it's where we hand the decision over to the camera itself. Now, this will tend to happen when we're beginners, so we don't have that confidence. It may be that we're just not that familiar with the camera. We only pick a camera up a few times. It might be a new camera. It can be where the camera feels really complicated. And obviously these days, cameras are quite sophisticated tools. And remember, that's what they are. And it's quite easy to feel a little bit intimidated, particularly if you start looking at all of the menus and all the other stuff that goes with it. So when you. One of the things I focus on when I'm training and that there is an online training course you can join of mine, I really want to take the fear or the intimidation almost out of the technology. There are certain things it's good to know on your camera, and I would say you do need to know. But there are not that many of them and they're actually quite straightforward once you understand what they do. So why would we defer to the meter reading? Well, it's for those reasons, or it might be that we're feeling a bit lazy is, I guess, the other one. So the camera has taken a metering reading. We've deferred to that. We've taken our shot, and it's pretty awful. So what's gone wrong? What are the kind of situations that lead to that situation, lead to that particular scenario, and you'll find that they are very similar to what I've already discussed. So typically you are looking at a strong background. Perhaps it's quite light. Your subject is relatively shaded or dark. The subject might change from one lighting situation to another and you haven't compensated for it, or you've assumed that the camera has and in reality it hasn't. So these are the kind of situations, and the worst thing about this is that you can feel pretty confident that the camera is doing the right thing. You're not particularly rushed, you're not guessing, you looked at everything, you've done the right things, you've checked that the camera is not giving you any warnings. There's no clipping, there's no highlights, nothing like that getting flagged up and it's still gone wrong. So you've trusted the wrong thing. And so we have to ask, what is the meter doing? So this comes back to understanding just some basics about what the camera is doing and how it works. And I mentioned that you're not asking the right questions and in turn the camera is not asking the right questions. So you have to remember what the questions are it's asking. So it's not looking at the subject saying, hey, what meter reading do I need to take here? What is this? What matters about this scene? It's basically asking, how do I average everything I'm seeing here into something neutral? In other words, it's looking at what's in the viewfinder and saying, okay, how can I just pull this so that I can get a good exposure for this complete scene? And that is the crucial difference. And this is the thing we really need to understand. And it's what I gone back to in the previous episodes. And I'm looking at it from a wildlife photography perspective. But this definitely applies to other scenarios that you're going to come across as you take photographs. And neutral is not what we want. Usually it may be on a scene that we can get away with neutral, but generally we want to be exposing for our subject. We might even want to be exposing for one particular part of the subject, typically the eye, if it's an animal. But we need to understand what we are aiming at, what which part of the scene needs to be correctly exposed now, how we get the camera to do that for us. So it's not that the camera has gone wrong in any way, it's simply that we're not asking the right questions. So how do we, how do we get around this? So basically the meter is going to work in a certain way, and depending on what kind of system you've got, there are going to be different options to how that meter works. And I'm going to use Canon as an example simply because I tend to use Canon cameras. But you'll find this in. In different camera makes anyway. You'll generally have a choice of ways that the camera can make a decision on exposure. And you really do need to understand those in order to get a good exposure, because you need to understand what your camera is doing. So just taking Canon as an example, they have four different or on most of their DSLR and mirrorless cameras, you're going to find there are four different types of exposure or the camera. In other words, the metering system itself is going to work in one of four different ways. And this is what you select. And you generally do it from the menu on the back of the camera. You can do it in the deeper menus, but I'd rarely go in there. And I recommend that you don't worry too much about the deeper menus. So what are they? Well, the first one is evaluative, and this tends to be the default. So how does that work? Evaluative metering looks at the overall scene. And typically in a photograph, you're going to have areas that are bright, areas that are darker, and these are the scenarios that really trip the camera up when you're in evaluative. And this is where we'll tend to get these issues. So if you've got a scene that is pretty evenly lit, then evaluative will work quite well because there's not a big change. There's not a big change in what we call dynamic range. And dynamic range is simply the difference between the brightest part of the image and the darkest part of the image. So if there's not a big difference, evaluative will work pretty well. If, however, you are in a situation where you've got a big difference, you might have a very bright background and a very dark subject. That would be what we would call a high dynamic range. And evaluative is going to struggle because what it does is it looks at almost everything. I think in canon, it's around 90% of what you see in the viewfinder, and it will try and expose for the full dynamic range. So in this situation, you've got very bright areas in the viewfinder, you've got dark areas. So what the camera will do is just balance everything. It won't give any weighting to any particular part of the viewfinder, and it will just stick the exposures somewhere in the middle. And that automatically means that some parts of the image will be overexposed. The brighter areas will tend to be overexposed, and the darker areas will tend to be underexposed. But the camera's just trying to work it out because the question it believes you are asking Is how do I get an exposure that will suit the whole of this image or most of what I can see in the viewfinder? And this is really important to understand. So that's evaluative and that's generally the default setting on most cameras. Now, the next option you have with Canon is called center weighted. So that looks at the whole scene again, but it puts more emphasis on what's in the center of the image. And this is where we begin to start steering the camera to prioritizing one part of the image over another. And that would be in the center. And remember, most of what we're going to be doing here is looking at the exposure for what is in the center of the viewfinder. So center weighted, if you have your subject in the center of the viewfinder, even if there's a very dark area, very bright or very dark area behind the, behind the subject, typically it's going to be bright and your subject is dark. I mean, it might be flipped the other way. You might be exposed, you might, subject might be really bright, depending on what you're photographing. But with center weighted, you are more likely to get a better exposure. It may not be correct for your subject, but assuming that the subject is stuck in the middle of the frame, and again, you may not do that with your composition, but let's assume that you have, you're more likely to get a better exposure. It may not be the correct exposure for your subject, but it will be better than you'd get with center weighted. So that's partial metering. The next, sorry, that center weighted meter, and the next one is partial metering. And this, honestly, if you're doing wildlife photography, this is more the kind of meter setting that you're going to want to use, because what that will do is it will put a lot more emphasis on the central area. And it's usually around 6%, that central 6% of the overall image. And this is where we want to be when we're shooting wildlife, because generally, and if I'm going to extend that to almost any kind of photography, particularly where you have a high dynamic range. So there's a big difference between the brightest and the darkest parts of the image. Because now you are looking at your subject is in the center, and that's what the camera is going to be looking at as well. So as long as your subject is in that central 6%, you're more likely to get a correct exposure using the metering system you have on the camera. And then the final one is spot metering. And to be honest, that's what I tend to use myself. That's the central 2%. So this is right in the center of the viewfinder. And by using spot metering, you can then focus in on the eye or maybe even the iris of your subject. And that's what the correct exposure is going to be looking at. It's going to be, in other words, the camera is going to be correctly exposing that central 2%, and it will expose to that central 2% over the rest of the frame. So the rest of the frame might be underexposed or overexposed, doesn't really matter. It's that central 2%. And this really is the thing to understand. It's to understand that your camera has certain modes of operation. It might be three, it might be four. Generally it isn't more than that. But again, I don't know what you're using. So it's worth just doing that work to understand what the exposure modes are for your camera and then using the appropriate one for the kind of photography you're doing. So by doing that, you can begin to trust the camera. Okay, trust the mode in the camera. But if you don't understand what the modes are, if you don't even know there are different exposure modes for your camera and you're just assuming that what the camera tells you is correct, remember that by default. So the standard setting is likely to be evaluative, so the camera's looking at the whole frame. And if you are shooting in a situation with a higher dynamic range. So I'm getting slightly technical in this one, I think more technical than I did in the others. But let's not be afraid of the technical terms because it's sort of useful. But when you're in a situation with high dynamic range, big difference between the brightest, darkest parts of the frame and you're using evaluate, using evaluative metering, that there's a much greater chance that your subject will be incorrectly exposed. So my recommendation to you is to first of all look at the metering options that you have on your camera and choose either partial metering, where you've got something like the central 6% of the image is where it's what the camera will look at and it will expose, so it would set the exposure so that that central 6% is correctly exposed, or even drop down to spot metering, where it's the central 2%. And that's generally what I use when I'm doing wildlife photography. And I use that because I also set my autofocus so I'm on a central spot, which also is central in the frame. I can hold my focus using back button focus. But the important thing here is exposure. That's what this little series of podcasts is about. And here we. Excuse me, you might want to use a lock. So that exposure lock for that 6% if we want to then recompose or the subject is moving and it might move into different lighting. So you just hold that exposure setting for the period that suits while the animal is in that lighting. Okay, so what's the takeaway really that I want you to get from this podcast? And again, all of this. I go into this a lot more detail in the online course, so you're very welcome to look at that. What's the lesson though? The lesson really is to remember that yes, your metering system is actually pretty sophisticated and all of those dollars or yen or whatever else went into developing it was certainly not waste. But like anything else on the camera, you, the camera is a tool. So this is the most important thing to remember. The camera is a tool and you need to have a basic understanding of what it's doing and how it works. You don't need to know it all in depth. But understanding the exposure modes is one of those things that if you're going to have a successful time with your camera, if you and your camera are going to get along, you need to understand what the modes are and which one most suits what you're doing. And to be straight with you, other photographers might have a different view on this. My own is that I tend to use spot metering because that works for most of what I do. And so I just run with spot metering most of the time. So having set it, it's almost a set and forget situation. But you do need to know what you are using because there are situations where a different metering mode might work better for you, but if you are looking at situations where, and this is true for wildlife, but it might be true for portraits, but where you are really interested in getting the metering correct for one part of your subject. So again, remember, when I'm photographing wildlife, I really want to get the eyes correctly exposed. That's the thing I'm really looking at, yes, the head, the body, everything else. But that's generally what I'm going for. Or if I'm further out, I want to get the animal exposed, I want to get the animal I'm interesting exposed correctly. And I don't care so much about the background, the foreground and Anything else that's there. Because if, if I've got my subject correctly exposed in post processing, I can change the exposure a little bit. I can adjust certain things so that the overall image looks right. But if I don't have that key part of the image that I'm interested in, if I don't have that correctly exposed. And remember, one of the important aspects of good photography is having a clear subject. And so one of the aspects of having a clear subject is having it correctly exposed. If I haven't done that part of the process, then the overall picture is unlikely to work. I'm likely to have something that's flat or, or it doesn't look correctly exposed, the lighting's not right, and that can be a real disappointment. So going back to how you get the most from your camera, especially if you're going on one of these trips of a lifetime, it's really important to just understand the exposure modes on your camera. Don't get intimidated by them. Just look them up, look at how you control them on your camera. Experiment. You don't have to spend a lot of time on this, but do a quick bit of experimentation. And my recommendation is always that you are using an exposure mode that focuses on that central area, whether it's the central 2% or the central 6%. If you are likely to be photographing wildlife, my personal recommendation is that you start at least with one of those settings you might find. And remember that in digital photography, we've got a massive advantage than when I started with film photography. And this actually leads me on to the next part, podcast, but I'll come back to that. But when I started with film photography, I couldn't take a photograph and then just look at it. I had to wait until it was developed. So I'd be sitting there with a small notebook I used to carry around and I'd jot down the frame number and what my settings were. If I was learning, if I was experimenting and trying to work out what mode I needed to have, how I needed to work my metering, that would be one of many things. And it would also be shutter speed and what the ISO the film was and all this kind of stuff. And if I push the film, if I was actually running with a different ISO setting on the camera to what the film is rated at. So honestly, you've got it really easy if you're using the digital camera. So don't get intimidated by this stuff. Look at the modes that you have available and look at what they mean. And this is really easy to do, by the way, if you don't have the manual or you're getting confused by the manual, just Google it. Honestly, with technology we have today, there's really no reason not to understand what you have available on your camera. So it's going to be one of generally three or four modes. I've explained briefly what they are. They might be called something slightly different, but what you've got is a broad exposure for the whole frame, which you don't want unless you're doing snapshots. But honestly, with. Once you start getting into more detailed photography, more specialized photography or specialized photography, you don't want to be in that general mode. Generally you want to be in something that starts to drill down and use just a smaller part of the frame, because that's where your subject is going to be. When you do the light reading. You might do an A lock on it and then recompose slightly so that it's shifted. But this is why we use AE lock. It's why I use back button focusing. So they're the two things that allow you to change. But for exposure, look at the modes available on your camera and just invest a little bit of time in understanding what they are or even just resetting it so that you're using one of the either a partial metering setup or a spot metering setup. And then practice with that and make sure that you understand what it's doing okay. So that really is it for this little loop. So just to recap the first one, I was looking at AE lock as that setting on your camera, which you might not know you had or you might have forgotten that you had. And that really makes a difference when you're in these situations where you have a high dynamic range and you want to make sure that you are correctly exposed for your subject. So not using a lock or the error that is produced there is down to a failure of control. You're not using a control that will solve the problem for you, whether through ignorance of it being there or you just forgot about it. But that's failure of control. Last time I looked at why what you saw through the viewfinder isn't what you got on the image. So this is a failure of perception. This is basically forgetting that your eyes will automatically adjust. As human beings, as primates, we've got a pretty nifty optical system that run works very well for us on the whole, but it does adjust. So if you think about eyes and our brain as a system, how that all works, it does. It's designed and it generally works very well in changing light situations. So we're automatically compensating for low light or bright light. And of course the camera doesn't do that. It doesn't have that same system. So the system it relies on is essentially evaluative metering in most situations. So it's doing an adjustment for what it sees. But what the camera will record is not necessarily what we're seeing, because we have. We're basically comparing two different systems. So I am brain and what the camera is doing is. And they're going to produce different results in changing light situations or the situations I outlined. So that's a failure of perception. And then the third one is measurement failure. So this is trusting the camera over what we're seeing, but not understanding how it is getting to the result it's producing. And this comes down to asking the correct questions. And the main question to ask is what is the exposure? What is the exposure I need for this part of the frame that is of most importance to me as the photographer. So. And again, this will come up actually in next week's podcast because I did a really good interview yesterday with a fantastic couple who produced some absolutely amazing photographs. I'll come to that in a moment. But one of the things we were just chatting about, and this might have been actually not on the podcast because we didn't have a chat before and after, but there's the old adage that is the 8 inches to 9 inches behind the viewfinder are the most important part of any camera system. And this has really been what this little series of three podcasts has been about. And again, just to summarize, understand the exposure options. So the metering system on your camera will have different settings, let's call them that, different modes, whatever you want to call it, I've outlined what they are. It will either be three or four typically. And your job as a photographer is to understand what those modes are. They are not difficult as I've just outlined. I can explain them in couple of minutes. I've given you quite a lengthy explanation, but you can understand them really simply. And in fact, in the course I go through that again and make it really simple. Now that you understand them, you just pick the one that is most appropriate for the scenario that you are in. And again, I've explained those scenarios and very simply, it's understanding dynamic ranges, which is again, might sound complicated. It's basically the difference between the brightest part of what's in the viewfinder and the darkest part and making sure. That if you do have a big dynamic range, so there's a big difference between the brightest and the darkest part of the image. You just set an exposure mode, a metering mode that allows you to focus on what is most important within that frame and that is it. So I hope you found that loop or that little series of three podcasts useful next week. So next Friday I am talking with Steve and Nicole Gettle. And Steve and Nicole Gettel are amazing photographers. Steve has been in National Geographic and various others. I have a link to their website that will be in the description. So you're very welcome to go there and be inspired. Because in fact, part of the chat, again, I can't remember if this was on the podcast, but one of the things I did say was I had a look at the podcast and there were a few images in there. I thought, oh yeah, I've got to do that. And this is where we get inspirations. This is a different aspect of photography, but it's where we find inspiration and a lot of it is by copying other people, frankly. So anyway, that is coming up next week, so do jump on and listen to that podcast. If you're not on my mailing list, do please go onto the website www.ge.photography and you can join the mailing list. And with the mailing list, every Friday an email will go out with the link, a description and a link to the next podcast, the latest podcast. And. And there's also a reminder goes out a few days later in case you've forgotten and you wanted to listen but other things came up and you forgot to jump on and have a listen. So there's a reminder there as well. Okay, so thank you. I hope you've found that useful and I will speak to you again with Steve and Nicole on Friday. Bye for now.