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I've come across quite a few places on the web lately where people seem to insist that spot metering is the only way to properly expose for a backlit scene.  I prefer to pan the camera down or away from the light if possible to avoid having to remember to switch my metering mode back to Matrix.  Check out the video for a sample.

Here is a pretty heavily backlit photo, I did not use spot metering to choose my exposure. Philadelphia Wedding Photography

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0 # Carsten Saager 2011-12-20 11:21
Good tip. When using spot metering you can even carry it further: meter on something that should appear as medium grey in the final image, press AE-lock and recompose.

With most cameras you may zoom as you like, because AE-L stores the EV of the scene, so changing the aperture will adjust the speed accordingly for you.
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0 # Trevor 2011-12-20 18:59
You may also need to check your custom settings. I found that if I used the AE-Lock button it also locked the focus so make sure you change it in custom settings to only lock exposure.
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0 # Olaf Kleemeyer 2011-12-27 06:30
So easy to understand, so easy to realize. Great Tip, Greg! Thank you very much!
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0 # Sherbi Seerattan 2011-12-28 20:50
Love the quick tip of the day. really helps
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0 # Martin 2011-12-29 14:53
Hi There

Have you done anything on histograms, would love to hear your views on checking histograms


Cheers


Martin
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0 # Gregory Cazillo 2011-12-29 15:02
http://cazillo.com/articles/37-photography/100-photography-histograms.html
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0 # shailendra 2013-07-27 21:23
Hi George

Thanks a lot for the gold video. Man how hard it is to find right information. Everyone talks about DR but believe me when it comes to explain the thing......black....

I have a question, I have 5D M II and they say its DR is 11.9. So if we make it 11 then we have the following

Total black 1 2 3 4 5 6(middle gray) 7 8 9 10 11 Total white

With the extra stops how much do I under or over expose to get the right colours?

Regards
Shail
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