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| Evaluative (total scene) |
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| spot metering |
So before I corrupt her teachings further with a summary of today's adventure, I need to tell you that YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SWITCH WHITE BALANCE ON AUTO. The camera is more clever than me in many ways but lacks a proprioceptor system, so it cannot tell what kind of light globes you are standing under.
Got it? Good. Now she will slap me around again for making her appear like a raving harpy (which she isn't).
Ok. Now I think today was about light distribution, and the light metering settings. But I forgot my notebook and Zahra forgot the handouts, so it may be called something completely different.
There are three different settings - evaluative (total screen), centre, and spot metering. And you start fiddling with these settings where you have bright areas alongside dark, or any circumstance where your image seems to have coexisting areas of different light requirements.
From what I can gather, if you are in the 'M' mode, you can balance the light and shade yourself with aperture and shutter speed. But if you are in a cheating mode, then if you are pointing at a bright doorway in a dark room, the camera will probably overexpose the opening. So set it on centre weighted metering and watch the other settings change. The resultant photo should have the brighter outside scene at the correct exposure.
You can also set it on spot, and then move the central frame around - handy if the doorway is not directly in front, which it shouldn't be if you are sticking with the rule of thirds! But it's not like I stick to the rules, so do whatever you want and I won't judge you.
If you check out the two images above, you may notice a subtle difference - the exterior is bolder and the foreground dimmer in the first, where I positioned the frame in the light area. But to be honest, I think you need a pretty darn good set of specs.