ttheme Loc: Florida

What metering mode do you guys use for your portrait shoots ? I have a Nikon D750. Portrait indoor and outdoor.
Thank you.

ttheme Loc: Florida

Correction: Which in camera metering system do you guys prefer for portrait shoots?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

For flash in studio I use an external flash meter to be able to trigger and measure the light.

Outside, an incident meter is great and in the majority of situations you can use the reading as is, otherwise I set the in camera meter to spot, measure off a highlight area on the face, and use from -2/3 to +2/3 exposure comp depending on complexion and reflectance. Pasty-complexioned white people in early Spring get +2/3, African Americans, East Indians etc with dark complexions get -2/3 comp, and people with olive skin (no tan) get exposed as the meter reads them. Of course your horse sense will kick in after awhile and this becomes automatic.

I don't like or use iTTL, though there are many who get great results. I also don't use automatic flash - I learned the old way and I am most comfortable with manual flash.

ttheme Loc: Florida

Thank you Gene51

Zone-System-Grandpa Loc: Springfield, Ohio

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For outdoor portraits, that is, if I am not using speed lights as fill light, I will generally allow my Nikon D810 to take a reading directly off my main subject's face and I have never had a problem with doing such. However, there are times when fill light is needed whereby I will set my camera manually to an f-stop that underexposes everything in the frame and then I will allow the speed lights to be the dominate source of light coordinating with the camera whereas the main subject is properly exposed leaving the background that is being illuminated by sunlight remaining underexposed. For indoor portraits, I expose according to my liking via. using speed lights only.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

I use spot metering. As an escapee from purely mechanical film cameras (canon f-1 and spotmatic) all those focus points just confuse me.

BebuLamar

I have 2 very good incident meters and they are good for portrait. However, I rarely use them with a digital camera. I just guess the exposure then chimp.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Does anyone remember which camera(s) had the feature whereby you could change the spot metering angle; I seem to remember one where the metering spot could be adjusted to 4, 6 or 8 degrees? Is this feature available on any current DSLR's? Thank you.

BebuLamar

I haven't heard of one.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

On my Nikon D800 and D3 I can change the area of the Center Weighted metering, but not the spot.

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

I mostly use a handheld meter, but if I have to use camera metering then I use spot.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Matrix except if my model is in the door way and I am lighting for her face I will switch to center weighted to check the light. But really, most of the time on portraits I just stick with Matrix cause I am mostly filling the frame with the face and the Matrix works very well. Congratulations of your camera, it is a sweat one. I have also just used my Minolta incident light meter reading and left the camera on manual.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Nikon recommends center weighted metering but many photographers use spot metering from the face opening one stop for the Caucasian skin and closing one stop for the dark skin.

ronichas Loc: Long Island

The nikon d750 plus other newer Nikon cameras came with a group focus, that works great. I used it recently on my photo trip to Namibia, Africa. Anyone interested can view my images here..

http://ronichas.zenfolio.com/p731785382

How does Group-area AF work? Basically, within the viewfinder you see four focus points, with the fifth one in the middle hidden. You can move all four focus points by pressing the multi-touch controller on the back of the camera (ideally, you want to stay in the middle, because the focus points in the center of the frame are cross-type and the most accurate). When pointed at a subject, all five focus points are activated simultaneously for the initial focus acquisition, with priority given to the closest subject. This differs from the the Dynamic 9 AF mode quite a bit, because D9 activates 8 focus points around the center focus point, with priority given to the chosen center focus point. If the camera fails to focus using the center focus point (not enough contrast), it attempts to do it with the other 8 focus points. Basically, the camera will always prioritize the central focus point and only fail-over to the other 8 if focus is not possible. In contrast, Group-area AF uses all 5 focus points simultaneously and will attempt to focus on the nearest subject, without giving preference to any of the 5 focus points.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Actually, this thread is about metering, not autofocus modes.