Italian Al

What is your usual metering choice in photography? Do you prefer matrix in most of your choices, or is your choice based primarily on the situation?

jmizera Loc: Austin Texas

I choose spot metering the majority of the time, and make the choice where to take the measurement. Much more predictable results in IMHO.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Center spot primarily, but if the scene might require it, one of the averaging methods.

BebuLamar

For a digital camera I only use Matrix or no meter. For color negative film? never matrix. Mostly center weighted but often spot meter. For color slide film it's matrix or spot.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

Center for both meter and focus, crop to frame later.

DaveC1 Loc: South East US

Depends on the situation.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

If I am in a hurry I may use the matrix mode, but when using digital I generally spot meter the highlight I'm interested in and adjust exposure to just below the "blinkie" level. In film, I do the opposite, exposing for the shadows.

Andy

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I generally use Evaluative (pretty much the same as Matrix).

That mode "looks" at the entire scene, but it puts extra emphasis right around the active AF point(s), which presumably is where your subject is located in the image area.

I occasionally use Spot metering.... for backlit subjects and such. The problem with Spot is that in most cameras it's only in the center of the image area. As a result you have to meter, then recompose if your subject isn't precisely centered. I'm often shooting fast sports action and there's no time to focus and recompose my shots. Another thing with Spot is that it's much more susceptible to skewing due to subject tonality... since it's reading only a very small area of the image. Using a broader metering pattern such as Evaluative "sees" more scene that averages out tonalities, so is less influenced by small areas that are some extreme. In other words, I find careful Exposure Compensation more necessary with Spot than with Evaluative... as well as needing larger amounts of E.C. with Spot, sometimes (depends on the subject tonality... or the tonality of the portion of the subject being metered).

Years ago I used Canon EOS-3 and 1V cameras, which had a metering system that allowed you to "link" Spot metering to active AF point. That was better than centered Spot meter, but I think is only possible now with the Canon 1D-series cameras (I don't know if other brand cameras can do it). I don't use those cameras, but on the Canon models I do Evaluative metering behaves very similarly.

I rarely use Partial metering (which is just sort of a large Spot). And I've pretty much quit using Center Weighted, which is sort of the "old school" method carried over from the dark ages of film photography.

I also carry an incident/flash meter (Sekonic L358) which I use at times. That's a totally different method than the reflective metering system of the camera uses. Incident metering is not subject to skewing from subject tonalities, the way reflective metering is. As a result, little to no Exposure Compensation is needed with incident metering. However, it's slower to do and not practical all the time. But I still like to have that meter with me, to use at times.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

For me, it always depends on the situation!

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

It depends. Generally not spot metering with the in-camera meter...the spot is too big to be useful. Matrix metering works well much of the time. Highlight weighted metering is very good if shooting raw in complex lighting, since digital sensors have no ability to deal with overdriven pixels.

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

I shoot a lot of birds in flight. So for me, I use center weighted metering. BUT, I have matrix at my disposal with the push of a button on my D500.

waegwan Loc: Mae Won Li

Spot. I shoot mostly street, buildings, or events. I find that spot gives me the most reliable results.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

99.9% of my metering is done using spot metering. That's from the 1/2-degree S.E.I. meter I use, the 1-degree spot meter on my Sekonic, or the spot meter provided by my camera. This allows for better placement of the areas of the scene I metered.
--Bob

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

I shoot landscapes and travel. For the vast majority of the images, Matrix does a very good job. Since nearly every shot goes through some form of Post Processing anyway, this is fine. However, for shots where the lighting is "tricky", I use Spot Metering and select what in the composition I want to base the reading on.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Center spot, almost always.