I must confess that I suffer from spot metering madness. For over 10 years it has been my preferred method of metering. It is a process that consumes me when I'm in the field. I understand it isn't always a useful way to meter, especially for wildlife. But I have developed the habit of measuring all the tonal values of a scene that I am composing. It's a system that I find crucial to understanding exposure values and for taking good images.

When I first started shooting, with a Canon AE-1, I began to notice that I couldn't control my exposure as well as I wanted. Too often, subtle highlights would be overblown, or shadow areas would turn to black holes. I needed a way to place light value on as much of a scene as possible. I needed a camera with spot metering!

Once I bought a camera with spot metering capabilities, I noticed three things. One, it took a lot longer to meter a scene. Two, it took more brain power to compute the varying tonal values of scenes, which lead to a longer learning curve in exposure techniques. Three, and most importantly, my pictures began to reflect what I wanted to capture, rather than in the ballpark of what I wanted to capture.

Metering systems on cameras are so well produced today that it is understandable why many folks don't bother with spot metering. But spot metering allows one to get a better idea of how the subtle shifts of light on a scene are going to play out on the scene. To me, that is of paramount importance.

I look at spot metering as a way of dissecting the light. In the image below, Footprints in the Sand, you see there are many similar tonal values. Similar, though, does not mean the same. If you look closely, you can see there are delicate shifts of light happening. There are also some deep shadows. By using my spot meter I can pick apart the varying shades of light that are playing out on the sand. The shifts in exposure were subtle, a 1/3 or 1/2 stop over what I was metering as normal for the sand. The dark areas of and around the rocks were metering 2 stops and more under what I was using as my base exposure.

When I finally decided how I wanted to control my highlights, I saw that average metering was telling me I was a 1/2 stop off towards the under. Now this may not be a big deal for print film but with slide film it can mean the difference between tossing the image and keeping it. Had I heeded the average metering, my highlights would now be 2/3 to 1 whole stop overexposed. For me, the image would have been filed in the trash. The ability to interpret the subtle shift of light became a big decisive factor.

Spot metering is also crucial in determining what kind of split neutral density filter I might want to utilize in a scene. This sunset image, Sunset in the Pine Barrens, for example, has a 3 stop soft edge split nd applied. The reason being, as I spot metered various elements in the scene, I noticed that the further up the frame I went from the log, the more overexposed the scene became. Just below the horizon line on the trees, the light was metering around 2 stops over what the area around the log was metering. And the sky metered 3 plus stops over the area around the log. It was the ability to pinpoint the light values on the scene that aided me in determining how to best use my soft edge split neutral density filter.

In this third shot of an Oudemansiella radicata mushroom, average metering told me I was overexposed by more than a stop of light. Why? Because the light value in the trees was over 3 stops from what I wanted as a normal exposure for the rest of the image. Using my spot meter, I was able to concentrate on the areas that were of prime importance to me. I could see that the gills of this specimen had a variety of shades to it. Controlling the highlights became my ultimate goal. After positioning myself in a way where I could meter properly, I compared the highlights of the mushroom with the darker areas and saw that there was a 2/3 stop to 1/2 stop difference. I determined that it was probably a little less because my spot meter was also including some sky in its valuation. My final interpretation was that it was probably closer to 2/3 or 1 stop of a difference.

My decision was to overexpose the highlights a ½ stop over. This would allow the darker regions of the mushroom to come closer to normal, while controlling the highlights from becoming blown out. There was nothing I could do about the sky except crop my composition as best I could and hope I could tone it down a little in Photoshop.

Spot metering has helped me become a better photographer. It takes a little more patience to use, but it trains your eye to focus on the finer points of light and the light's interaction with a scene. As the eye becomes more aware of the subtle shifts of light on a subject, you can better determine how you will handle particular situations. If nature is the canvas and light is the brush, then shouldn't we know how to apply just the right amount of paint to make our images our own masterpieces? Spot metering helps me determine just how much or how little paint I may need to make a scene come out the way I want.

Editor's Comment: Let us know what you think! Please email the Editor to let us know your thoughts.