What metering method do you use?

[Doug Nelson]

Do you squint into a spotmeter or let your camera decide? Or do you shoot 5 different ways and decide later? Is your camera set to auto or manual? Do you adjust f/stop, shutter, or ISO (or again, let the camera decide)?

[oneredpanther]

If you're outside, all cameras made in about the last thirty years have an inbuilt meter that is sufficiently accurate for 90% of anything you'd care to do. The range of permutations for camera settings depends completely on what you are doing.

In a studio you would generally set ISO to the lowest, shutter to fastest sync possible, aperture to the desired value and control exposure with the power to the lights.

If lighting outside you set the ISO to the lowest, shutter to whatever brings the ambient in line with your desired exposure and then match your lighting power to the selected aperture.

The shooting mode should ideally be in Manual for the whole time if you're serious. And I can't imagine anyone serious about retouching taking a risk with an automatic setting.

[RobertAsh]

I use three types of metering mostly. In order of frequency:

1. Incident light metering (100% of studio work and my #1 method for non-studio)
2. Expose To The Right using the camera LCD histograms (Manual exposure)
3. "Sunny 16" rule (outside in sunlight - still works reasonably well as a starting point, then adjust as needed)

In addition at certain times I use:

1. Aperture-priority Auto-exposure
2. Eyeballing the camera LCD
3. Program Mode (yes, every now and then "P" for "Professional" is the best way to meter to reduce risk, though not often)

[sbourson]

hello

me i use my eyes, feeling, because i never use go exposition .. i work in feeling.
when i start photography i use sekonic and when i broke it. i never bought one .

all is feeling
http://www.sbourson.com

[fraiseap]

Incident reading with a Sekonic meter for studio work.

Cameras built in light meter (which under exposes 2/3 of a stop so adjusted for that) on aperture priority for most outdoor work.

Manual with SS set at 1/500 or less, f/2.8 and adjust ISO as required for sports.