Question for the hive - I spent a long time thinking that "smarter" meters generated superior pictures. Over the last few months I have found myself turning off matrix metering and using more spot metering and center-weighted metering. It isn't like I am shooting a camera with a mediocre light meter - this is a D500. I have just realized I spend a lot more time not caring what the "whole image" looks like, but really prioritizing getting a good exposure on the part of the scene I am most interested in - think a single kid playing indoor basketball, or specific part of a complex scene with bright sky, shadows, and reflected light.

What do you all find yourself using most? Matrix? Spot? Bracketing?

-shooter

Tend to use spot for most things other than landscapes.

For landscapes I will vary depending on the dynamic range in the scene.

For indoor sports, I am in manual mode. No thinking by the camera allowed since the light will be bad enough that the exposure I have dialed in may not be "correct" by any stretch.

Outdoor sports or outdoor portraits, I am usually in center-weighted mode.

For landscapes, it depends on the scene. Unless the scene has a huge dynamic range, the meter will probably be set to matrix or center-weighted. I may switch to spot metering just to measure the dynamic range, then either go manual or matrix with some EC.

These days I usually only bracket if I am expecting to use some HDR software.

Regardless of the settings, I will be reviewing the results on the camera's LCD so that the exposure is mostly right. Raw files always, but the detailed raw settings do vary.

Not to change gears, but what is your flavor of choice?



I used SNS HDR Lite w/ a Lightroom Plugin to create that.

If you're into the more realistic type of look, I would strongly recommend that.

By default, my DSLRs are in center-metered with aperture-priority and a manually set ISO.

In the example of your HDR shot, I would probably do a bracketed sequence. If I did not like any of the single frames, I would feed the series to HDR software.

I use the full-screen matrix for 99% of my shots