I don't get what spot metering is or what the histogram is supposed to tell me

>>4450154 (OP)
see the camera lens differences?
that's why.

>>4450154 (OP)
google more you fucking retard

>>4450154 (OP)
think of the different metering modes as putting a board over a window. the different metering modes would be like putting different kinds of holes in that board to let light through (or measure it in the camera's case). spot metering would be a small hole at any spot you choose (in most modern cameras). Center weighted puts a hole in the middle and subsequently smaller holes around the center one to a certain range(or the whole sensor in many modern cameras). evaluative metering works like center weighted, but it follows your focus point (so would maybe make more sense to call it something like spot-weighted or what have you)

>>4450162
So why would I do that instead of having it meter the entire image?

>>4450163
for example say someone is standing in front of a bright light, and you cannot have them move. if you use a metering mode that looks at the whole frame, the bright light is going to skew your exposures, and tthe subject will be too dark. so you can spot meter just on your subject instead, and have them exposed correctly, at the expense of the background blowing out. things like that.

>>4450166
wtf that's like magic

>>4450166
>you can only have a correctly exposed subject or a correctly exposed background during midday/blue hour
I-I swear I enjoy having no dynamic range! I-it’s challenging and stimulates my creativity! BAKA!

>>4450183
but that's not at all what i said or even implied you schizophrenic kook

>>4450186
I mean it's technically true but any real camera made after 2013 won't blow out the background unless its at iso 800+

>>4450186
I wasn’t even trying to argue with you…

>don't even try to argue with someone
>still somehow get in an argument
Such is life on the Chan

>>4450200
what tone would you describe your initial post as if not some kind of mockery or petulance?

>>4450154 (OP)
Metering is the camera determins how bright or dark to suggest settings
The metering modes decide how the camera calculates that by choosing what or what isn't included or what parts of the frame to bias towards
Spot metering tells the camera to look at the focus point and judge based on that (or look at the center point only on many older cameras)
You can do photography 100% of the time without ever changing metering modes, you just need to understand the limitations of a given mode and make adjustments
Like >>4450166 could get the same exposure in any metering mode + exposure compensation

>>4450154 (OP)
Histograms show you the amount of pixels that fit into that specific tonal value. If I take a photo of a blackboard, the histogram would be a big lump at the left side because everything is nearly black (technically a whole bunch of shades of gray). Actual photos are more complex and using the histogram can tell you how bright or dark your image is being recorded as, without relying on ambigious things like your LCD screen or your settings. All the pixels that are on the left most edge (and only the edge itself) are completely black, and everything on the far right edge is completely white. Normally that means you've crushed the blacks and cooked the highlights until they have no actual detail; just black and white. It is generally good to avoid this. This is why the "perfect exposure" has a wide lump focused reasonably well in the center of the histogram, and nothing touches the edges.

But, if you have true black in your scene (say, a night shot with fuck all lighting) or light sources (the sun, a lamp, reflections off shiny surfaces) you *should* have some part of the histogram showing some pixels in either of those values.
The center of a histogram is 18% middle gray, which if you use evaluative or center weighted metering, is what the camera is going to try and aim for. The reason we sometimes want spot metering is that the camera will try to expose for the whole image, which is sometimes not possible (limit of DR) or not what we want (see >>4450166).

Spot metering lets you meter for a very small region at the center of your shot, which you can aim at different areas and get given different EV values. So you can feel free to focus on the important parts of the image you wish to nail exposure on. This is a very handy technique combined with the 'Zone System', where you can roughly tell what EV value a given surface should have and test your exposure by pointing at different parts of the image instead of trusting the camera software.
>pic rel

>>4450154 (OP)
Most histograms are generated from the mini jpeg preview and can be safely disregarded. Just use a full frame/medium format camera and know you can overexpose 2-3 stops past the point where something is visibly turning white and recover that in raw, and 4-6 stops past the point where something is visibly turning black.

>>4450256
Easy. Don't shoot jpeg and set picture to neutral

>>4450299
>he doesn't know about uniwb
just buy a large sensor so you dont have to guess as accurately its that easy

buy the nerds favorite camera so you dont actually have to be a nerd

>>4450253
Fucking BASED post fren. Too many people blindly believe clipping highlights or crushing blacks is some deadly sin of photography because they blindly follow the histogram or similar things. Irrelevant detail can go into the extreme zones without issue if that's what it takes to put the relevant part of the picture at the center zones. Can you imagine Adams worrying about how the crosses in Moonrise, Hernandez, NM have blown highlights? These nerds, the histogram talibans probably would.

Tl;dr: Don't use spot metering unless you want your pics to look funky

>>4450154 (OP)
honestly at this point after 1.5 years I just place it on evaluative metering when using AV or TV and use exposure compensation with the wheel OR complete manual. These metering modes are just shit and mean nothing when using Live View and optical view finder has always been a guessing game.

>>4450154 (OP)
be careful anon, spot metering will focus all light on a single spot (thus the name) and if not used properly it could damage your lens aperture and sensor if used repeatedly, please read your camera and lens manufacturer to check for compatibility.

>>4450213
it was avant garde shitpostery

>>4450943
try not pointing your camera directly at the sun, that's usually a good idea in general

>>4450154 (OP)
Metering is for fuckken nerds. Hipshot that shit like the Hindenburg or you’re just a faffing cooont

>>4451606
>a good idea

No.

>>4450325
>Too many people blindly believe clipping highlights or crushing blacks is some deadly sin of photography because they blindly follow the histogram or similar things.
Or that no clipping means that the photo isn't overexposed.

>>4450253
Thanks for this post. I’ve been using the EV bar all wrong. I might print and laminate that chart so I can always have it with me until it sinks in. So far, I’ve taken every photo trying to expose everything at 0 which just makes everything a middle grey. Time to take photos with actual whites and actual blacks…