The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering [Paperback]

"Farzad offers simple solutions to the sometimes complicated light metering issues of the modern equipment." -- Outdoor Photographer Magazine Book Review

"Farzad's wealth of analogies should certainly alleviate the confusion all photographers have in understanding how to expose their subjects correctly” -- Elinor Stecker-Orel: Popular Photography Book Review

"Using simplified text, drawings, and examples, Farzad makes this difficult subject (exposure) comprehensible." -- Dick Watkins: Nature Photographer Magazine

Let's talk about photographic exposure and spotmetering: All types of metering systems used in different cameras (with the exception of the on-camera spotmeter operated by a skilled photographer) use a "cookie-cutter" approach to photographic exposure. What this means is the camera meter measures the various tones of your subject, and then averages all of the tones in order to come up with an overall exposure. Sometimes the overall exposure works and sometimes it doesn't. With this approach, the ball is in the camera's court and in many instances the photographer has no hand in the final look of the image. With on-camera spotmetering, the photographer uses a "tailored" approach to find the correct exposure for a very specific subject. With this approach, the skilled photographer interprets the spotmeter readings from the subject and establishes the correct exposure that captures the desired image on film. The consistency and flexibility of the narrow-angled spotmeter makes it the most powerful and versatile exposure tool in the world. The only catch in using a spotmeter is that the photographer must have the skill in order to use this powerful tool correctly and effectively. The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering does just that! It is simple, easy-to-follow, and uses a common-sense teaching approach to the material. With more than seventy full-page illustrations, it is designed to get the beginner and the intermediate photographer started in a couple of days. I assume that you have a camera with a built-in spotmetering (partial metering) feature. I also assume that you have a ninth grade education and are willing to learn. To facilitate your learning process, I have included a two page cheat sheets for each of the following cameras: Nikon CoolPix 990/995 (Digital), Nikon F4, Nikon F5, Nikon F100, Nikon N65, Nikon N6006, Nikon N70, Nikon N80, and Nikon N90; Pentax PZ-1p, Pentax ZX-5N, Pentax 645N (Medium Format),! and Pentax MZ-S; Minolta 500si, Minolta 700si, Minolta Maxxum Stsi, Minolta Maxxum 7; Canon EOS Rebel G, Canon Rebel 2000, Canon Elan II E, Canon Elan 7 E, Canon A2/E, and Canon EOS 3. If your camera is not listed here (like Olympus OM-2000), you will still be able to learn the technique and apply it successfully.

The reality of life is that there is not a single light metering system in the world that can give you a correctly exposed image for every given subject. If you do not believe this, set your expensive camera to its most advanced metering system ever invented and take pictures of a black surface and a white surface. When you look at the resulting negative (or slide) you will be disappointed. Cameras of today, very much like the cameras of forty years ago, are incapable of recording extreme tones such as a black and a white surface. What you are going to get from this crude experiment is a medium gray image tone. To add insult to injury, you will have absolutely no clue which one of these resulting images correspond to the original subject. As this experiment demonstrates, there is not a single metering system that, without your help and intervention, can capture what your eye sees and what your mind wants to capture. Of all metering systems available to the photographer, only one can give a consistent and predictable reading to the photographer EVERY TIME! Once equipped with this knowledge, the photographer can use his or her knowledge of spotmetering to override this reading to capture the desired image. The major difference between a skilled photographer and an unskilled one is that the latter never questions the camera's readings. The skilled always interprets the spotmeter's reading according to the subject tone, and if necessary, overrides the reading to capture desired image. The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering is the first book ever published that deals with the new millennium's standard 35mm as well as digital cameras. The Confused Photographer's Guide teaches the photographer to use the spotmetering/partial metering feature of the camera to determine the correct/desired exposure every time. Unlike other reflective metering systems (including average, center-weighted, and matrix, and others), in which! the unskilled photographer is at the mercy of the camera's vision, with spotmetering the skilled photographer has full control over the final image. The book uses color slides as a training tool to get the point across. As you may know, with slide film "what you take is what you get." Since slide film is positive, the inexperienced photographer can determine his or her exposure flaws quickly and effectively. If you have never used slide film before, think of it as the training wheels of your exposure skills. Once you have mastered the technique, you can take off the wheels and start applying the technique to color negative film, to black and white negative film, and to digital film. The second edition of the Confused Photographer’s Guide includes digital footnotes as well as a section about digital photography; in this section, you will learn how to use the camera's spotmetering feature (with special reference to Nikon CoolPix 990/995) to get the desired image tone on your monitor.

Please read and answer "yes" or "no" to the following questions:

1) Did it ever occur to you that your camera has a mind of its own and does not necessarily sees, feels, and captures what you had in mind?

2) Are you using your camera as a slot machine and keeping your fingers crossed for a good picture?

3) Do you feel a dent in your pocketbook as your trash cans fill with your camera's poorly exposed color slides or pictures?

4) Do you consider yourself to be a creative and/or demanding photographer, but your lack of exposure skills prevents you from reaching your full potential?

5) Is your photographic life filled with lost opportunities?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, then this book is for you.

Take charge! Don't let the camera play Russian roulette with your exposures! Since there is not a single camera in the world that can produce a correctly-exposed image every time without your help, vision, and skill, then correctly exposing an image is your responsibility and not the camera's. When using a camera with the spotmetering feature, the image becomes the extension of the skilled photographer's vision whereas with any other metering system, the image becomes the extension of the camera's lack of vision! This book, in very simple language, teaches you the technique of determining the correct exposure for any subject that can be metered. The book also covers spotmetering, using manual digital cameras with special reference to Nikon CoolPix 990 as well as tips on applying spotmetering techniques to your older cameras with the help of a zoom/telephoto lens. To help many photographers, I have included spotmetering/partial metering operational cheat sheets for some 21 popular/professional cameras including: Nikon CoolPix 990 (Digital), F-4, F-5, F-100, N65, N6006, N70, N80, N8008s, and N90/90s; Pentax 645N (Medium Format), MZ-S, PZ-1p, and ZX-5N; Minolta Maxxum 7 and STsi; Canon EOS 3, A2/E, Elan II E, Elan 7 E, and Rebel 2000.

Take charge! Don't let the camera play Russian Roulette with your exposures!

Great leaps in exposure control seem to happen every thirty years or so. The early 1930s gave birth to the electric luminance meter, the early 1960s gave birth to the off-camera spotmeter, and in the early 1990s on-camera spotmeters, that are the most versatile light measurement tools ever invented, became an integral part of mainstream cameras. Unfortunately, due to the lack of any simplified literature on this subject, very few photographers can use this powerful feature effectively. This book, through its simplified, practical, and easy-to-follow illustrative approach, teaches the application of this concept to the creative and the demanding photographer. After reading this book, the photographer will be able to determine the correct exposure for any subject that can be metered and enables the photographer to previsualize the resulting image before taking the picture. To help many photographers, this book includes cheat sheets for some popular cameras including Nikon N90, N70, N6006, Pentax PZ1p, ZX-5N Canon EOS Rebel series, EOS Elan II E, Minolta Maxxum 700si, and 500si.

Bahman Farzad is a freelance photographer and a systems engineer. He teaches photography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the Department of Special Studies. A graduate of the University of London, he holds Master's degrees in Engineering and Computer Science. He has won numerous awards in photography and graphic design and has had articles and photographs published in many photographic magazines including American Photo, Popular Photography, Petersen's Photographic, Darkroom and Creative Camera Techniques.