|
I am sure most of you have come across pictures published in magazines like Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic or any other travel publication where certain parts of the background are near or pitch black with little details whatsoever. Is it magic or maybe the sunlight in these respective countries has unusual levels of intensity? Nope! Using either Partial or Spot metering creates this so-called "special effect". All you have to do is simply aim either of these built-in light meters at the main subject and shoot at that setting. This usually works for subjects that are brighter than the background. What the Partial or Spot does is to read the precise area of the main subject and ignore the background totally.
When this happens, the differences between the exposures of the main subject and its background could be like two stops. The flower photos above are examples of this method. The shot on the left was based on the exposure given by the Spot meter on the flower alone while the other photo was recorded based on the reading by the camera's Evaluative metering which has balanced both subjects. The photo shot using the Spot meter has an almost black background. For the sunrise photos below, the lens used was an EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 UM Zoom Lens, set to its 300mm focal length and the focus was at infinity (no need to focus). Exposure could be tricky but bracketing was the order of the day. These shots are from the underexposed batch but the increased density made them look much better than the actual scene, including the correctly exposed shots.
|
