D750 and metering

[Arild]

Do you use Center weigh or Matrix??
On my nikon d750

What is most similar to F3 ?
I shot with F3HP for 14 yrs, from 1984--1998

Why do I feel center weigh is most plesant /correct for me??

Please feel  free to say somthing nice about the photo. Taken today, Aug 8 2017

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Nice bog with Narthecium ossifragum .... Seems well enough exposed on my monitor although sky is a tad pale.

Centre-weighted metering works pretty well on the modern Nikons. Matirx metering might d o a tad better, but usually it is required to add a small correction to the "zero" point (I tend to set my cameras to -1/6 EV. NB: this adjustment will not show up anywhere in the EXIF later, only accessible through the Custom Menu setting).

[pluton]

The 12% center weight *should* mimic the F3 meter, at least on paper.  I prefer full average metering, but most apparently do not.

[MFloyd]

Picture looks well exposed. For my type of photography (action / sport) center weighting seems to work out the best. As a more general comment, picture seems to be taken with the lens slightly tilted backwards (to the sky); may be you should consider some perspective correction.  A lot of chromatic aberration in the left upper corner.  😉

[David H. Hartman]

In days of old I metered Tri-X and Super-XX with a Pentax Digital Spotmeter with total confidence. I was never as confident about center-weighted with Kodachrome but when I bracketed the normal exposure was frequently the best. My biggest failing was looking at a scene thinking the range was too long. Taking the photo anyway and tossing it in the trash when it came back from Kodak. If only life was as easy as shooting B&W. I didn't take jobs that required transparencies for one of events. I like to think this was more about knowing my limits than cowardice.

I've been shooting Matrix with my D800 and D300s and wondering if I wouldn't do better with center-weighted. I'm a slave to the histogram and the blinkies and don't like it. I've thought of giving the Pentax Digital Spotmeter a spin.

I'm going to say center-weighted with a modern dSLR is more like center-weighted with a Nikon F3. I think that's a no brainier and I have ... well never mind.

Dave Hartman

[Akira]

Hi, Arild, I think this is my first time to respond your post.  So, welcome to NG!

I hadn't used center weighted metering mode in my D750, but I felt that the matrix mode had a tendency to overexpose the highlight.  The amount of overexposure varied according to the size and possibly the amount of the brightness of the highlight area.  So, there was no fixed value for the exposure compensation to work universally.

I used use and loved F3 with its center-weighted meter whose concentration was stronger (with 80%) than the normal center-weighted meter (60%).  So, you may need to look for the response of the meter closest to that of F3 by adjusting the size of the metering area in the custom setting menu.

[richardHaw]

i prefer center-weighted to be frank. matrix usually underexpose a bit more to my taste. by .3 stops 

[David H. Hartman]

Why do I feel center weigh is most plesant /correct for me??

If you shot center-weighted for years and got the results you wanted. If you felt confident with center-weighted then you owe it to yourself to try center-weighted with your D750. Maybe center-weighted works better for you than Matrix.

Dave

[Arild]

This is shot some four hours later in the afternoon.
F750 on center weight and 24-120 my ever best favorite lens (Despite its small....shortcomings...) besides the best lens ever made for my use, the 105 micro.

I am a bit uncertain -- did I overdo the red tint on this cottage?
Looking at my Instagram photo, the color was a bit dull grey red but that might well be the smartphone camera flaw.

I often feel this fancy new camera is wayy over my head, giving me too many choices.

But then, when images like these, that yellow bog and this cottage and that orchid -------- I LOVE this camera.
never got such photos on Kodachrome 64 back in the 80ies with my F3HP !

Alas -- I had only one lens back then -- the 55 micro -- remember that one?

So, any input regarding mastering this lovely, magically digital image machinery from Nikon,'
will be properly noted in my diary and put to good use in the field.

[David H. Hartman]

A photograph is only a representation of reality. "A photograph never lies." is only a half truth. If you want the photograph to be a "straight" photograph then you do your best to make it look as it did to you when you were standing there. To do that you use memory and experience.

Traditionally a straight photograph might be quite enhanced. Ansel Adams photographs were a representation of what he saw but also of what he felt. Monolith the Face of Half Dome with the use of a deep red filter was intended to convey the grandeur he felt as he stood there. If memory serves me he made one exposure with a yellow filter and realizing it would not covey what he felt he made another with a deep red filter which made the sky darker than reality.

Since we can't really compare the LCD image in sunlight to the scene before us we use our memory to make the image reflect what we saw or perhaps heighten it some with LCH (lightness, chroma and hue) or curves or whatever we use. Even if the photograph is unchanged from the camera as a SOOC (straight out of camera) these things are changed as a photograph to look natural to us on a 2D method of display. The shadows and highlights are compress to give natural looking mid tone contrast. The camera, the film, whatever method we use, this has always been the case.

Make the subject look to the best or your abilities like what you saw or what you felt or process it as you like. This is not forensic photography. Process it or let the camera process it as you will.

Best,

Dave Hartman

[OCD]

David:  Amen!

[CS]

I am a bit uncertain -- did I overdo the red tint on this cottage?
Looking at my Instagram photo, the color was a bit dull grey red but that might well be the smartphone camera flaw.

First, that question assumes that anyone viewing the image is doing so on a calibrated display, and I would not make that assumption. Color management is decidedly non-trivial, and you only have control of it on your end.

Second, what was your intention WRT presenting the image? Photographers are like painters, they can take artistic license to show whatever please them. There is no rule that the color has to be 100% authentic when it comes to the hue of that red, unless that was your intention.

[Arild]

 Thank you !

[Peter Connan]

Three lovely photos!

I have been using Matrix metering exclusively, primarily because very often I "focus and re-compose", and thus I feel the light-meter would be "pointing at the wrong place" if I used one of the more concentrated modes.

But, a while ago I adjusted the "zero point", as described by Bjorn, but to a much larger extent: 2/3rd stops. The reasons are that over-exposure cannot really be rescued, but with the D750 shadows can be lifted with relative impunity.

I have found that, as a result, my colours seem much richer, my photos less flat...

[Arild]

Thats custom menu b6 we are talking about?

What about b5 -- should I change to wider or smaller area?


Today, I realized something was missing;

The rubber eyecup -- is gone, lost somewhere in the mountain, and I have never removed it intentionally.

Thats why I cant bring along any small extra items like that flash cover gadget :-)

And thus I have to source eBay for a new one, is there any good 3d part or do I buy original Nikon?