Some more flowers

[Grumpy John]

As part of my journey into understanding my new camera I took some photo's of a couple of flowers in my front yard.
I took 5 images each at evaluative metering and spot metering. I refocused after each shot. The lens was set to AF, and OS on.
Here are the best images from each set.
These images are straight from the camera without any PP except for whatever PS6 does when saving to web.

#1
Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Shooting Mode: Aperture-Priority AE
Tv(Shutter Speed): 1/800
Av(Aperture Value): 4.0
Metering Mode: Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation: 0
ISO Speed: 100
Auto ISO Speed: OFF
Lens: Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM | Contemporary 013
Focal Length: 41.0mm
FE lock: OFF
White Balance Mode: Auto
AF Mode: One-Shot AF
AF area select mode: Manual selection
Drive Mode: Single shooting



#2
Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Shooting Mode: Aperture-Priority AE
Tv(Shutter Speed): 1/8000
Av(Aperture Value): 4.0
Metering Mode: Spot Metering
Exposure Compensation: 0
ISO Speed: 100
Auto ISO Speed: OFF
Lens: Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM | Contemporary 013
Focal Length: 41.0mm
FE lock: OFF
White Balance Mode: Auto
AF Mode One-Shot AF
AF area select mode: Manual selection
Drive Mode Single shooting



#3
Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Shooting Mode: Aperture-Priority AE
Tv(Shutter Speed): 1/400
Av(Aperture Value): 4.0
Metering Mode: Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation: 0
ISO Speed: 100
Auto ISO Speed: OFF
Lens: Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM | Contemporary 013
Focal Length: 41.0mm
FE lock: OFF
White Balance Mode: Auto
AF Mode: One-Shot AF
AF area select mode: Manual selection
Drive Mode: Single shooting



#4
Camera Mode:l Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Firmware: Firmware Version 1.1.2
Shooting Mode: Aperture-Priority AE
Tv(Shutter Speed): 1/500
Av(Aperture Value): 4.0
Metering Mode: Spot Metering
Exposure Compensation: 0
ISO Speed: 100
Auto ISO Speed: OFF
Lens; Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM | Contemporary 013
Focal Length: 41.0mm
FE lock: OFF
White Balance Mode: Auto
AF Mode: One-Shot AF
AF area select mode: Manual selection
Drive Mode: Single shooting

[Toddyh]

Your evaluative metering seems to be getting the best results there John.

[Grumpy John]

Yes, especially up close.

[Ironwood]

Big difference between 1&2, though is the shutter speed correct on #2? To me, 1 is overexposed, an 2 is underexposed, though the flower looks a bit better in 2 as you can see a bit more detail.
3&4, not much difference in exposure, though I prefer 3 because the focus seems a bit better, there is sharper detail in the flowers.

[Grumpy John]

Agree, on 1 & 2 neither metering mode got it right. Maybe I just set the camera to auto

[Isac]

Not as silly as iot sounds John. AUTO is a good place to start. I've used it on many occasions when I get a bit lost when the "triangle" is not working for me. It's good to see what the camera is doing.

[Isac]

Hard to see any difference in the Aga shots, (perhaps slightly more detail in #3), reason being the mid grey values are similar throughout the image, so the exposure looks OK. Different for #1 and #2, spot is a lot better because it only finds the mid grey in the centre of the frame. Easy fix to get the exposure right by adjusting the exposure comp after you focus and by looking at histogram. You could use a grey card to help get the exposure right. Sorry I can't offer more.

[Grumpy John]

Am I expecting too much from the metering system? You would think spot metering would get it pretty close, not as bad as the elephant though.

[Isac]

The metering system needs to be accurate and something which you should be able to rely on IMO, or it's not worth having. A bit like a watch that doesn't keep accurate time - it's not worth a pinch of nanny goats poo!

[Ironwood]

The one I use on my Nikon is ‘center weighted ‘ , I think it uses a bit bigger area than spot but doesn’t look at the outer parts of the frame. Seems to work for me, does Canon have a similar mode?

[Grumpy John]

The one I use on my Nikon is ‘center weighted ‘ , I think it uses a bit bigger area than spot but doesn’t look at the outer parts of the frame. Seems to work for me, does Canon have a similar mode?

From the Canon EOS 7D Mark II manual.

[Ironwood]

Looks like the same thing, have you given the center weighted one a go ?

[Grumpy John]

I'll do some more experimentation tomorrow. It will have to be early in the morning as we're expecting 42 deg tomorrow, 30 by 10 AM.

[Grumpy John]

Just a bit of tweeking in ACR on image #1 above.

[Isac]

Good one John. Don't leave out the whites and blacks, they also play a big part.

[Grumpy John]

I joined a Canon specific forum to see if I could find an explanation for the Spot Metering issues I seem to be having. Here is a very detailed response that I received (the bolding is mine):

"With the exception of the evaluative metering, which has more automagical smarts, all the rest of these will set the exposure such that the area in the exposure area will look like an 18% grey card. In spot metering, which only evaluates exposure in the 1.8% area of the viewfinder as shown above, it will set the exposure to make what is in the circle look like 18% grey. Shoot a polar bear in a snowstorm? Grey. Shoot a black cat in a coal mine? Grey. (As an experiment, use spot metering, press the shutter half-way and point at various objects. You can see the exposure vary.)

In your two images above the light colored flower in the spot zone yielded an exposure that made the flower grey. In the evaluative case, the camera took the whole image into account and yielded a correct exposure. The purple flower must have had a monochrome value close to 18% grey because the exposure of both spot and evaluative are pretty close.

Spot metering is really only for specialized uses and evaluative metering should generally be used. I would only use spot metering if I had a WhiBal (or equivalent) and wanted consistent exposures over a wide variety of lighting."

[Isac]

Nice of the guy to reply with such detail John. After all the spiel, the best settings are the ones which give you what YOU want. There's so many contradictions out there now.
This guy mostly uses Spot Metering and I consider him to be a pretty good photographer. I too use Spot Metering most of the time, evaluative on the odd occasion.
Here's some of his other videos.

[Grumpy John]

Did you see his first comment, quite rude I thought. I had a go at him, and he came back with that information.

[Isac]

These guys are in America and that's the way they are. They know more than anyone else and it's "their" forum. A bit like some photography forums I have had the miss-pleasure of joining in the past.