Vent: Spent 3 years metering wrong until I saw the difference in my shadows

I was out shooting a roll of Portra 400 in Golden Gate Park last Sunday, and my buddy mentioned how my negatives looked thin. I always aimed my spot meter at the brightest part of the scene because I thought that's how you get proper exposure. Turns out I should have been metering for the shadows and letting the highlights fall where they may. He pulled up a side by side on his phone from a roll we both shot, and his shots had way more detail in the dark areas. I felt pretty dumb standing there with my 20 year old Canon A-1. Has anyone else had their metering method flipped on them like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

mason.paige19d ago

Oh man, this hits so close to home lol. I did the exact same thing for way too long with my old Pentax K1000. I would meter off a bright white wall or the sky and wonder why my shadows were just black blobs with no detail. A friend finally sat me down and showed me the negs side by side and it was like a lightbulb went off. Now I spot meter the darkest shadow I want to keep detail in and it changed everything. My shots of a foggy forest trail last month actually have depth now instead of looking like a flat grey mess. It's wild how one little trick makes such a huge difference.

price.alice19d ago

Wait, you were using a Pentax K1000 and still getting those flat grey messes? That camera is like a tank for learning exposure, but I get it, I ruined so many rolls with my Canon AE-1 doing the same exact thing. @mason.paige, you just made me realize I've been doing the opposite lately, I've been spot metering highlights and letting shadows go completely black. Maybe that's why my foggy forest shots look like a silhouette instead of having any texture. I always thought you had to expose for the highlights to keep from blowing out the sky. But your trick about metering the darkest shadow you want detail in sounds backwards to me, but it makes total sense now that you explain it. I'm literally going to try this tomorrow on my lunch break walk.