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# Reading The Meter–A Tale of Exposure and Other Settings
- URL: https://back2basicsphoto.com/reading-the-metera-tale-of-exposure-and-other-settings/
- Published: 2012-02-09T19:35:25.000Z
- Updated: 2012-02-09T19:35:25.000Z
- Author: Dan Cabral
- Tags: Beginner, concepts, Difficulty, equipment, gear, photography, adjustments, advantage, advantages, aperture, area, areas, Auto, camera, cameras, Canon, Center, combination, Compensation, depth, differences, disadvantage, downside, DSLR, Evaluative, examples, exposure, factor, increments, info, information, intervals, items, makers, Manual, Matrix, Meter, method, mode, modes, moment, Multi, Nikon, options, Pattern, photographer, purposes, readout, selection, Settings, Shutter, situations, Spot, text, user, viewfinder, vision, #Migrated-1790414487459, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-09-26 05:21

I’ll start this post off with a big disclaimer…

### Read your camera’s manual!

I use this disclaimer because I’ll be providing info on where to find certain settings, modes, and information on your camera’s display or readout. However, this information varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and from camera to camera. In some cases, information is displayed in a different place than my examples might show. In other cases, the text or graphic for a particular mode might be completely different. The differences might be subtle, but to avoid any confusion, consult your specific camera’s owner’s manual. Your manual will usually be your best guide to finding any particular setting or piece of information for your specific camera.

With that out of the way, let’s proceed…

We previously discussed the elements of exposure, and how to adjust those settings. I made mention several times of making adjustments based off of your camera’s meter’s reading of the scene’s exposure. This post will go into detail about how to read your camera’s meter, and the different metering options available.

On most point-and-shoot cameras, you’ll be able to view the metering settings on the camera’s screen, typically along the bottom of the display, although some cameras use the space on the sides and top as well.

![B2B Meter__1000082-4-Edit](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/B2B-Meter__1000082-4-Edit.jpg "B2B Meter__1000082-4-Edit")

As you can see, the aperture and shutter speed settings appear along the bottom. In many cases, ISO might appear there as well.

On most digital SLR cameras, this information will often be shown in the optical viewfinder, along the bottom or side of the image display.

![d50_viewfinder](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/d50_viewfinder.jpg "d50_viewfinder")

In addition, the exposure information will also be shown on an LCD display on the top or back of the camera.

![B2B Meter_P1000622-13-Edit](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/B2B-Meter_P1000622-13-Edit.jpg "B2B Meter_P1000622-13-Edit")

Also displayed is the exposure mode and metering mode. These two items are important, because they will each have an important effect on how your camera’s meter calculates the proper exposure.

#### Exposure Mode

On almost all cameras currently produced, whether point-and-shoot or SLR, your camera will have all or most of the following modes available.

**Auto** – In this exposure mode, the camera makes all decisions regarding the exposure. In some ways, this is the easiest mode because you just point your camera at the scene and release the shutter. However, this mode gives the photographer *no control whatsoever* over any settings, whether to override the defaults or, more importantly, make an artistic decision over how the image is captured. For our purposes, this is the least desirable mode to use, and hopefully, after reading the previous posts, you’ve already switched your camera off of this mode. This mode is usually marked on your camera’s selection dial or display as “**Auto**”

**Aperture Priority** – In Aperture Priority mode, the photographer can set the aperture they wish to use, and the camera will automatically select the appropriate shutter speed, based on the meter’s reading. This mode is appropriate when you want to select a specific depth-of-field, and shutter speed is not a factor in your artistic vision of the final image. This mode is usually marked on your camera’s selection dial or display as “**A**” or “**Av**”.

**Shutter Priority** – In Shutter Priority mode, the photographer can set the shutter speed they wish to use, and the camera will automatically select the appropriate aperture, based on the meter’s reading. This mode is appropriate when you wish to freeze motion or show motion blur by using a fast or slow shutter speed, respectively, and when depth-of-field is not a factor in your artistic vision of the final image. This mode is usually marked on your camera’s selection dial or display as “**S**” or “**Tv**”.

**Manual** – In Manual mode, the photographer can set both the aperture and shutter speed independently. The camera will make no adjustments based on the meter’s reading. This mode gives the photographer the most control over the image captured. However, the downside to using Manual mode is that it is possible to input an incorrect exposure, resulting in an over- or under-exposed image. Some cameras have guides to help you determine fine adjustments to protect against this (more on this in a moment), but ultimately, the settings are left up to the photographer to adjust. This mode is usually marked on your camera’s selection dial or display as “**M**”.

With an understanding of how exposure works, there’s not many good reasons that a photographer would want to leave their camera set to Auto. It effectively reduces your expensive DSLR to a low-end point-and-shoot, and takes all of the nice control features built into your camera and shuts them off. I would estimate that >95% of my shooting is done in either Aperture Priority or Manual modes, with Shutter Priority being used for the remaining situations where I’m only concerned with controlling and conveying a sense of motion in the final image.

#### Metering Mode

![B2B Meter_P1000627-5-Edit-2](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/B2B-Meter_P1000627-5-Edit-2.jpg "B2B Meter_P1000627-5-Edit-2")

![B2B Meter__DSC7649-6](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/B2B-Meter__DSC7649-6.jpg "B2B Meter__DSC7649-6")

**Matrix Metering** – also referred to as Evaluative, Multi-Zone, or Pattern metering, this mode is often the default setting on cameras. Matrix metering looks at the entire scene, and makes a *best-guess* on the exposure that would best work for the entire scene. The advantage to this method is that you will likely end up with the most balanced image of the metering modes. The disadvantage is that, in difficult scenes with a large swing between bright highlights and dark shadows, it’s more likely to make a guess one way or the other, resulting in clipped highlights (values greater than “pure white” or dropped shadow detail (values less than “pure black”).

**Center-weighted Metering –** This mode also looks at the entire scene, but gives higher priority (usually 60-80%, but varies by camera) to the portions closest to the center of the frame, and lower priority to the areas as you move further away from the center of the frame. The main advantage to this method is the meter will be less influenced by bright areas on the edges of the frame, so if your main subject is closer to the center of the frame, you’re more likely to get an accurate exposure on your main subject.

**Spot Metering** – This mode will only look at a very small spot in order to judge what exposure to use. On some cameras, this spot is locked at the center of the frame. On others, it can be manually set, or will sometimes be the focus spot. The advantages of spot metering are that, because it’s sampling such a small area, it is very accurate, and can be used to meter selectively within the larger image. The disadvantage is that, because you are metering off of a specific and very small portion of the overall image, it will not take into account the other areas of the scene, and you may end up with blown highlights or lost shadow details. Spot metering is most often used in very high contrast scenes where you’re making an artistic or technical choice as to which portion you want properly exposed.

Now that you understand the different exposure and metering modes, how do you know when to make adjustments?

In Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, you simply set the respective setting, and the camera will make it’s adjustments on the fly. You will always get a proper exposure, provided the scene isn’t too complex (high contrast, etc.) that it confuses the camera’s meter. You can see the camera make it’s adjustments by watching the exposure settings as you pan around a scene or adjust the meter mode.

If you’re in Manual mode, the camera won’t make any automatic adjustments, so camera makers will typically use an exposure scale readout to let you know if your exposure settings will overexpose or underexpose the image, and by how much.

[](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/B2B-Meter%5FP1000622-13-Edit-2.jpg)

In the above image, taken from a Nikon D700, the scale appears right below the exposure settings (and is mimicked in bottom of the viewfinder). As your settings sway away from a proper exposure, it will be marked in the scale at the appropriate point (the above scale is in 1/3 stop increments), and you can then adjust either the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, or any combination of the three until you reach a proper exposure.

This animated image (from [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Metering-Digital.gif?ref=back2basicsphoto.com)) shows the similar function on a Canon DSLR camera. Notice how the exposure marker moves as the aperture stays at a consistent f/4.5, but the shutter speed slows down incrementally from 1/320 to 1/15.

[](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/Metering-Digital.gif)

Here are some helpful images to illustrate some of the concepts I’ve discussed here.

| ![Manhattan Pre-Sunrise](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/Manhattan-Pre-Sunrise.jpg "Manhattan Pre-Sunrise") | ![Cook's Bay, Moorea](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/Cooks-Bay-Moorea.jpg "Cook's Bay, Moorea") |
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| ![Empire State Building Silhoutte](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/Empire-State-Building-Silhoutte.jpg "Empire State Building Silhoutte") | ![Great Falls](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/Great-Falls.jpg "Great Falls") | ![Shrouded](/content/images/wordpress/2012/02/Shrouded.jpg "Shrouded") |
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