You can get my full course "Understanding Your Camera" here: www.steeletraining.com/camera.htm

By far the best explination on a camera's light meter on KZfaq ! Not trying a comedy routine like 99% of other photography tutorials on here. Just stright to the point excellent explanation. Well done sir !

THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH for showing how serious you are for your profession, dear sir. 🙏🙏🙏 Straight to the point, no unnecessary humoristic nonsense. You have no idea how much BS one has to get through to reach someone like you. A minute into the video, I knew, I had to subscribe to you.

Your are finally back . Love your style

This is such a great tutorial! I still come back to brush up on it every now and then. Like I'm doing right now. Thanks a million!

Been shooting for 20 years and still watch this from time to time! Excellent video!

Need more vids from this channel as it is always on point

This is the ONLY video you need if you want to know some basic information about meter system!!!! So informative and accurate and fun!!!

Excellent tutorial, just what I was looking for!

I love your videos. You explain everything in basic laymans terms English and its makes it so easy to understand.

As an utter noob to non-smartphone photography, who is just messing about with an old (and budget even then!!) DSLR, this was both fascinating and informative!!

Good to see you again! Your videos are great. I’ve learned so much.

What a legend! He’s back!

Phil, this presentation hit the nail right on it's head. A topic that is widely ignored by many KZfaq makers. I like it! Smart thinking. Why don't you make another one pointing at: what to trust and follow for a given picture? The meter or the histogram??? Thank you Ahmed Mohamed Fathie

GREAT INFO! Thanks for taking us back to basics with a straightforward approach to metering...

Many thanks, Phil, for this video. GOD bless you.

Thanks for the video! Super interesting and easy to understand and a refreshing for me personally!

best and most effective explanation of light metering in all the net. thank you!

Wow i was just playing around with this concept earlier today, but yet again you feed more insight i can take away, thanks Phil

I'm shocked that you don't have more views

You've done a great job on this video tutorial with straight to the point demonstrations. This is going to help a lot of photographers in their quest for proper exposure. I've never learned how to "understand my camera's light meter" though. I know how it works, but using matrix metering, I haven't learned how to assess an entire scene and predict what the meter is going to decide mid tone is. To make it worse, in the same light, if I move the camera just a small amount in many instances the exposure changes because maybe there is now a lighter or darker object in my frame. But the light fall in my scene hasn't changed. I grew up in the 60's with a camera in one hand and a light meter in the other. Using film, I got predictable and good exposures. When I switched to digital camera's, I tried and tried to get predictable exposures using matrix metering without success. I soon went back to the hand held light meters and no longer worry about exposure. That said, if one doesn't want to invest in or carry a light meter, using the spot meter in your camera along with a bit of know how of how the zone system works can be really helpful in many cases.

This is why my black trousers appear grey when I take a photo with my iPhone. It was perplexing until now. Thank you for the explanation.

Thank you so much. Very easy to understand.

Thank you for this video. I’m a beginner and shoot in manual 98% of the time. Having the meter go against what my eyes see was very confusing especially when shooting photos of rivers, lakes etc.

Helpful video. Thanks!

thank you sir. this helps a lot!

This explains why my photos were overexposed while the light meter was showing I was at the correct exposure.

So good!! Thank you

Thank you for the tips.

I wish I'd found you two years ago!

Very informative video ❤

Best explaination ever

Welcome back!

He's Back !!!!!!

thank you! very helpfuL!

very informative ❤️

I have been following you since last 10+ years. Outside youtube.

Excellent basic explanation. I suggest you add one or more mirrorless cameras into the mix. Otherwise it risks looking dated.

Your doing a great job with these videos. Perfect explanation.

I genaraly ingore this metre thanks you remind this

i love your explanation

Welcome back

great basics for a newb like me, SUBBED

Yes he’s back

This was so helpful I was wondering why my pictures looked like it came out dull

Incredible

Light meter, I think of it as more of a balance scale and use as a guide. When the mark is in the middle your exposure is for the most part Balanced.

Question! On my film camera- if i set it to A, and it suggests a different shutter speed, do I need to change it to what it suggests? Or will it do it itself

If you over or underexposed when you took the photo, it was probably because you were adjusting settings while pointing your camera to the ground so you can see the screen at the back rather than at your subject while looking through the viewfinder to read the meter inside.

The camera will also use ISO (if it is set as auto ISO), along with shutter speed and aperture, to determine the ‘correct’ exposure in full- and semi-auto modes.

It seems logical to have the displayed meter in the camera to have the same look as that of a histogram and have the dials on the camera also turn in the same direction. If you want the meter display to move right you rotate one of the dials right. The result is increase in brightness.

It's been a while.......👍🏽

Another problem is that what if the cameras display does not show the same brightness of the photo when you open it in the computer? You think that the photo is bright enough when viewed in the camera's display but it is actually underexposed or overexposed. Thank you so much for your videos it really helps us a lot.

If you shoot lots and allow yourself to make exposure/histogram mistakes you will learn how your particular camera handles a variety of exposures. The bottom line is what is the quality of your image before processing. What are the highlights, the shadows, how is the lighting on the point of interest? In the end you learn the idiosyncrasies of each camera.

So how would you expose for the brides skin correctly?

Your back?!

I have trouble with knowing what's over and under exposed. The groom's photo that was overexposed looked better to me, except the shirt is too bright. Well, after watching it again, maybe he does looks too light.

“Comes in”….. so if the camera tell you it’s going to take the picture and result in a +1 Over exposure, the just set the exposure compensation to that same amount and take the picture.