The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering (The Confused Photographer's Guide to . . . Series) [Paperback]

Bahman Farzad (Author), Linda Voychehovski; Ron Smith (Editor)

Book Description

Series: The Confused Photographer's Guide to . . . Series | Publication Date: January 14, 2005

World’s first book written to illustrate the on-camera spot metering technique for 35mm, Digital, and Medium Format photographers:

All types of metering systems used in different cameras (with the exception of the on-camera spotmeter operated by a skilled photographer) use a "cookie-cutter" approach to photographic exposure. What this means is the camera meter measures the various tones of your subject, and then averages all of the tones in order to come up with an overall exposure. Sometimes the overall exposure works and sometimes it doesn't. With this approach, the ball is in the camera's court and in many instances the photographer has no hand in the final look of the image. With on-camera spotmetering, the photographer uses a "tailored" approach to find the correct exposure for a very specific subject. With this approach, the skilled photographer interprets the spotmeter readings from the subject and establishes the correct exposure that captures the desired image (what the eye sees) on film. The consistency and flexibility of the narrow-angled spotmeter makes it the most powerful and versatile exposure tool in existance today. The only catch in using a spotmeter is that the photographer must have the skill to use this powerful tool correctly and effectively. The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering does just that! It is simple, easy-to-follow, and uses a common-sense teaching approach to the material. With more than seventy full-page illustrations, it is designed to get the beginner and the intermediate photographer started in a couple of days. I assume that you have a camera with a built-in spotmetering (partial metering) feature. I also assume that you have a ninth grade education and are willing to learn. To facilitate your learning process, I have included a two page cheat sheets for each of the following cameras: Canon EOS 10D Digital Slr, Canon EOS 20D Digital Slr, Canon EOS 3, Canon EOS A2/A2E, Canon EOS Elan 2E, Canon EOS Elan 7E, Canon EOS Rebel 2000, Canon EOS Rebel Ti/300V, Canon PowerShot G3 Digital, Canon PowerShot G5 Digital, Minolta Maxxum 5, Minolta Maxxum 7, Minolta Maxxum 9, Minolta Maxxum StSi, Nikon CoolPix 990 Digital, Nikon CoolPix 995 Digital, Nikon CoolPix 4500 Digital, Nikon CoolPix 5700 Digital, Nikon Coolpix 5000 Digital, Nikon Coolpix 8700 Digital, Nikon D70 Digital Slr, Nikon F4, Nikon F5, Nikon F100, Nikon N50, Nikon N55, Nikon N60, Nikon N6006, Nikon N65, Nikon N70, Nikon N75, Nikon N80, Nikon N8008s, Nikon N90/N90s, Pentax *ist, Pentax *ist-D Digital SLR, Pentax 645N Medium Format, Pentax MZ-S, Pentax PZ-1P, Pentax ZX-5N, and Sony DSC-F717 Digital. If your camera is not listed here, you will still be able to learn the technique and apply it successfully.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Farzad offers simple solutions to the sometimes complicated light metering issues of the modern equipment." -- Outdoor Photographer Magazine Book Review

"Farzad's wealth of creative analogies should certainly alleviate the confusion all beginning photographers have in understanding exposure" -- Elinor Stecker-Orel: Popular Photography Book Review

"Using simplified text, drawings, and examples, Farzad makes this difficult subject (Exposure) comprehensible" -- Dick Watkins: Nature Photographer Magazine

From the Publisher

The reality of life is that there is not a single light metering system in the world that can give you a correctly exposed image for every given subject. If you do not believe this, set your expensive camera to its most advanced metering system ever invented and take pictures of a black surface and a white surface. When you look at the resulting negative (or slide) you will be disappointed. Cameras of today, very much like the cameras of forty years ago, are incapable of recording extreme tones such as a black and a white surface. What you are going to get from this crude experiment is a medium gray image tone. To add insult to injury, you will have absolutely no clue which one of these resulting images correspond to the original subject. As this experiment demonstrates, there is not a single metering system that, without your help and intervention, can capture what your eye sees and what your mind wants to capture. Of all metering systems available to the photographer, only one can give a consistent and predictable reading to the photographer EVERY TIME! Once equipped with this knowledge, the photographer can use his or her knowledge of spotmetering to override this reading to capture the desired image. The major difference between a skilled photographer and an unskilled one is that the latter never questions the camera's readings. The skilled always interprets the spotmeter's reading according to the subject tone, and if necessary, overrides the reading to capture desired image. The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering is the first book ever published that deals with the new millennium's standard 35mm as well as digital cameras. The Confused Photographer's Guide teaches the photographer to use the spotmetering/partial metering feature of the camera to determine the correct/desired exposure every time. Unlike other reflective metering systems (including average, center-weighted, and matrix, and others), in which! the unskilled photographer is at the mercy of the camera's vision, with spotmetering the skilled photographer has full control over the final image. The book uses color slides as a training tool to get the point across. As you may know, with slide film "what you take is what you get." Since slide film is positive, the inexperienced photographer can determine his or her exposure flaws quickly and effectively. If you have never used slide film before, think of it as the training wheels of your exposure skills. Once you have mastered the technique, you can take off the wheels and start applying the technique to color negative film, to black and white negative film, and to digital film. The second edition of the Confused Photographer’s Guide includes digital footnotes as well as a section about digital photography; in this section, you will learn how to use the camera's spotmetering feature (with special reference to Nikon CoolPix 990/995) to get the desired image tone on your monitor.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Confused Photographer's Guide Books.; 3rd edition (January 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966081706
• ISBN-13: 978-0966081701
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #693,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #57 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Color

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Copy-Paste from another book by the same author, September 6, 2005

By 

Silver Dream ! (Szczecin, POLAND) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering (The Confused Photographer's Guide to . . . Series) (Paperback)

[...] Actually if you have bought "Confused photographer's guide to photographic exposure and the simplified zone system" - you bought _MORE_ of the very same content, which is available in "The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering". This book looks like a subset of the previous one, with very little additions, concerning the spotmetering. Please, don't get me wrong. It is not a completely bad book. It is acceptable as long as you haven't seen "The Confused Photographer's Guide to Photographic Exposure and the Simplified Zone System", where the content fits much better. Therefore simply be warned that if you have "The Confused Photographer's Guide to Photographic Exposure and the Simplified Zone System" you won't get almost anything new from this book. :-(

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best self-help book for correct exposures; period!, October 10, 2000

By 

Larry Ellis (The Oregon Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering (The Confused Photographer's Guide to . . . Series) (Paperback)

This book teaches you in simple terms how a camera light meter works (particularly your on-camera light or spot meter) and explains the principles behind it. However any one who owns an SLR camera with a built in light meter will benefit temendously. Numerous simple examples are used to explain how your camera's light meter works and these techniques are easily understood by the time to move on to the next chapter. You literally become an expert in a few hours; the time it takes to read this book. At 12 cents a page, this book is a bargain. I'm no beginning photographer. I had to photograph a major surf contest and awards ceremony on a Saturday and Sunday. I received my book on the previous Thursday, read it cover to cover in several hours and then proceeded to shoot with confidence 23 rolls of perfectly exposed photographs. You use your camera in manual mode, with the spot meter turned on. I was able to get a correct exposure from a gray card, use variations of the "16 rules" (also explained), and ascertain that the scene was perfectly exposed by spot metering a tone in the scene (3 verifications for the correct exposure). These important photographic principles will remain etched in your brain for the rest of your life.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sorely needed and should be a big help, December 5, 1998

By 

Bruce Appelbaum (Yorktown Heights, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering (The Confused Photographer's Guide to . . . Series) (Paperback)

35mm photographic technology has reached a pinnacle, with electronically controlled cameras that perform autofocussing and autoexposure magic. But many amateur photographers are still unhappy with their results, especially in exposure. Why? As Farzad points out, despite the technical advances exposure systems (auto and manual) still cannot tell the difference between black and white, rendering any scene or subject into a middle gray.

Farzad's book a provides a practical and simplified application of the zone system, a topic that sends most tyro photographers running. So Farzad never mentions the "z" word. Instead, he provides a simple explanation of how photographic exposure systems work (regardless of camera type). He follows this with a simplified methodology to employ with an on-camera spotmeter (found on many popular cameras today) to ensure proper exposure. The system is based on science but with use becomes intuitive. "Cheat sheets" for popular cameras incorporating spotmeters are included to facilitate application of the principles applied.

This is a well-produced self-published book, wiht lots of simple graphics to illustrate the concepts conveyed. Farzad himslef is an accomplished amateur photographer and photographic instructor; examples of his work can be found on his website. If you are Ansel Adams, this book is not for you. If you want to begin to approach Adams' technical style, start here.