A Photojournalist’s Field Guide: In the trenches with combat photographer Stacy Pearsall

Metering Matters

Metering matters. I prefer to use Center Weighed Metering, a mode in which the meter concentrates between 60 to 80 percent of the sensitivity toward the central part of the viewfinder. The balance is then “feathered” out toward the edges. One advantage of this method is that it is less influenced by small areas that vary greatly in brightness at the edges of the viewfinder. In this mode, you can achieve more consistent results, as opposed to more blanket coverage metering that often results in flat exposures.

I also like to use the Spot Metering mode. With this mode, the camera will only measure a small area of the scene (between 1 and 5 percent of the viewfinder area). This will typically be the very center of the scene, but ...