Metering, The Grey Card & Exposure Compensation

Metering based on the 18% grey standard involves the camera's light meter measuring the brightness of a scene and aiming to render it as a mid-tone grey. This standard assumes that the average brightness of a scene can be approximated by an 18% grey card. However, in real-world scenarios, scenes vary in brightness and contrast, often requiring exposure compensation. Exposure compensation allows photographers to manually adjust the exposure settings to ensure proper exposure for their specific scene.