Hi Rob, Jose from Puerto Rico. This tutorial was outstanding. I really enjoyed this one since it resolved the confusion I had with spot-metering. I have an old Olympus OM4-t film camera I purchased in 1986 that needs repair and it has this spot highlight and shadow feature. I'm so happy they kept it on the modern cameras. Now all I have to do is purchase one of the new Olympus digital cameras. Now I will watch the spot-metering tutorial you have here with flash.
Thanks Rob. This is an excellent tutorial and covers the metering modes and histogram so well. There is so much to learn about the OMDs and it's especially good to see the E-M5 Mk 2 take centre stage for a change.
The 2 persons who gave the thumbs down probably are following the tutorial with their smartphones which menu is not matching that of of the OMD cameras
Thank you, Rob. Last night I was looking for a tutorial about this topic and this morning here it is. That's knowing your followers. Greetings from Spain.
Great video Rob. At timeline 15:05 I was thinking exactly what you mentioned a few seconds later. Spot High is a simple way to ETTR. Again, thanks for the detailed and informative video.
Great tutorial Rob. A lot to take in here and so well explained and demonstrated. I’ve now got a much better understanding of the different metering modes and interpreting histograms. Thanks so much. Jeff, Horsham, UK.
This is immensely helpful. Thank you! (I couldn't know what the green area do had I not watched this episode.) I kind of know about spot metering and apply the principle from time to time, but I didn't even stop and wonder what those Hi and SH options were for. In some courses, advanced techniques can often be buried into more advanced creative process that I would willfully skip because I am "not there yet." Your examples prompt thoughts about "where do I wish I did that."
I came back and found this vid again. Idea: you could add focus point to the title (to make more findable) as that’s the key I needed to remember. Next: I thought it didn’t work but then realized I was on c-af + tr. From what I’m seeing I don’t think the spot meter links to the focus point when you are in tracking mode. Works fine otherwise. Thanks for the great content.
Excelent,excelent! Thanks Rob. Olympus should use you or at least you tutorials for there camera and software training. You just have the way of convay how things is working with olympus cameras.
I find your videos much easier to follow than the other 2 main Olympus YT posters; others clearly like them, however, Peter, whilst obviously knowing his material, simply goes too quickly for me. Btw: I believe,?, you have put up a YT video on how to assign various settings to C1-C4 on the Pen F. I have both attempted to make these settings by going into the menus and pressing "OK"" at the end, but when turning the Pen F on again, the settings have been lost Secondly, thought you put up a YT on this, and rather than being bone lazy and simply asking you for a link, have searched your videos - without success. If there is a YT video, or a link to your FB camera page, would be very grateful if you could send it to me. Finally, was very interested in one of the very early YT videos I watched after purchasing my 2 mint Pen F's. This dealt in part with setting the various 4 film options to L and SF in the dedicated menu. I have not attempted this from the SCP. However, I would have thought? that when all 4 settings are set to L and SF, and OK pressed on exiting, that would result in all image settings being both L and SF- this is what I wish to do. However, once again, despite going into the dedicated image quality menu- not the row of options on the R hand side of LCD what may come up if attempting to set via SCP, these settings are also lost. All in all, have done this countless times and each time, I lose the settings! The difficult part should be locating the correct menu, the one with image settings going from L-R as I have seen in your video on this subject. After making the setting adjustments to the image settings, how do you "lock"" or set them. PLease advise if you wish these queries to be made on your FB page. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks, once again.
Hi Rob. Really enjoy watching your videos! Never understood spotmeter high and shadow. After watching this video it all starts to make sense! Still not sure when to use them in practice.
For anyone who is wondering When and Why you'd want to use Spot-Hi or Spot-Lo. Let's suppose you're trying to photograph a Tuxedo cat, which has a mostly black coat but has pure white patches on the tips of its paws, on its nose and muzzle, as well as on its Tuxedo jacket white chest panel. The problem with the black fur is that it'll need to be overexposed for your camera to capture the texture of the fur in all that black. So, you could use Spot-Lo spot metering to correctly expose the fur. However, if you do that, the cat's white patches will totally overexpose and you'll see no texture whatsoever in those Tuxedo patches. If you want to correctly expose for the white fur, you'll need to choose Spot-Hi, and then you can capture the texture in the white fur. Unfortunately, you cannot correctly expose the two extremes, both Black and White. Either the black will lose any detail in the fur, or the whites will be blown, totally overexposed and irrecoverablly losing all texture. When faced with these two extremes, your best option is to use Spot-Hi. That's because blown highlights are irrecoverable. Whereas, underexposed blacks may be (mostly) recovered in computer post-processing. It's also why you should also shoot in RAW, so that your data file contains the maximum amount of data that the sensor captured. Unlike shooting in jpeg, this will give you a fighting chance of recovering any information like tonal valves in the underexposed black. You will hear the term "exposing to the right", which refers to prioritising data capture on the right (white highlights) side of the histogram, so nothing gets lost or blown out in the whites. Hope this helps, Rick
Great tutorial? Do you have a video about mode M video settings for em5ii? how to use the dials to change the aperture/shutter speed/EV while recording? how to meter while recording? Thank you.
Very interesting and informative. How about using the highlights and shadows mode together for HDR? Would you like to try? Thank you very much for your time and effort.
Congratulations for your post. I've one question.,. I use back button focusing and i have set the focus button to the ael button on my em1-ii. I'm loving it but I've lost the possibility to fix the exposure when using spot metering. Dou you know how can i get it back and still using back button focus? Thks in advance
Hi. Were are you seeing the term "af-area metering"? Everything in this video should be identical on the E-M1x. For metering, there is only digital ESP, Center weighted, Spot, Spot Hi, Spot SHadow.
Thanks for another great tutorial. I this this new training series will be very helpfull. I tried playing with my EM1.3 and EP-5 & EM10.2 From playing with my EM1.3 spot metering is "always" tied to the focus point, could not find a way to uncouple spot metering and focus point. but centre weighted metering is not as I get the two half circles and the focus point box. I could not link them. Did I get this right? . On my EP-5 and EM10.2 spot and centre weighted metering are not tied to focus point as I get the metering symbols in the centre and the focus box. . I have always just used the matrix metering in the past, never looked at the other modes
@@RobTrek i must be missing something as I dont see how to untie in E3. Under Spot metering it just seems to give me options to untick if I dont want them. the other options are Metering [mode] AEL Exposure shift Which one has the uncouple ? Thanks
@@marklaurendet1861 The options under Spot Metering are the options you want - if you don't want spot metering tied to focus, simply uncheck that option.
Mine still show the circle and square markings when I tied the focus and spot metering mode together. I thought I followed your procedure? Wonder where I'd gone wrong. Tried a few times with same result. My camera is the EM5 MkII. By the way, thanks for the tutorials. Great job and keep it up.
Hello, is there possibility to remove that exposure shifting? Everytime I point at something it either becomes dark or bright, I usually shoot in M and I don't like my exposure shifting, (I mean that's the point of M right?) Thank you
On the OM-D cameras, go into the "D" menu and turn on Live View Boost to "ON1" for the modes you're shooting. Also, turn on the OVF setting in the EVF menu.
@@RobTrek I actually use an EPL9 the Live view boost only gives a brighter display and the exposure is fixed on my screen, what I want is the "Constant preview" that the Lumix have, Thank you.
@@johnvincentespiritu4768 I see. The Olympus doesn't have anything like the Constant Preview. The normal live-view is about the closest thing but is limited to +/- 3 stops.
I wish spot metering would change with the center focus point for multi area focusing modes such as the 5x5! I have programmed custom menu C1 to a "birds in flight" shooting mode but have been unable to find a metering mode that can adjust to varying shades of birds automatically, using auto-ISO/manual pre-programmed settings. When a multi area focusing mode is selected with spot metering, the spot meter stays fixed to the center of the frame :( If there is a resolution to this limitation, please let me know!
I used spot metering 90% of the time when taking the picture. The main subject is bird photography. So far I have not tried using Spot HI or Spot SH. My shooting mode is always on Manual 90% of the time. When taking a white coloured bird, I add 2 stops overexposed, if it is a black coloured bird, I underexposed by 2 stops. Seems like the Spot Hi and the Spot SH work the same as the 18% grey principle. Do you agree?
The Spot Hi/SH is more flexible. It's rigid in how many stops it will adjust. I'm not very good at keep a flying bird in the focus point, but might be worth trying Spot Hi.
Thanks Rob. I have been frustrated wondering if it was possible to link metering with focus and had no idea it was so simple. Great video.
Finally someone explained the spot meter hi/sh. Thanks!
Glad it helped!
Rob, you make it so easy. Whenever I have any confusion I visit your channel.
Glad to help!
Hi Rob, Jose from Puerto Rico. This tutorial was outstanding. I really enjoyed this one since it resolved the confusion I had with spot-metering. I have an old Olympus OM4-t film camera I purchased in 1986 that needs repair and it has this spot highlight and shadow feature. I'm so happy they kept it on the modern cameras. Now all I have to do is purchase one of the new Olympus digital cameras. Now I will watch the spot-metering tutorial you have here with flash.
It is nice they kept the feature in the new digital versions. Some argue it's not necessary anymore but I like it.
Another great tutorial Rob. No one explained like you in detail how Spot metering Hi and Sh works. I must try!
Thanks. I try.
Great tutorial. As always a clear and consise explanation, not too long and not too short. Much appreciated...
You're welcome!
Thanks Rob. This is an excellent tutorial and covers the metering modes and histogram so well. There is so much to learn about the OMDs and it's especially good to see the E-M5 Mk 2 take centre stage for a change.
Thanks. I love the E-M5 Mk 2. Amazing camera even against today's stuff.
How can anyone give this a thumbs down ? Awesome tutorial Rob, as usual.
Thanks, Plato!
The 2 persons who gave the thumbs down probably are following the tutorial with their smartphones which menu is not matching that of of the OMD cameras
Nothing but good from you and your teaching. Thank you very much.
You are very welcome, Michael.
Another superb video, crystal clear with demos. Brilliant.
Many thanks!
Really enjoying the "Fine Print" series Rob.
Thanks, Bob. Will do some more.
Thanks Rob You truly have a great gift in your ability to explain things clearly well done.
Thanks, Colin. I try.
Thanks, I learned a few new details, particularly for my new M1 III.
Very welcome!
Thank you, Rob. Last night I was looking for a tutorial about this topic and this morning here it is. That's knowing your followers. Greetings from Spain.
You must have sent me a psychic message. This video was very spontaneous, but maybe not!
Great video Rob. At timeline 15:05 I was thinking exactly what you mentioned a few seconds later. Spot High is a simple way to ETTR. Again, thanks for the detailed and informative video.
Thanks. Always good to hear from you.
This was really an interesting tutorial. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Fantastic tutorial for OM-d, thanks a lot! :)
Glad it was helpful!
Great help for us as we try to improve our images. Thanks Rob
Thanks.
Very useful information. Thank you so much!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks! That was helpful. I will test it out tomorrow. Stepped up from EM5 to EM5 M3.
Have fun!
Great tutorial Rob. A lot to take in here and so well explained and demonstrated. I’ve now got a much better understanding of the different metering modes and interpreting histograms. Thanks so much. Jeff, Horsham, UK.
Glad to help, Jeff. Thanks.
This is immensely helpful. Thank you! (I couldn't know what the green area do had I not watched this episode.) I kind of know about spot metering and apply the principle from time to time, but I didn't even stop and wonder what those Hi and SH options were for. In some courses, advanced techniques can often be buried into more advanced creative process that I would willfully skip because I am "not there yet." Your examples prompt thoughts about "where do I wish I did that."
Glad it was helpful!
I came back and found this vid again.
Idea: you could add focus point to the title (to make more findable) as that’s the key I needed to remember.
Next: I thought it didn’t work but then realized I was on c-af + tr. From what I’m seeing I don’t think the spot meter links to the focus point when you are in tracking mode. Works fine otherwise. Thanks for the great content.
Thanks, Ted. I updated the title and description with your suggestion. I'll have to test the tracking but I'm pretty sure it won't work that way.
Excelent,excelent! Thanks Rob. Olympus should use you or at least you tutorials for there camera and software training. You just have the way of convay how things is working with olympus cameras.
Thanks, Leon.
I find your videos much easier to follow than the other 2 main Olympus YT posters; others clearly like them, however, Peter, whilst obviously knowing his material, simply goes too quickly for me. Btw: I believe,?, you have put up a YT video on how to assign various settings to C1-C4 on the Pen F. I have both attempted to make these settings by going into the menus and pressing "OK"" at the end, but when turning the Pen F on again, the settings have been lost Secondly, thought you put up a YT on this, and rather than being bone lazy and simply asking you for a link, have searched your videos - without success. If there is a YT video, or a link to your FB camera page, would be very grateful if you could send it to me.
Finally, was very interested in one of the very early YT videos I watched after purchasing my 2 mint Pen F's. This dealt in part with setting the various 4 film options to L and SF in the dedicated menu. I have not attempted this from the SCP. However, I would have thought? that when all 4 settings are set to L and SF, and OK pressed on exiting, that would result in all image settings being both L and SF- this is what I wish to do. However, once again, despite going into the dedicated image quality menu- not the row of options on the R hand side of LCD what may come up if attempting to set via SCP, these settings are also lost. All in all, have done this countless times and each time, I lose the settings! The difficult part should be locating the correct menu, the one with image settings going from L-R as I have seen in your video on this subject. After making the setting adjustments to the image settings, how do you "lock"" or set them.
PLease advise if you wish these queries to be made on your FB page.
Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks, once again.
Thanks for the clear explanations!
Glad it was helpful!
Many thanks Rob, learn a lot from this video. 😊
Thanks. Glad to help.
Hi Rob. Really enjoy watching your videos! Never understood spotmeter high and shadow. After watching this video it all starts to make sense! Still not sure when to use them in practice.
Thanks. I'll have to do a vlog where I use those settings in real life.
@@RobTrek When I select a focus point on my camera, the brackets are visible but also the small circle?
Very helpful- as always 🎆🎆
Happy to help!
This was actually very helpfull
Thanks, Adam.
For anyone who is wondering When and Why you'd want to use Spot-Hi or Spot-Lo. Let's suppose you're trying to photograph a Tuxedo cat, which has a mostly black coat but has pure white patches on the tips of its paws, on its nose and muzzle, as well as on its Tuxedo jacket white chest panel. The problem with the black fur is that it'll need to be overexposed for your camera to capture the texture of the fur in all that black. So, you could use Spot-Lo spot metering to correctly expose the fur. However, if you do that, the cat's white patches will totally overexpose and you'll see no texture whatsoever in those Tuxedo patches. If you want to correctly expose for the white fur, you'll need to choose Spot-Hi, and then you can capture the texture in the white fur.
Unfortunately, you cannot correctly expose the two extremes, both Black and White. Either the black will lose any detail in the fur, or the whites will be blown, totally overexposed and irrecoverablly losing all texture.
When faced with these two extremes, your best option is to use Spot-Hi. That's because blown highlights are irrecoverable. Whereas, underexposed blacks may be (mostly) recovered in computer post-processing. It's also why you should also shoot in RAW, so that your data file contains the maximum amount of data that the sensor captured. Unlike shooting in jpeg, this will give you a fighting chance of recovering any information like tonal valves in the underexposed black.
You will hear the term "exposing to the right", which refers to prioritising data capture on the right (white highlights) side of the histogram, so nothing gets lost or blown out in the whites.
Hope this helps,
Rick
Thanks for your expert advice, Rick!
Thanks!
Thank you!
Hello Rob, I tried to tie the EM-1 focus points to the spot meter but it does not seem to work. Is this a limit of the EM1 Mk1?
@@rogerdad5845 I don't have the EM-1 Mark I, but checked the manual. Doesn't seem to have that ability.
Great tutorial? Do you have a video about mode M video settings for em5ii? how to use the dials to change the aperture/shutter speed/EV while recording? how to meter while recording? Thank you.
Thanks. Sorry, I don't have a video about video settings on the EM5ii.
Very interesting and informative. How about using the highlights and shadows mode together for HDR? Would you like to try?
Thank you very much for your time and effort.
I don't think that would make sense. HDR would over/under expose too much and clip. I'll give it a try and see.
Congratulations for your post. I've one question.,. I use back button focusing and i have set the focus button to the ael button on my em1-ii. I'm loving it but I've lost the possibility to fix the exposure when using spot metering. Dou you know how can i get it back and still using back button focus? Thks in advance
I'll look into this and get back to you. Thanks.
Hi Rob is this the same as olympus em1x "af-area metering" i cannot find no information on this.
Hi. Were are you seeing the term "af-area metering"? Everything in this video should be identical on the E-M1x. For metering, there is only digital ESP, Center weighted, Spot, Spot Hi, Spot SHadow.
Thanks for another great tutorial. I this this new training series will be very helpfull.
I tried playing with my EM1.3 and EP-5 & EM10.2
From playing with my EM1.3 spot metering is "always" tied to the focus point, could not find a way to uncouple spot metering and focus point.
but centre weighted metering is not as I get the two half circles and the focus point box. I could not link them.
Did I get this right?
.
On my EP-5 and EM10.2 spot and centre weighted metering are not tied to focus point as I get the metering symbols in the centre and the focus box.
.
I have always just used the matrix metering in the past, never looked at the other modes
You got everything right except you can untie the spot meter from the focus point on the em1.3. Look in menu E3.
@@RobTrek i must be missing something as I dont see how to untie in E3. Under Spot metering it just seems to give me options to untick if I dont want them.
the other options are
Metering [mode]
AEL
Exposure shift
Which one has the uncouple ?
Thanks
@@marklaurendet1861 The options under Spot Metering are the options you want - if you don't want spot metering tied to focus, simply uncheck that option.
@@barrysteger8764 Thanks got it now
Mine still show the circle and square markings when I tied the focus and spot metering mode together. I thought I followed your procedure? Wonder where I'd gone wrong. Tried a few times with same result. My camera is the EM5 MkII. By the way, thanks for the tutorials. Great job and keep it up.
Hi. Go into the E. Exp/*/ISO and then scroll down to spot metering. Click right and select the check boxes for Spot, Spot Hi and Spot Shadow.
@@RobTrek That worked. Thanks again!
Hello, is there possibility to remove that exposure shifting? Everytime I point at something it either becomes dark or bright, I usually shoot in M and I don't like my exposure shifting, (I mean that's the point of M right?) Thank you
On the OM-D cameras, go into the "D" menu and turn on Live View Boost to "ON1" for the modes you're shooting. Also, turn on the OVF setting in the EVF menu.
@@RobTrek I actually use an EPL9 the Live view boost only gives a brighter display and the exposure is fixed on my screen, what I want is the "Constant preview" that the Lumix have, Thank you.
@@johnvincentespiritu4768 I see. The Olympus doesn't have anything like the Constant Preview. The normal live-view is about the closest thing but is limited to +/- 3 stops.
I see by the Control Panel you have the quality set at LN why not set it at LSF ( large super fine).
I always reset my camera before each tutorial. I do normally set to to Raw+LSF. Thanks.
I wish spot metering would change with the center focus point for multi area focusing modes such as the 5x5! I have programmed custom menu C1 to a "birds in flight" shooting mode but have been unable to find a metering mode that can adjust to varying shades of birds automatically, using auto-ISO/manual pre-programmed settings. When a multi area focusing mode is selected with spot metering, the spot meter stays fixed to the center of the frame :(
If there is a resolution to this limitation, please let me know!
Interesting. I'll look into it but I think you have found one of the few limitations here.
I used spot metering 90% of the time when taking the picture. The main subject is bird photography. So far I have not tried using Spot HI or Spot SH. My shooting mode is always on Manual 90% of the time. When taking a white coloured bird, I add 2 stops overexposed, if it is a black coloured bird, I underexposed by 2 stops. Seems like the Spot Hi and the Spot SH work the same as the 18% grey principle. Do you agree?
The Spot Hi/SH is more flexible. It's rigid in how many stops it will adjust. I'm not very good at keep a flying bird in the focus point, but might be worth trying Spot Hi.
I think Rob youre a masochist!