The Enthusiast's Guide to Night and Low-Light Photography, 1st Edition

8. SOMETIMES THE BUILT-IN LIGHT METER LIES

YOUR CAMERA HAS a built-in light meter that measures the light in the scene so that the camera knows what settings to use to create a proper exposure. The meter reads the brightness of the light reflected off the objects in the scene, and then, depending on the exposure mode you use, sets the shutter speed or aperture, or both.

The camera looks at the scene and averages the bright and dark areas to a neutral tone. This works great if the scene doesn’t have huge areas of black or white. You can check this out easily by just taking a photo of a white piece of paper or a black piece of paper. The image of ...