Smart collection problem

[fred_sloan]

Lightroom Version Number

12.1

Operating System

1. macOS 13 Ventura

I am trying to create smart collections for Spot and Pattern metering modes. I created smart collections based on 'any searchable text' for Spot and Pattern, and they seem to be working - except that it only returns photos taken in ~ the last month.

Any help appreciated - thanks.

 

[johnrellis]

I created smart collections based on 'any searchable text' for Spot and Pattern, and they seem to be working

Hmm, I don't think Any Searchable Text searches the EXIF Metering Mode field -- in my catalog of 28K photos, it doesn't find either "Pattern" or "Spot".

You could use the Any Filter plugin to search the Metering Mode field:

 

[GregJ]

I have a question. Why would you ever use a spot meter these days? I grew up on a spot meter with film, but I haven't used a spot meter in over ten years. And yes, I have shot in every conceivable situation including spotlights on stage.

But I'm curious. Why do you ever use a spot meter? What do you shoot? Modern matrix meters are so good that it is astounding really, and with WYSIWYG and these incredible EVFs and the essential EC dial, it is too easy to make adjustments on the fly and get exposure perfect in camera 100% of the time. Proper exposure is a given, even with newby amateurs.

Who uses a spot meter and why?

I have put in a formal request to the CEO of Fuji to please remove both the spot and center weighted meters from all Fuji cameras. I am crafting a similar letter to Leica. Just give me the matrix and an EC dial. I'll get it right 100% of the time with zero misses.

 

[fred_sloan]

Hmm, I don't think Any Searchable Text searches the EXIF Metering Mode field -- in my catalog of 28K photos, it doesn't find either "Pattern" or "Spot".

You could use the Any Filter plugin to search the Metering Mode field:

View attachment 20250

Thanks, I will try that.

 

[Califdan]

Why do you ever use a spot meter?

Black Seal on a large white iceberg shot with a DSLR using optical view finder rather than using Live View.

 

[GregJ]

LOL Dan! That is a good one and you got me for sure. Yep, OK. Dan the famous wildlife pro in a blind shooting black seals on an iceberg with his Canon 800mm and DSLR with OVF. Then he pans left to the snowbank and shoots mama black bear frolicking with her black cubs in the blinding white snowbank....

Then the bear spots Dan in the blind after getting a sniff of man meat and starts charging. Dan drops his camera and lens into the snow, grabs his bear spray and starts screaming and waving his arms.... The bear does a false charge and leaves Dan unscathed while Dan shoots himself with the bear spray canister....

Canon agrees to pay for the damage to the 17,000-dollar lens if they can market the shots of the black seal and mama black bear frolicking on the bright white iceberg and snowbank, shot with the spot meter and stopped down another stop for good measure.

Dan writes an article for Field and Stream Magazine explaining how he bravely filled the OVF with black seals and bears completely smashed with reflected bright white light from the snow, so he switches to spot meter plays with the EC and via his decades of experience nails the Pulitzer winning shot.

OK. I'll allow it in that one case. But if it were me, I probably still wouldn't use the spot meter.

You were just messing with me with an extreme example, right Dan?

Good one.

But my anti-spot meter rant stands. I'm still writing the CEOs at Fuji, Canon, Nikon and Sony and demanding that spot meters be removed from all of their latest models.

 

[Califdan]

I like your scenario. Especially the part about the Pulitzer but I'd even settle for a full page in National Geographic. However, being a coward at heart, I'd probably be shooting from a boat and would have to fish the camera and lens out of the sea.

My Seal example was an extreme example to demonstrate the point. But there are many, many similar - but maybe not quite as extreme - cases where the tone of the subject is outside the bounds typically used by Evaluative (Matrix, or whatever your brand camera calls it) meter mode resulting in the meter mode weighing the stuff around the real subject stronger than it weighs the subject. A lone sea lion on the beach. Someone sitting on curb lit by a single street lamp with no light hitting the background and surrounding area. A wildflower hanging on in a sand dune. Washed up iceberg on the black sand beach in Iceland. The list goes on and is quite a common occurance when you really need a longer lens but don't have one handy so you shoot knowing that an agressive crop will be coming along later. But, the Camera does not know this and the Evaluative mode pays too much attention to the 90% of the image that is not the subject. This is a good time to use spot, or expanded spot to get the subject more properly exposed without being skewed as much by the surroundings. I even go to CWA (Center Weighted Average) if I want the Auto Exposure to not totally blow out the snow or totally block up dark surroundings.

But, to be honest, I do normally shoot in Eavluative Meter Mode but I also usually bracket +/- 2 stops to counteract the meter mode getting it wrong.

 

[GregJ]

I like your scenario. Especially the part about the Pulitzer but I'd even settle for a full page in National Geographic. However, being a coward at heart, I'd probably be shooting from a boat and would have to fish the camera and lens out of the sea.

My Seal example was an extreme example to demonstrate the point. But there are many, many similar - but maybe not quite as extreme - cases where the tone of the subject is outside the bounds typically used by Evaluative (Matrix, or whatever your brand camera calls it) meter mode resulting in the meter mode weighing the stuff around the real subject stronger than it weighs the subject. A lone sea lion on the beach. Someone sitting on curb lit by a single street lamp with no light hitting the background and surrounding area. A wildflower hanging on in a sand dune. Washed up iceberg on the black sand beach in Iceland. The list goes on and is quite a common occurance when you really need a longer lens but don't have one handy so you shoot knowing that an agressive crop will be coming along later. But, the Camera does not know this and the Evaluative mode pays too much attention to the 90% of the image that is not the subject. This is a good time to use spot, or expanded spot to get the subject more properly exposed without being skewed as much by the surroundings. I even go to CWA (Center Weighted Average) if I want the Auto Exposure to not totally blow out the snow or totally block up dark surroundings.

But, to be honest, I do normally shoot in Eavluative Meter Mode but I also usually bracket +/- 2 stops to counteract the meter mode getting it wrong.

Yes, I grew up using a spot meter a lot back in the day. I'm exaggerating for comic affect, but it is true that with these new cameras and their evaluative meters getting the right exposure is not much of a challenge anymore. In my case I shoot a lot at base ISO with GFX and a thus have an absolutely huge amount of latitude. Even three stops off is not a problem in post, but of course we all want to get it right in camera. I don't think I would ever miss by two stops much less three. No way.
There may be a few rare cases (in my kind of shooting) that I might switch to spot, but I have been shooting for so long that I could probably shoot all day without a meter of any type and be pretty close.
My Dad, who was a great photographer, used to walk around the block with me when I was 12 and ask me what exposure I would shoot at stuff we would frame with our hands. He would say, 50mm, F8, 64 Kodachrome. What speed is it? I would say 1/125 and he would say, nope, more like 1/60.
But these days with instant feedback, one can get a feel for exposure very quickly with whatever camera we use.

 

[Califdan]

My Dad, who was a great photographer, used to walk around the block with me when I was 12 and ask me what exposure I would shoot at stuff we would frame with our hands

Ahh, Tes. The good ol' "Sunny 16 rule", or the tried and true "Cloudy 8 rule"