When I use my Sony bridge camera I make use of highlight metering as some of the garden birds I photograph have patches of white on them.  It is far too easy to blow those highlights out and the use of highlight metering stops that. Excellent. I used highlight metering with the Q2 this morning.  This jpeg (I shoot jpeg + dng) is the result.  This is SOOC and I doubt the detail in those highlights will be recoverable on the dng file.Am I doing something wrong or is highlight metering as bad as it looks?Thank you. Regards, David *************************************** Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened - Anatole France.

Why not use the histogram to adjust exposure so you avoid blowing out highlights? That’s what it’s there for.You can also set the black and white exposure points in post to offset (if not cure completely) that problem.

You're not gonna get a decent looking jpeg out of that composition unless you let either the shadows or the highlights go. The dynamic range iswide. For a better Raw I'd switch on the histogram display and use exposure compensation to dial back the exposure so the blown highlight is at worst just slightly blown. Then boost shadow areas in your Raw processor.I don't use the highlight metering mode 'cuz I've found it usually errs on the side of not exposing enough. Maybe this has changed with recent firmware updates, though.-Dave-

Le Chef wrote:Why not use the histogram to adjust exposure so you avoid blowing out highlights? That’s what it’s there for.You can also set the black and white exposure points in post to offset (if not cure completely) that problem.Thanks for that Le Chef, I thought I would give highlight metering a try; the one thing I was not expecting as a result was getting highlights blown out, it doesn't happen on my Sony bridge camera. Unfortunately, on the raw file of this photograph, there was no improvement in post.Regards, David *************************************** Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened - Anatole France.

David Kieltyka wrote:You're not gonna get a decent looking jpeg out of that composition unless you let either the shadows or the highlights go. The dynamic range iswide. For a better Raw I'd switch on the histogram display and use exposure compensation to dial back the exposure so the blown highlight is at worst just slightly blown. Then boost shadow areas in your Raw processor.I don't use the highlight metering mode 'cuz I've found it usually errs on the side of not exposing enough. Maybe this has changed with recent firmware updates, though.-Dave-Thanks Dave.Regards, David *************************************** Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened - Anatole France.

That’s why you need to use the histogram to help adjust exposure BEFORE you shoot. After you can only recover in something like LightRoom, or CR.I have a Q2and don’t suffer from blown highlights because I follow the process outlined above.It’s only a poor workman that blames his tools. You know what you need to do to improve your photography.