I usually use spot metering when there is either a very large amount of very dark or very light space in the picture. The idea is to lock the exposure on some neutral tone then compose your image the way you like it. This way the picture will neither be over or under exposed in situations where the multi metering would fail. I almost always use spot metering when I use a flash. Spot metering should usually be used along with the exposure lock function. If you do not meter off a neutral tone your pictures will come out improperly exposed. It can be an extremely useful function but it can also be extremely frustrating if you don’t know how to use it properly.
These were shot using spot metering on the white tail feathers, multi metering would have exposed the water correctly but the ducks would have been underexposed to the point of being silhouetted.
I have been using spot metering a lot more recently (probably a confidence thing) because a lot of my subjects (ducks, swans, my dog) have white bits that will blow out using multi.
Your best bet is to use the 602's shortcut to switch between spot & multi and take two shots of everything when you are unsure.
You can use spot metering to deliberately over or underexpose by metering off brighter or darker than normal parts of the image. I use spot metering a lot. I use to never use it but the more I have come to understand it the more I use it. I definitely recommend playing around with the spot metering and figuring out exactly how it works. It is definitely a very powerful capability of your camera that can give you a lot of control over your exposure.
Just a small (probably stupid) question. When I shoot in full manual mode (exposure and aperture manually set) then it doesn't make a difference if I use spot metering or multi metering, does it?
I think with my camera it does... The way it meters continues to operate as I set it, regardless of how I expose the photo. At least, I "think" it does!
Just a small (probably stupid) question. When I shoot in full manual mode (exposure and aperture manually set) then it doesn't make a difference if I use spot metering or multi metering, does it?
Nope, not stupid. In manual mode, the camera will use whatever aperture and shutter speed you set (these settings, along with the ISO sensitivity you've set will between them determine the exposure). But the indication the camera's giving you of whether the shot's under/overexposed will be influenced by the metering mode. The metering mode setting is just telling the camera what point in the scene (and how much of it) to include in its metering calculations.
If you want to learn more about exposure in general, I can heartily recommend Bryan Peterson's book 'Understanding Exposure' ISBN: 0817437126
