Olympus E-3 User Manual page 35

When the light meter is set to Spot-Hi, the reading obtained
from within the spot meter circle is continually adjusted to
"lighten" the area being measured. This is accomplished by
adding to the exposure time that would otherwise be set with a
"normal reading". The reading will result in, for example, a
western style white wedding dress coming out as white on the
photograph and not a dulled-down average off-white tending
towards grey.
SPOT METERING WITH SHADOW BIAS [ • • • • ] Sh
This option provides deep, dark, richly textured black areas in the
photograph. When the meter is set to Spot-Sh the reading
obtained within the metering area is continually adjusted to
shorten the "normal" exposure time. This ensures that black
areas are rendered as black and not blue-grey.
POWER USER TIP: If photographing a set where there is a majority of
white (or black) areas – or when shooting a wedding - it makes sense
to set the AEL button to activate either Spot-Hi (or Spot-Sh) as soon as
it is pressed as this will instantly provide a method to emphasise the
dominant area without first having to dial in exposure compensation
settings and/or delving into camera settings to change the metering
mode between shots. For example, you could set the metering mode to
Spot-Hi and the AEL metering to Spot-Sh in order to have both options
available at the touch of a button. (UMPg103)
ALTERNATIVE AEL OPTIONS
There are numerous methods available to lock the exposure
and/or focus and these operate either via the AEL button and/or
the shutter button. These options are subject to limitations
depending on whether you are using Single AF, Continuous AF
or Manual AF.
The options can be set via the custom settings menu and are
detailed in the table shown here:
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