# Metering off the palm



## Tamsyn (Jan 17, 2011)

I'm doing a photography course and one of the questions I had was to meter off the palm of my hand and open the lens one stop. they then ask me what function this technique has for photography.

can someone help me please? I've tried it but I still can't understand why it's that important to meter off my palm.


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## Light Artisan (Jan 17, 2011)

"Handy" gray card.


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## Tight Knot (Jan 17, 2011)

Tamsyn said:


> I'm doing a photography course and one of the questions I had was to meter off the palm of my hand and open the lens one stop. they then ask me what function this technique has for photography.
> 
> can someone help me please? I've tried it but I still can't understand why it's that important to meter off my palm.


Basically what you do, is take a properly exposed photo of an 18% gray card (using f/8 fill the frame), first in full sun and then in open shade, noting what your exposure was, (f/stop, shutter speed) and then you do the same to the palm of your hand. You will find that the palm of your hand is consistently 2/3 to 1 stop overexposed. This will then enable you to just use your palm of your hand as a white balance in basically any situation you are in. You would use the palm of your hand, then meter down 2/3's - 1 stop and voila, there you have it. Just remember you meter either the gray card or your hand in the light that you taking the photograph.


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## Robin Usagani (Jan 17, 2011)

Because if you notice, the darkest guy in the world will have palms that are about as light as the lightest guy in the world. It is a good spot to check for exposrue because if you do it somewhere else on the body, it varies between skin tones.


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