Good exposure method?

[PaulStat]

For capturing the right exposure for foreground/background of a landscape.

So you have a bright sky and a dull foreground, switching the camera to matirx metering tends to over expose the sky.

So something i've tried (in my lounge) is setting the camera to spot metering, then setting the focal point to the sky on aperture priority, taking a photo, then doing the same to the ground.

So in theory one should have a perfectly exposed foreground and background (once the photos are combined of course).

So is this a good method? Or can I make some alterations to this?

 

[Jotun]

You're pretty much described what you do to take a HDR image, which a few forum members have done recently, and shown how effective it can be

I believe exposure bracketing is used, but any method of adjusting the exposure will produce similar results

 

[AndyBorzi]

I think it was Morgan who explained this:

Switch to AV mode and get a reading from the sky at the aperture you require. Then get a reading from the ground.

Switch to manual mode, set the aperture and then set the shutter speed to somewhere halfway between the two readings.

I think it works quite well, though you may need to bring out the ground a little in photoshop - i guess this depends on how bright the sky is.