The metering mode tells you how the camera measured the scene's brightness before choosing the exposure: one reading of the whole frame, a small spot, or a grid of zones weighed by the camera's own logic. EXIF stores it as a SHORT in tag 0x9207 of the Exif IFD.
| Value | ExifTool prints | On camera menus |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Unknown | not recorded |
| 1 | Average | Average |
| 2 | Center-weighted average | Center-weighted |
| 3 | Spot | Spot |
| 4 | Multi-spot | Multi-spot |
| 5 | Multi-segment | Evaluative (Canon), Matrix (Nikon) |
| 6 | Partial | Partial (Canon) |
| 255 | Other | anything else |
Nobody calls it "multi-segment" on a camera menu. The EXIF name is a neutral umbrella for each brand's zone-based system, which is what almost every camera and phone uses by default. Multi-spot is rare: it means the photographer took several spot readings and averaged them, a feature only some bodies offer.
Same tag name, different numbers
Canon also records metering in its maker notes, under the same tag name, with its own numbering:
$ exiftool -a -G1 -s -MeteringMode photo.jpg
[ExifIFD] MeteringMode : Multi-segment
[Canon] MeteringMode : Evaluative
$ exiftool -a -G1 -s -n -MeteringMode photo.jpg
[ExifIFD] MeteringMode : 5
[Canon] MeteringMode : 3
$ exiftool -s -n -MeteringMode photo.jpg
MeteringMode : 3That is a Canon EOS RP JPEG. In the EXIF table 3 means Spot; in Canon's table it means Evaluative. Without a group prefix, ExifTool returns the maker-note copy, so a script that asks for -n -MeteringMode (JSON output behaves the same) will file this shot under spot metering. Always ask for EXIF:MeteringMode explicitly.
Does the metering mode matter?
For judging a photo, not much. It mostly explains an exposure that looks off: a spot reading on a dark subject against a bright sky will look very different from an evaluative reading of the same frame. It pairs with exposure compensation, which records how the photographer corrected whatever the meter decided. Flash metering is not covered by this tag at all; Canon, for one, records it in the maker notes, where the RP file shows FlashBits = E-TTL.
Checking and changing it
Windows Explorer shows "Metering mode" in the Details tab (viewing metadata on Windows and Mac). The EXIF editor offers the eight values above in a drop-down for JPEG and TIFF files. With ExifTool, exiftool -MeteringMode=Spot photo.jpg or exiftool -MeteringMode#=3 photo.jpg.