What does "recompose the shot" mean?

[Passions]

I keep reading, "...take a reading, recompose the shot, and snap the pic."

What does that mean...recompose??? :shocked:

 

[Anubis]

it means look through the viewfinder and get what you want in the frame

is this from a book> if so im betting its refering to a camera with spot of center weighted metering, where you would have to point the camera at the light and dark areas of what you are takeing a pic of and meter so not to blow out the highlight sor make shadows to dark

with newer camers that have "Matrix or Multi Zone" metering its not really as impostant because the camera automatically meters for the whole frame

 

[shutterFly]

In general, the strongest focusing point in in the center of the frame. But sometimes you don't want the focused subject to be in the center. Or maybe the subject doesn't have enough contrast to focus on. So what some photographers do is they look through the viewfinder and focus on whatever they want to be in focus. With the focus locked, they then move the camera, recompose the shot and take the picture. This also applies to metering as well. Sometimes subject of the photo is lighter or darker than the rest of the scene. You can meter off of something other than the subject, lock the exposure reading, recompose and take a picture with different exposure settings than it would have been had you just taken the picture.