How do I use light metering?

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QOTD from Sasha: "Okay, on my mission to learn something new today, I'm trying to understand metering. I read that spot or partial metering (my camera only has spot metering) is best for back lighting. So I took photos of my son with all the different meter settings in front of a window with no change to any of them. So...is this a useful tool in manual settings or is this helpful in auto settings? I feel like everything I read is written in gibberish lol"

Christy: Most cameras will be fooled by all the extra light in back. If you don't have a hand held meter, best thing to do is move in close to your subject and lock in the exposure, then recompose the shot. This way the meter won't see all the light and will meter for the dark. If your subject has too little light falling on them, you may have to add fill flash or reflector

Sasha: That was what I keep reading. But I have been shooting in manual, so does it even apply? I thought I was the one exposing my own images by shooting in manual. None of that really makes any sense. :(

Justina: But if you are doing it manually based on the information the camera is feeding back to you through its meter you would still want to set your exposure manually how she said and then step back.

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