Several methods and apparatuses for implementing automatic exposure mechanisms for image capturing devices are described. In one embodiment, an automatic exposure mechanism can use data from a light meter of an image capturing device to determine a metered exposure value associated with incident light. The automatic exposure mechanism can determine a rule based exposure value based on a predetermined rule and exposure settings (e.g., a predetermined light sensitivity of a capture media and a predetermined f-number of the image capturing device). The automatic exposure mechanisms can select either the metered exposure value or the rule based exposure value to set an exposure setting for the image capturing device.