Metering Question

Mister_Pister · 17 Jul 2006 at 09:32

I was out and about in London over the weekend and I was having trouble metering correctly for a particular shot - ill have to post the image itself up when I get home.

Basically though it was a nice sunny day and the subject (a woman) was in the shade with the sky behind her. I tried different metering modes, matrix, taking a spot reading from the woman and so on but I couldnt prevent the sky blowing out. What would be the best way to meter a scene like this?

AdWright · 17 Jul 2006 at 09:40

Spot or centre-weighted metering. However, there are some situations where cameras are unable to expose the entire scene correctly - they just do not have enough dynamic range to correctly expose something in shadow and prevent bright areas blowing out.

Some fill in flash could help raise the subject to a similar level of illumination so the dynamic range needed is reduced

JBuk · 17 Jul 2006 at 09:41

i`d of used the histogram and exposed just enough so the highlights didnt blow, then used a bit of Post processing to bring out the shadows (and probably a little nosie

)

failing that a fill in flash would have been very usefull

i had similar problems at a beach the other day, shooting towards the sun, i though i was doing great till i got home and noticed a lot of the shots needed touched up

Mister_Pister · 17 Jul 2006 at 09:50

well the flash is the one thing I didnt try so ill bear that in mind for next time. Luckily the RAW was a tad underexposed so I can hopefully bring out some detail in it - she was a really hot woman too

morgan · 17 Jul 2006 at 10:46

fill is probably the only way. if it was a bright day the synamic range is just too much for the camera to handle.

I would use av or tv mode, dial in -1 1 /3 FEC into the flash (pointed staright at the subject), evaluative metering.

or meter for the sky, dial in less FEC for a really contrasty shot with blue sky (if there was one

Mister_Pister · 17 Jul 2006 at 11:36

I use a Nikon so I assume the Av is aperture priority and Tv shutter? There was indeed a blue sky

King_Boru · 17 Jul 2006 at 12:03

You need to over exspose slightly to correctly light a subjusct against a light background. Add .3 ev step or use a low level flash to fill the dark areas.

morgan · 17 Jul 2006 at 12:35

Mister_Pister said:
I use a Nikon so I assume the Av is aperture priority and Tv shutter?

yup spot on.

on the flash also keep an eye you dont go over a sync speed of 1/200 (or whatever the fastest your camera/flash can do. if you exceed this you need to use high speed sync (I think the nikkon flashes i've seen automatically switch to HSS - I wish Canon did the same!)

King_Boru · 17 Jul 2006 at 12:50

Max is 1/500 sec for the Nikon D50.

morgan · 17 Jul 2006 at 13:17

wish my 5d could get up to anything near those speeds.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 17 Jul 2006 at 13:42

morgan said:
wish my 5d could get up to anything near those speeds.

Corrected.. Sorry my bad.

Dfhaii · 17 Jul 2006 at 16:07

Fstop11 said:
Dont forget that your 5d is capable of ISO50 / 100 where as a nikon is limited to ISO200

How does that help with flash sync?

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 17 Jul 2006 at 17:10

Dfhaii said:
How does that help with flash sync?

totally half read that. thanks for the correction. I was refering to the 1st post.

SDK^ · 17 Jul 2006 at 18:16

As the others have said - Expose for the sky and use fill in flash

King_Boru said:
You need to over exspose slightly to correctly light a subjusct against a light background. Add .3 ev step or use a low level flash to fill the dark areas.

If you do that then the sky will show clipped highlights

Mister_Pister · 17 Jul 2006 at 22:13

I did what I could with her