Need some help with shots in the sun

FL00DY

Hi all,

I was at the beach with some mates on Sunday. We had beautiful weather, not a cloud in sight and we had a great spot in the shade with lots of space to kick the footy around. But when I was taking shots of my mates 1yo daughter in the shade, the bright sun turns the background white. Some examples and link to the gallery

1)


2)



3)



However I also got some good shots of the beach and looking across to the rock pools and bay marina, I'll post them up in landscape I guess.

Can anyone give me a hand with why the background is so white? It seems the more I zoomed in on just my mates daughter, the brighter the backgrounds get. I tried to adjust exposure in LR2 but couldn't go far enough and screwed to much with the main subject.

Thanks very much people
Paul

Elaine

Most likely, your camera was trying to properly expose your subject, the little girl. In this situation, with bright sun behind the subject, a proper exposure on the person means the background has to blow out. If the background did not blow out but expose properly, your subject would be too dark.
If you shoot manually, you can adjust exposure for the background and then use fill flash to properly light the subject.
Or you can turn so the bright sun is behind your back and the light is spilling onto your subject.

EDIT: Personally, I don't mind the backgrounds blowing out here and there. Getting in close to your subject so they fill the frame makes a blown background not so distracting. Your first shot is a better example of this. You've got a cute subject, so let her fill the frame.

FL00DY

Do you mean I should have played with the Flash Compensation? The nikon book says "changing the brightness of the main subject relative to the background".

Or under expose the main subject and use the flash to brighten her up?

Richard

FL00DY wrote:

Do you mean I should have played with the Flash Compensation? The nikon book says "changing the brightness of the main subject relative to the background".

Or under expose the main subject and use the flash to brighten her up?

When using fill flash, you expose for the brighter background and let the flash figure out how to light the subject. Flash compensation can be used to tweak the relative brightness of the subject. Canon's system is very easy to use in aperture priority and manual modes and I assume that Nikon works in a similar way.

Elaine

FL00DY wrote:

Do you mean I should have played with the Flash Compensation? The nikon book says "changing the brightness of the main subject relative to the background".

Or under expose the main subject and use the flash to brighten her up?

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with Nikon gear, but Flash Compensation sounds like you're headed in the right direction. I think the most helpful thing to do will be to learn to shoot in manual or aperture priority. That way you are more in charge and can tell the camera what it is you want it to do.

I briefly looked at the gallery you linked and found these examples:
This one's background is a bit bright but it's not totally blown, but the subjects are shadowed and their eyes are dark. Moving in closer here would be great, too.

Now the very next shot has much better light because there was some flash! I think it would be even better if there wasn't as much background in the shot, but speaking of just the light, this one is much better!

Ed911

When you want help with a shot, let us know what gear you are using, including the model. Some better cameras, like D-SLR's and better point and shoots, have features to help with bright outdoor lighting.

When you say Nikon...point and shoot or D-SLR.

FL00DY

Ed911 wrote:

When you want help with a shot, let us know what gear you are using, including the model. Some better cameras, like D-SLR's and better point and shoots, have features to help with bright outdoor lighting.

When you say Nikon...point and shoot or D-SLR.

Oh yeah I guess I should maybe put something like that in my sig. These were shot with my new Nikon D90 with the standard 18-55 kit lens. I'm really new to DLSR's ... actually all photography

Elaine

FL00DY wrote:

Oh yeah I guess I should maybe put something like that in my sig. These were shot with my new Nikon D90 with the standard 18-55 kit lens. I'm really new to DLSR's ... actually all photography

Welcome to DGrin and to photography!
This is a great place to learn.