outdoor exposure tip needed

VayCayMom

I am still a newbie of sorts. I have a meter but have not learned how to use it yet.

I need just a simple tip or two about outdoor shots, when the subject is in shade but facing sun, with and without fill, how to avoid blowing out the sunlit background.
Thanks in advance!!

Blackwood

Expose for the background and flash the subject.

Nikolai

According to your description, it would not be possible to take a decent pictures of your subject without a fill light - unless you're talking silhouette...
So it looks like fill or bust.
BTW, plain ETTL is supposed to be very good for this type of scenario, you may not even need a lightmeter...

pathfinder

VayCayMom wrote:

I am still a newbie of sorts. I have a meter but have not learned how to use it yet.

I need just a simple tip or two about outdoor shots, when the subject is in shade but facing sun, with and without fill, how to avoid blowing out the sunlit background.
Thanks in advance!!

I am not sure I understand how the subject is in the shade but still facing the sun??? Do you mean they are facing away from the sun perhaps?

Trudy, you need to fill out your profile so posters can be aware of your camera and equipment. Beware, I shoot white lenses, so if you need to translate......


Regardless,
The situation you describe, back lit subject facing you, is best handled in EOS land, by shooting in Manual Mode. Determine the exposure you desire for the background, and then use an EOS flash in ETTL mode on or off the camera, to light the subject according to your desire. The beauty of doing it this way, is you can control ambient light to control how bright the background is, and use flash to light the subjects as bright as you desire. (Shoot the background before trying to shoot the subject so you know precisely the aperture, shutter speed and ISO you need to get the image of the background you want. In Manual Mode you can just center your meter's needle as you adjust the aperture and shutter speed.)

Bear in mind, you MAY need to understand and use High Speed Synch in bright lit areas as you may need a shutter speed higher than 1/250 to kill the ambient light enough. For faster than 1/200th or 1/250th depending on your camera, you will need HSS. On a 580ex or 580exII it is just a matter of turning it on on the flash.

Once you understand what I am suggesting, you will see that you can under expose the background 1/2 -1 stop so it does not compete with your subject, and you can light the subject as bright or as dark as you desire by adjusting the flash output with + or - FLash Exposure Compensation.

One last suggestion, is to add a bit of gel to your flash, maybe a 1/2 CTO of so to warm your subject. If you shoot near dusk, you can adjust your color balance on your camera to tungsten to get a real deep blue sky, and still get a nice warm image due to the gel on your flash.

It is a good skill to be able to estimate the proper exposure out of doors without a meter by using the Sunny 16 rule as well

A link about fill flash from a while back

VayCayMom

Thank you everyone for giving me some guidelines to absorb before shooting again.

I did mean my subjects face is looking at sun, but in shade, sometimes the light can bounce up from the ground and really help.
I am going to try to learn to be better about proper exposure. Thanks !!!