exposure advice - white clothes outdoors

urbanaries

I'm shooting a family this coming Sunday...the family wants to wear white.

Long story short, I'm afraid of overexposing white shirts. I of course aim to expose for faces, but looking for tips to keep the exposure balanced...

Its supposed to be overcast, and we'll be in a fall/outdoorsy setting. My proposed setup is 20D + 17-85 + 580ex + (possibly) lumiquest mini-softbox.

Any suggestions or tips would be very appreciated!!!

lynne

Steven_EJ

Sorry I can't help you out too much, but I think an overcast situation will be in your favor. With my camera if I was unsure about matrix metering I'd spot meter on the face, but either way I'd check the lcd for blown highlights and adjust accordingly.

Swartzy

My recommendation
Shoot RAW, exposure bracketing (menu with + & - 1/3) Continuous mode, remote. Camera will fire off 3 shots in a row..first being normal, second being - 1/3, third being + 1/3. Take a peek at your histogram on each when previewing. You can always go more with exposures either way should that prove necessary. I doubt in soft natural light that the whites will get blown but you may need to do a little highlight/shadow adjustment in PS to achieve the look you want. OK, that's my penny's worth..

Mitchell

Keep checking your "blinkies". Exposure compensation is your friend here. Keep dialing down until you get the shirts just right. On an overcast day you may just get lucky.

My wife also loves the white shirt look. It drives me crazy, and she has no idea how tough it is to take portraits with those shirts. It can be done if your are very careful and attentive to the highlights. These were even taken with fill flash.

Scott_Quier

Mitchell wrote:

Keep checking your "blinkies". Exposure compensation is your friend here. Keep dialing down until you get the shirts just right. On an overcast day you may just get lucky.

My wife also loves the white shirt look. It drives me crazy, and she has no idea how tough it is to take portraits with those shirts. It can be done if your are very careful and attentive to the highlights. These were even taken with fill flash.

Nice looking photos of a very nice looking family. Lucky man!

urbanaries

Mitchell wrote:

Keep checking your "blinkies". Exposure compensation is your friend here. Keep dialing down until you get the shirts just right. On an overcast day you may just get lucky.

My wife also loves the white shirt look. It drives me crazy, and she has no idea how tough it is to take portraits with those shirts. It can be done if your are very careful and attentive to the highlights. These were even taken with fill flash.

Thanks all for the advice! I will definitely take my time and pay attention to the histogram. A friend of mine also recommended using a circular polarizer if the sun does decide to peek through...looking fwd to posting the results, good or bad...