How to Meter inconsistent light

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Archive 2008 · How to Meter inconsistent light

Travis Harris
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p.1 #1 · How to Meter inconsistent light

Greetings!

I am using a Canon 50d (if it matters)..

Typical situation that frustrates me... as hard as I try to do all of my shoots in nice even lighting.. sometimes I am faced with situations where the background is BRIGHT and the subject is darker.. i.e. if I use spot meter and point my center focus point to the background I might be at like 1/250 for proper exposure... but if I look at the meter on my subject I would need to be at 1/80 lets say for a good exposure.. obviously I meter for the subject and get a blown out background. or in some situations I will have a under exposed background.

I guess I feel like I can answer my own question, and say that there IS no way around this regardless of what meter mode the camera is set to.. if there is a significant difference in lighting between the subject and the surrounds... then you are just stuck? The ONLY way around it would be to take 2 shots of the same thing one exposed for the subject, and one exposed for the background and blend them in PS?

Other thoughts?

Nov 26, 2008 at 03:52 PM

paulhodson
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p.1 #2 · How to Meter inconsistent light

Digital cameras (in particular) have a restricted dynamic range - if the range encountered exceeds that of the camera this is basically the solution. However, you can also take one exposure (Raw) and convert it twice and blend those images. This will extend the dynamic range without making it necessary to use a tripod - which with moving subjects does not work anyway for this purpose. Bracketing your exposures will give you a choice of starting image for this process too.

Nov 26, 2008 at 05:30 PM

EltonTeng
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p.1 #3 · How to Meter inconsistent light

Paul gave you great advice. Also, you can use fill flash in the situation you're describing. You can also use the spot meter (if there is one on the 50D) to detect the exposure for the face.

Nov 27, 2008 at 05:41 AM

44lefty
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p.1 #4 · How to Meter inconsistent light

The rule is: expose backlight plus 2 stops (as you have already noted in your post). The rule can be broken for particular reasons; such as over-exposed hair to create a "halo" effect, etc.

Larry

Nov 27, 2008 at 06:25 PM

Travis Harris
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p.1 #5 · How to Meter inconsistent light

Great! Just to clairify... when you say expose the backlight.. you mean to meter and expose the background brightness , then add 2 stops?

For example lets say I am at f8 and 1/250 for "background" .. but if I spot meter on the face of my subject I maybe at f8 but only at 1/80... of corse with a blown out background too..

so... we are saying to shoot (in the example) at f8 and say 2 clicks less then 250 on the shutter (I can not remember what the number is off the top of my head...)...

Nov 30, 2008 at 11:02 PM

44lefty
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p.1 #6 · How to Meter inconsistent light

sharp_glass wrote:
Great! Just to clairify... when you say expose the backlight.. you mean to meter and expose the background brightness , then add 2 stops?

For example lets say I am at f8 and 1/250 for "background" .. but if I spot meter on the face of my subject I maybe at f8 but only at 1/80... of corse with a blown out background too..

so... we are saying to shoot (in the example) at f8 and say 2 clicks less then 250 on the shutter (I can not remember what the number is off the top of my head...)...

Yup. Remember, shutter speeds and f/stops are reciprocal, so you can adjust the exposure with either the f/stop or the shutter; or a combination of the two, if you wish. e.g. You can shoot at f/8 and 1/60; f/4 and 1/250; or f/5.6 at 1/125.

Larry

Dec 01, 2008 at 12:13 AM

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