Ok, so I am having problems with shooting a portrait with the sun low in the horizon, directly behind the subject. I am metering off their face to expose the face correctly and of course expect the background to be totally blown out. I am using 5d mkii w/ 70-200 2.8 lens w/ hood. The problem I'm getting is that the subject has a glare / white haze over them. They are not clear and defined. One of my friends had the same set-up and settings except w/ nikon gear, but he didn't have the same problem. Now I can go into lightroom and use the blacks and clarity sliders, but I would like to get the results strait out of camera (or at least closer). I also thought it could be my filter. So I took it off, but had the same results. Any suggestions or ideas would be helpful. This is kind of driving me crazy right now.
Just so you know my settings were: f2.8 1/500 iso 200.
Thanks,
Brian

Sound like lens flare, try shooting at a bit of an angle, so the sun isn't directly behind the subject.

How about posting the photo? Have you thought about trying to balance things out by using a flash?

post a pic.

a picture says 1,000 words, and you said ~175

BrianHamilton wrote:
One of my friends had the same set-up and settings except w/ nikon gear, but he didn't have the same problem. Now I can go into lightroom and use the blacks and clarity sliders, but I would like to get the results strait out of camera (or at least closer). I
Thanks,
Brian

Then shoot jpeg and do all of your settings in camera instead of post.

Fill flash?

You can get flare but less haze if your lens is shaded or you are shooting at an angle to the sun, use a hat or paper, whatever to shield the front of your lens or stand in the shade.

Sam Hassas seems to be the guy who got the shot quite often... but not sure if he is doing it anymore:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/811997/0

POST a picture. if you can't, email one to someone....

patrick@pwophoto.com

Hammy wrote:
Sam Hassas seems to be the guy who got the shot quite often... but not sure if he is doing it anymore:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/811997/0

Yeah -- but you can tell that he did a lot of post processing on those photos. I would try a fill flash or at least a reflector.

yes, he PP's them, but less than you think. I still, want a picture, know I can help, and await your email. Even so, a quick example of something you could change:

try doing this shot with OM 28mm 2.8 and you can't get decent FG exposure with sun flare, it just lowers contrast heavily. if you do the same with Canon 28 1.8 or canon 24 1.4, you get decent flare effects, without loss of contrast (better exposure

If the sky/sun in the background is sufficiently overexposed, you might be getting a bloom that overflows onto the subject.

Brian I think if you meter for the ambient light in the background then fill flash to expose the face you will get better results. I need F16 and above and sometimes above 250SS to do this. My 1D sure helps when I am trying to overpower the sun and you really do not need that much flash power to do so. Seems to me that wide open A would need a really high SS to achieve what you want which would then be to high of a ss to sync at..

I will upload a pic later today, but it sounds like the light overflow idea. It's just wired because I have seen the shot I want, I just haven't gotten it yet. Even if the sun isn't direcly behind the subject I seem to get light overflow. I really don't want to use fill flash because I'm going for a different look. More high key with a properly exposed subject. Even a little flare would be fine, as long as it didn't effect the subject exposure to much.

Yes, I want some shots like the link that Hammy posted. I don't see any burns in my camera like the linked thread above. Maybe it just is a limitation with my canon / lens combination. I will try some other lens (I don't have the 85 1.2 yet, next purchase). It's just frustrating because my nikon friend had no problem getting it without pp.

1st pic - strait out of camera
2nd pic -pp but still not as clean and sharp as I would like.

Lens flare. Solar Flare. Understand when I use the term solar flare I am referring to what the sensor accepts, not the actual phenomenom, yet it is the equivalent.

Shade the lens opening with anything. And bracket. But most importantly do not allow the shot to dictate what is the most powerful fill flash in the galaxy. Nothing withstands solar flares, which is what occurs to any sensor whenever the sun enters directly into your lens.

Solar Flare Solar flares are tremendous explosions on the surface of the Sun. In a matter of just a few minutes they heat material to many millions of degrees and release as much energy as a billion megatons of TNT.

Post a pic. of yours. Please include metadata.

The pic I posed is mine.

Honestly to me it looks like you're front focused as well. The hair in front of her face is somewhat in focus but the rest of her face is very soft.

I agree with the front focus point. It was difficult to focus with that much light. I should probably shoot at f4 or 5.6 due to subject, photographer movement. For this shot there's really no need to shoot at 2.8. I just like shooting at 2.8.

Hi Brian, shooting with ISO 200 with that strong light is not necessary. And as for front focus, I don't see any focus. And you are correct about F2.8 but why are you interested in shooting with such a low light directly behind the subject? Use the light, don't fight it.

Outsideshooter
When you say use the light, don't fight it, what do you mean exactly?
I want to get some of the effects of flare, but not so much that it overwhelms the subject (or dulls the subject).
BTW Thanks for everyone's comments.

Just looks OOF to me. Hair in front of her face looks sharp but everything behind that is not in focus.

Steve Ickes wrote:
Just looks OOF to me. Hair in front of her face looks sharp but everything behind that is not in focus.

+1