Over Exposed Whites on a Sunny Day

[trumansmomma]

:cool: Hello out there!
Here is my problem (and I fear I SHOULD know the answer to this, but I admit I don't. ) When I am shooting a bride in the sun with my 20D, her dress is WAY over exposed and all detail is lost. Same thing with my dad's old car which is white. It was a sunny day, and the car is so bright there is no detail. How can I fix this in these situations? Thanks in advance to all you experts out there!
Jennifer:lol:

[Jon]

Stop down a little (dial in some "-" exposure compensation), although in the "Basic" modes or Manual you won't be able to do this. The histogram is your friend (with an image up for review, hit "Info" twice and you'll see a small image, the histogram and the basic settings used on the pic). You want the histogram to not be shoved up against either end of the scale, and you don't want any "blinkies" showing in the picture.

[scottbergerphoto]

Usually on a sunny day, you get the opposite, underexposed subjects because the sun fools the camera meter. Do you have ( + )exposure compensation dialed in by mistake? Are you shooting against a dark background like a group of trees? Those two things will give you overexposed images, not sunshine. In addition, when shooting a white dress, unless you add exposure compensation(+) a brides dress will look greyish due to the way the camera meters against an 18% grey standard. Something's fishy with your results.

[jimbo113]

An other useful trick is to walk up to the car (till it fills the frame) do your auto exposure (as it sounds as if you are reling on this) Hold your shutter at 1/2 down (this will freeze the eposure info) than back up to your original position... Auto focus will still work and your exposure on the car will be as iff it was filling the frame....This way you are using you and your camera as if it was a spot meter taking readings just from the area you want to highlight .
You might find this use full or not ...just a thought from my old 35mm days (back in the 60's) before all this fancy technology came along and bit my behind :)
Jim

[Leigh]

(1) Shoot in parameter 2 so the camera is not boosting contrast. ( You can always regain contrast in an image editor-----You can't regain data that isn't there).

(2) Create a custom Parameter Set with Contrast setting fully backed-off for use in extreme conditions.

(3) Monitor the Histogram, and Highlight Alert, and expose accordingly.

Leigh

[Tom W]

Depends a bit on your shooting mode as well. If you use partial or center weighted metering (especially partial) and are relatively close, the center of the frame will dominate the metering. That can add or subtract from your exposure depending on the brightness or darkness of the portion of the image under your camera's center frame.

[mbze430]

that's a first time I heard anyone have overexposed in a sunny bright day. for most novice, its usually underexposed.

[drisley]

I remember when I got my 20D last fall...
I went out on a nice sunny fall day to shoot a game of cricket, where all the players were dressed completely in white.
I too had to dial down my exposure or risk blowing out the whites of their uniforms. I believe I had to use about a -2/3 EC.

[lostdoggy]

I would go with Scotts suggestion. camera meter is design base on the 18% Gray. On hard shoot go manual. Meter off Gray Card and use that setting with bracketing.

[robertwgross]

We don't know what metering mode was used.

As a general rule, as long as the scene is fairly normal, the evaluative metering will do a good average job, but it is not perfect. When you, the user, sees that the scene is not normal, then you need to command a modification. If you see a white dress that is a major portion of the scene, then you need to look for that in the histogram or the image review. Avoid the "Blinkies" at all costs.

---Bob Gross---

[bauerman]

If the dress is the all important portion of the photo that needs to be properly exposed - wouldn't it be wise to partially meter off the dress? Evaluative metering is going to blow a white dress on a sunny day trying to get other parts of the shot properly exposed. This is where the dynamic range available to you with a digital sensor is proving to be tricky.........

[Tom W]

The problem is, if you expose the white dress perfectly in bright daylight, then other parts of the image (like the bride's face) are likely to be underexposed. One must strike an acceptable medium, shoot in RAW, and use DPP's curving functions to balance the image a bit.

[BDM]

If the dress is the all important portion of the photo that needs to be properly exposed - wouldn't it be wise to partially meter off the dress? Evaluative metering is going to blow a white dress on a sunny day trying to get other parts of the shot properly exposed. This is where the dynamic range available to you with a digital sensor is proving to be tricky.........

You could use the practice we used with film shooting. Meter the white dress close up to almost fill the frame. Then, in manual mode, open the lens F stop about 1 and 1/2 stops. The meter tries to make what it sees a medium gray. But a white object is about 1 1/2 to 2 stops brighter. So you need to open the lens stop up that amount to make what was metered as gray white.

Confirm the result by observing the histogram.

Bruce