What do I do in situations like this (see inside)?

[BigWebb83]

Ok so I posted a thread with some pictures of my young friend that I'm mentoring the other day and they didn't turn out like I had hoped. I had the camera in AV mode most of the time and it seemed to overexpose the shots pretty bad and blow out the sky and highlights. Anyway, I went back with the same kid to the same playground to try a few more shots and used manual mode this time (very hard to determine exposure by using the LCD in the sunlight).

The method I tried to use this time was to just take a few shots of the sky to get myself to the brightest exposure where the sky wouldn't be washed out. So I was able to find that happy exposure setting and the background is not blown this time. The only thing is now in many of my shots like the one below the subject is emmersed in shadow and you can't see much of him or his face. I've tried to switch metering modes with limited results. Is there something I'm just not doing here?

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z197/bigwebb83/078-1.jpg

[DragonDan]

This really calls for a flash. Digital cameras (film too) have a limited dynamic range.

[BigWebb83]

Thats kinda what I thought the answer might be. Oh well. Like I said before, 430ex is the next piece of gear I'm going to be purchasing.


-Daniel

[sawyer8870]

ISO 100? F5.6 in heavy shade? Try using ISO 400 and a smaller aperture if your lens will allow.

[kj77263]

Flash is necessary to get rid of the shadows.

[Kzaroshen]

I agree with all the above comments, you'll need a flash for a shot such as this. But a remedy and a useful technique at times is to take shots in the same location and different exposures, so you get one with the sky correctly exposed and the person. Then blend the images together and find a happy medium.