wearing white for outdoor shoots

[CatchingUp]

Is it ok to discourage people from wearing solid white tops for outdoor shoots?

And if they really do want to wear them, how do you meter or compensate for the white/wash-out that you run in to often?

[gonzogolf]

Yes, its fine to discourage them from wearing white tops. But if thats what the client wants to do, its up to them. I'm not sure what lighting conditions you are thinking of specifically, but the one metering tip I would suggest is to make sure your white aren't blowing out the right side of your histogram. Its easier to bring your mid tones and darks back but once a highlight is blown you cant get it back in PP.

[Psychobiker]

Gonzo is right here - It's best to correctly expose the white, the worst that will happen is that you'll have to duplicate the layers in Photoshop, bring up the mid/lows if necessary through layer masking.

[gonzogolf]

One tip to properly meter is a scene is to shoot a shot of a white terry cloth towel, then chimp until you can see detail in the white loops. Use your histogram to check for blowouts.

[Jannie]

It's sometimes a good idea for you not to wear white when shooting people who wear glasses.

[Benji]

Use a hand held meter, shoot a gray card first and shoot in Raw. You will have no problems. I do it all the time.

Benji

[GSansoucie]

The last time we had our family photos done by a professional, my wife insisted on khaki pants and white shirts. We all had on the same colors. The photo shoot wound up taking place outdoors on the beach right around sunset. I did not shoot these, so I cannot tell you what he metered for, but I can say they turned out quite well. The fact that there was no direct harsh sunlight on our white shirts helped him out a lot.