Exposure Compensation Question

[GovtLawyer]

I am going to be taking outdoor shots of a Dalmation. I have the XT. Obviously, a mostly white dog presents some exposure challenges; much the same way the bride at a wedding does, I presume. I'm a bit confused about which way I compensate the exposure, to avoid ending up with a gray dog. Also, which metering is the best.

My inclination is to go with the partial metering; however, wider shots where the exposure isn't right on the dog may end up incorrect. So, I'll probably stay with evaluative. I also intend to shoot in RAW, so I'll have more latitude to fix up incorrect exposures.

So, if the camera sees a mostly white subject, it will underexpose it and make it gray, so I add a stop or so to bump up the exposure; is that correct? If so, how do I prevent blowing out the highlights?

[gasrocks]

Do some tests on your white dog. Find out how far off it is - and in which direction. My guess 4 clicks to the right with exp. comp. (each click = 1/3 f/stop, to the right is making the picture lighter.) Your camera assumes all dogs/cats/scenes are medium grey. You have to tell your camera you own a white dog by using exp comp to make the pix lighter.

[rent]

if you use evaluative metering, the amount to dial in depends on how much your white dog fills the frame (and perhaps his position in the frame). it also depends on the background color.

my guess is maybe +2/3 for a full body shot of him with a green grass background. but you may want to try bracketing and experimenting.

-alex

[Curtis N]

Seems like this would be a good time to pay close attention to your histogram. Adjust so the highlights (white dog) are near the right but not clipped off.

[tim]

Do it by trial and error, watching the histogram.

[scottbergerphoto]

Put the camera in Manual Exposure Mode(Metering Mode doesn't matter here). Use a zoom lens. Zoom in so that the dog fills the viewfinder(instant spot meter), take a reading and set it. Add 1-2 stops exposure via f stop, shutter Zoom out and recompose. Check the histogram and adjust so that there is a peak just to the left of the rightmost part of the histogram.

[GovtLawyer]

Seems like this would be a good time to pay close attention to your histogram. Adjust so the highlights (white dog) are near the right but not clipped off.

You suggest looking at the histogram. On the XT, the histogram is accompanied by a small thumbnail of the photo, in which blown highlights will flicker. Is this view more or less reliable than just the histogram. After all, if the sky is blown and the dog perfectly exposed, the histogram will be bunched up to the right, but the white on the dog will not flicker.

[robertwgross]

I guess the good thing about shooting a photo of a Dalmation with spots is that it won't matter if your sensor has dust.

---Bob Gross---

[Hellashot]

If the dog ends up getting underexposed, you'll be able to lighten the shadows just fine if you have something like PSE 3 - it does wonders for underexposure. :)

[jfrancho]

You suggest looking at the histogram. On the XT, the histogram is accompanied by a small thumbnail of the photo, in which blown highlights will flicker. Is this view more or less reliable than just the histogram. After all, if the sky is blown and the dog perfectly exposed, the histogram will be bunched up to the right, but the white on the dog will not flicker.The histogram will indicate "clipping" with hump "spilling" off the right hand side of the graph. I don't trust whatever thresholds are used to trip the overexposeure alarm in the thumbnail.

[Curtis N]

I would try to avoid getting sky in the photos of the dog, either by shooting from above him so the background is all ground, or posing him with some nice foliage in the background.

That said, when your histogram shows that something is getting clipped, the blinking highlights on the LCD will let you know what is getting clipped. As long as the dog isn't blinking, you should be ok.