Help Metering Backlit Subject by the Sun

I took some photos today, unfortunately with a bright sun and no cloud cover. It wasn't high noon, but it was late enough to be very bright. I ended up with some hotspots and I'm trying to figure out how to fix this problem.

Shutter 1/250, ISO 100, Canon 60D, 2 430 - EXII's, L-358 Meter, Pixel Kings.

I placed the subjects with backs to the sun. Shade side ambient reading of about F4. With meter facing the sun I got F11 - 3 stops difference. So I shot at f10, ETTL to hopefully bring the subjects up with a little rim light. Subjects exposed okay, but still got hot spots on head and blonde hair. The shoulders, sides of faces, etc were good. Its this simply unavoidable due to blonde hair/bald heads, and just shoot to the right to make it less noticeable? I doubt 1/3 stop changing to F11 would have gotten rid of it.

What is the proper process for a shot like this? Did I do something completely illogical in my setup?

I meter the subject on the shade side and then shoot anywhere from where the meter says to shoot at to one stop underexposed.

How much I underexpose depends on how bright the sun is, the subject, and the BG.

You can take a meter reading on the shadow side, shoot a test image, and look at the histogram. More often than not the skin tones are going to be around the middle of the histogram and then the histogram will taper off quite quickly to the left, well before the left edge of the histogram graph. You will also likely see a bunch of info on the far right side of the histogram.

Your goal should be to reduce the exposure and move the left side of the histogram over to the edge without clipping any of the blacks. If you underexpose too much you will end up having to lighten up darker areas in post and end up w/ a lot of noise. If you don't underexpose enough you may end up w/ more blown out areas and a reduction in contrast than you can't fix in post.

Bald heads/blond hair would not be great in full sun. From your description you slightly over-exposed the ambient, which would make the problem worse. Since what you're trying to do is control the ambient and balance the shadow side by filling with flash, how about going the other way and going beyond f/11 and/or use HSS (if possible with your lighting setup and if your lights are close enough to give enough light at less than full power) to further drop the ambient exposure? Other possible solutions include using a diffuser or gobo behind/over your subjects to put them in diffused light or partial shade, or moving to where they'll be in natural shade (e.g., in front of some trees, a wall, etc.).

See here for some really good tips:
http://neilvn.com …ight-sunlight-with-flash/
http://neilvn.com …09/10/25/the-mid-day-sun/
http://neilvn.com …t-with-and-without-flash/
http://neilvn.com …-bright-sunlight-wedding/

I will check out the links. I understand I slightly overexposed ambient, I just didn't think 1/3 stop should give me hotspots and was making sure my process made sense. I will try dropping the ambient and see how things look. Thanks!

There's a good chance you could have under exposed by 1/3 stop and still had clipping in the hair.

Tried again - ended up underexposing nearly two stops, and still ended up with some close calls - but they made it and looked great. Wow - do I need more power... Now I know why people spend the money on the 580... One shot needed TWO bare 430 EXII's... Time for the AB800 and Vagabond order if there is to be any modifier use in my future....

The 580 power is almost identical to the 430 when used in a modifier.