Why does this photo look like this ? Pls help

I took a shot and just wondered why it appears so dark even in daylight, I tried taking the photo from an angle, this didnt seem to help. Are there any tips for taking pictures in sunlight apart from using the flash.

I just find it weird that in good ambient light, photos still look very dark.

Thanks.

The light is behind your subject, so his face is NOT in sunlight. The camera has metered for the background which IS in bright sunlight so much brighter. You would need to increase exposure (by using +ve EC) to give enough to expose your subjects face correctly. That would however mean that the background is now very overexposed and so will appear very washed out or even blown out in places.

The best way to deal with this is to use fill in flash, where you set the camera to expose for the background and let the flash add enough light to expose the subject correctly. Alternatively, a reflector or piece of white card etc., could be used to bounce some sunlight back into their face (this can make them squint however if the reflector is bright)

Exactly, well put sandpiper

spot meter, fill flash, or exposure compensation or a combo of all of those. Maybe even go up close, spot meter, set that in manual, go back, compose and focus, shoot.

If you have a smart phone, there are also light meter apps that work well, use one of those and then set your camera manually.

EXiF says flash fired, so I'm thinking spot metering would have really helped here. (Pattern was used).

sandpiper wrote in post #16335825
The best way to deal with this is to use fill in flash, where you set the camera to expose for the background and let the flash add enough light to expose the subject correctly.

A quick question from a flash newbie; Will the flash (say a 480EX II) automatically tell how hard it needs to fire to properly fill in the shadows of the guy? Or will you have to meter separately for the flash?

Awesome advice btw sandpiper.

neimad19 wrote in post #16336855
A quick question from a flash newbie; Will the flash (say a 480EX II) automatically tell how hard it needs to fire to properly fill in the shadows of the guy? Or will you have to meter separately for the flash?

Awesome advice btw sandpiper.

If you set the flash to ETTL mode it will work automatically. How it works with balancing the light depends on which mode you have the camera in though. The easiest way to use it for fill flash is to set the camera to Av mode and the camera will meter and expose for the ambient, to give you a correctly exposed background, while the flash will expose the subject correctly. You can manage the amount of fill by adjusting the FEC on the flash, so that the subject doesn't look overflashed. Typically you might turn down the FEC by half or a full stop to lighten the shadows but keep it looking natural.

You can control the balance with the ambient light with the shutter speed, as that will only affect the ambient exposure. The flash exposure is so short that it will give the same exposure for 1/250th as 1/60th, but the ambient exposure will be two stops greater at 1/60th.

If you need a shutter speed, for the ambient light, higher than your synch speed you can set the flash to HSS mode which will fire a sequence of flashes to deal with the fact that the shutter is never fully open but a travelling slit.

sandpiper wrote in post #16336904
If you set the flash to ETTL mode it will work automatically. How it works with balancing the light depends on which mode you have the camera in though. The easiest way to use it for fill flash is to set the camera to Av mode and the camera will meter and expose for the ambient, to give you a correctly exposed background, while the flash will expose the subject correctly. You can manage the amount of fill by adjusting the FEC on the flash, so that the subject doesn't look overflashed. Typically you might turn down the FEC by half or a full stop to lighten the shadows but keep it looking natural.

You can control the balance with the ambient light with the shutter speed, as that will only affect the ambient exposure. The flash exposure is so short that it will give the same exposure for 1/250th as 1/60th, but the ambient exposure will be two stops greater at 1/60th.

If you need a shutter speed, for the ambient light, higher than your synch speed you can set the flash to HSS mode which will fire a sequence of flashes to deal with the fact that the shutter is never fully open but a travelling slit.

Wow. Thanks for the awesome reply! Definitely copying that and saving in a txt doc. for later. I appreciate it! Next step - start saving for the 480...

Damien

KirkS518 wrote in post #16336329
EXiF says flash fired, so I'm thinking spot metering would have really helped here. (Pattern was used).

Its obvious that flash was used in he first photo but not in the second. You can see distinct differences like the dark shadows on the subject's shirt and lack of facial details in the second photo. My guess is that the built-in flash was used and it couldn't provide enough fill light in such a strongly backlit situation.

Tough job with dark skin and bright sky. The first one can probably be saved by selectively brightening his face - the second, doubtful. If you want to see some takes on it, turn on image editing in your profile.

Or position your subject so the light hits his face and not his back...?

thedcmule2 wrote in post #16338033
Or position your subject so the light hits his face and not his back...?

The problem with that is that, in bright, direct sunlight, the face will look flat and washed out if the sunlight hits straight on and, if it hits from an angle, the strong (referred to as "hard") light will result in bright areas and very dark/strong shadows, which usually look unattractive. In addition, when facing into direct, strong sunlight the subject will often be dazzled and as a result squint.