Head is swimming..do I understand?

IF I want to take a picture of say.. two people under a tree with the sun light in back of them (ie- background is well lit- i dont mean the sun is right there). I want the background exposed properly, but also want the people in the shade exp. well. So do I (1) Meeter off the background (2) Hit the FEL button on my subjects? Then snap the shot?

That also leads me to my next "Q" I have the focus on the * button- I assume when I am shooting with a flash, I need to focus M (since I am using the shutter button on meetering the background in this example)

What camera do you have? If you have the 1D series camera, there is a dedicated button for FEL so it doesn't matter if you're using the "*" button for focusing.

If you have the 10D, you can reassign the FEL to the "X" button using custom function C.Fn-13 so, again, you don't need to worry that "*" is assigned for focusing.

However, if you have any other more recent camera, then you'll need to set C.Fn-4 to 0 again if you want to make use of FEL since it can't be reassigned to any other button except the "*" button. Shame Canon took away the "X" button when they put in the little joystick for manual AF point selection.

Theory: the scene described is really TWO scenes, and each should be considered separately for good exposure of both. That is the basic priciple.

Applied theory: you meter the scene behind the main subject and set you exposure so that is correct, and you also provide supplement light (fill flash and/or reflect sunlight onto the subject).

Practice of theory: Assuming scene behind subject meters 1/100 f/16, you set camera for 1/200 f/16 so that the background exposes just a bit darker than your main subject (concentrating viewer's attention to the subject!), then turn on your flash and shoot with flash on auto.

Reality of theory: your flash might not be bright enough to provide light at f/16. So try 1/400 at f/8 for the background...but then you discover that 1/400 is too fast to use with your flash unit (in this example, we're ignoring HSS flash on Canon!)

Since the above approach didn't work because your flash was not powerful enough for the lighting situation, alter your approach so that flash is FILL LIGHT, not main source of light.

Theory unchanged: the scene described is really TWO scenes, and each should be considered separately for good exposure of both. That is the basic priciple.

Applied theory unchanged: you meter the scene behind the main subject and set you exposure so that is correct, and you also provide supplement light (fill flash onto the subject).

Practice of theory (changed): Assuming scene behind subject meters 1/100 f/16, you set camera for 1/100 f/16 so that the background exposes just right. Then turn on your flash and shoot with flash so that it provides just a bit less intense light, to lessen the shadow area on the face.

Reality of theory: your flash might not be bright enough to provide even fill light. So try 1/200 at f/11 or 1/400 f/8 on the camera, for the background...But then again you discover that 1/400 is too fast to use with your flash unit (in this example, we're ignoring HSS flash on Canon!)

Good discussion! I have been practicing this very thing lately. It really is two images. Metering for the background then use the flash to fill in the foreground is right on. Depending on an initial shot and histogram shot, you can then use the flash exposure compensation control to tune the exposure.

sweet. Thanks Guys. I took this image last night and it looked really good- I just wanted to see if this is how people do things. There is so much to adding a frigin' flash!

Wilt- Thank you for your help

(Can't "Edit" for some reason )

Wilt- By having CF4:1 , does that take presedance over the FEL? Or will the FEL * take presedance over the CF?

<<Wilt- By having CF4:1 , does that take presedance over the FEL? Or will the FEL * take presedance over the CF?>>

The answer to your question assumes that 1) I know what model of camera you use, and 2) I know the custom functions for that camera...and I know NEITHER!!!

This question really doesn't make sense. If you have custom function C.Fn-4 set to 1, then that means the "*" button will be used for focusing and can not be used for FEL, or AEL for that matter. I guess I didn't make that clear enough in my previous post, huh?

<<If you have custom function C.Fn-4 set to 1, then that means the "*" button will be used for focusing and can not be used for FEL, or AEL for that matter.>>

You describe the 20D. O\Some other Canon models behave differently.

For example...

For example...some cameras retain the FEL feature, not lose it.

You are saying that you can reassign the "*" button for focusing as the OP described, using C.Fn-4, and some camera will still allow you to retain the FEL using the "*" button? So, give me an example of such a camera, please.

PacAce wrote:
You are saying that you can reassign the "*" button for focusing as the OP described, using C.Fn-4, and some camera will still allow you to retain the FEL using the "*" button? So, give me an example of such a camera, please.

No, I am saying that I know the 20D behaves different from some other Canon model (which one I could not tell you) because I read someone's comment on the absence of FEL on the 20D when the custom function 4 was invoked, behaving differently than another Canon body that retained the FEL.

The 20D doesn't even HAVE an FEL button, unlike the 1DSII and other earlier Canon bodies like the T90.