Overly bright sky..help with metering please.

Found a great spot to shoot some pics with an old building in the background...but the sky was really bright behind the actual building..everything else was quite dark as there was rain coming).
Metering is not something I understand yet...although I am wading my way throungh "Understanding Exposure". I was using Manual mode and a tripod and at f5.6 was getting shutter speeds of 1/40th ISO was 100. I was concerned that cranking the ISO up further to raise the SS a bit for some handheld shots would make the pictures even brighter. What do you do when you have strong backlighting like this? All my pics are slightly overexposed. I rescued this one with some PP but any that had his head against the sky have lost detail in his face and hair.

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I would have expected them to be underexposed due to the influence of the sky. This shows how the subject can affect the exposure & why manual keeps me worry free:
Post #47

In a setting like that where the light isn't changing, try manual in those tough conditions. First set the f-stop & shutter speed you need. Then adjust the ISO.
Need an exposure crutch?

The building isn't moving any time soon I would guess, so return at a time with better lighting. I like to shoot shortly after sunrise before it has time to get warm.

if the brightness of the sky is 2EV brighter than the brightness of the subject light (18% grey), it naturally will appear whitish rather than blue. The only way to improve the saturation of the sky is to make the subject illumination brighter, so the dynamic range is reduced. So this often means use of a reflector or use of fill flash.

That was a very interesting read! Thanks! I will have a go at using my hand as my 'grey' card later.It all makes complete sense.
I actually AM using Manual (see above) and chose f5.6 so that I could still get a bit of shape to the building in the background and yet isolate my subject. I have only just started using Manual so still getting used to using my meter to set SS...but like it says in the article you linked...the meter readings can change depending on where your camera is pointed.
Thanks muchly!

I'll add to what Frank said above:

The reason why the shots were overexposed is that the camera was exposing for the dark foreground -- that is, the camera was bringing the exposure for the foreground up to a "medium" tone which would make the sky and backlit hair overexposed, and if you used a flash to give fill light to the boy it would tend to overexpose as well.

Upping the ISO to get a faster shutter speed would be fine and useful in low-lit situations like this. Contemporary cameras give very clean shots using higher ISOs. Noise can be noticeable at the higher ISOs but can be dealt with pretty effectively in software. In that scene, if you needed to up the shutter speed, an ISO of 800 or even 1600 would give a real boost without killing your image quality.

Wilt...I just thought of a reflector whilst browsing a photo mag over lunch. I must find one from somewhere. The sky actually was white...not a scrap of blue to be seen...just very glary clouds.
Stephen...I will be back there on Sunday so hope for better conditions...it will be about 10.30 am but it's winter here so the sun will still be low and diffused and behind me too....I did comment to my son that the building would look stunning with a blue sky behind it.
Many thanks to all who answered.

Thanks Tony..I don't know why I was thinking upping the ISO would make the pics even brighter...I think because my understanding is that ISO adds more light...and I felt like I had too much coming from the sky already.
Here is the first photo I took...which I always do to show the shoot location and conditions. Fairly bland and colourless with the lighting. The photos may lend itself to some black and white PP maybe.

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Hazy,

Pump up the contrast and it will probably jump up a bit more for you.

ISO is tied into shutter speed and aperture for your overall exposure. In this case, if you want more selective focusing, go ahead and boost your ISO, keep your aperture wide, and your shutter speed manageable. You'll get a good shot. And, I'd say don't worry about the sky in this composition. Your subject is what counts.

To the OP, a grad filter is out of the question, it would affect your subject aswell. So in this case, I would meter the sky so as to make sure it isnt blown out and worry less about the building, you will still get some detail although slightly under exposed. Then use fill flash for the subject. As an extra, you could manip the raw and create two layers within PS, manually selecting the slightly underexposed building and brightening it up a tad. After that, overlay with the correctly exposed sky and just mask out the building.

Go to an office supply or art store & get a 30X40" white double weight art board & it will work great!