Subject with bright background

How do you guys shoot a subject under a brightly lit background?

For me I'd set meter the background using center weight in manual mode. Then change to spot meter and meter the subject face.

Say the background and the subject differ by 1 stops, I'd add FEC +1 with direct flash ETTL average metering.

Shoots was using 40D, 580EXII and 50mm f1.4.

How does +1FEC translate to 1 stop difference between bg and subject? Just trying to understand.

I oculd be wrong but FEC is just controlling the flash exposure, it doesn't care about bg exposure. You can under-expose or over expose the bg independent of flash.

'coze the subject is 1 stop under from the background. Thus I tried to compensate the subject by using +1 FEC.

danielyamseng wrote in post #6013550
'coze the subject is 1 stop under from the background. Thus I tried to compensate the subject by using +1 FEC.

If you based your FEC value on a spot meter reading of the subject, then you should have used FEL to lock the exposure on wherever the spot meter was pointed at for there to have been any relevance to what you did. For example, spot metering on a light skinned face is not necessarily going to give you the same reading if you meter the whole subject, which is essentially what the flash metering will do, and he's wearing all black. FEL, on the other hand, will only meter the flash within the center circle in the viewfinder, just like what spot metering does.

Each flash shot consists of 2 exposures: the ambient and the flash. I would first decide on how much BG details and the brightness related to the subject. For example, I normally like the subject a stop brighter than the BG, so I would set the camera to M mode, use the aperture and shutter speed combo to underexpose the background by a stop. Then set the 580 to manual or ETTL mode, light the subject separately, use FEC, FEL, and HSS if necessary.

I found FEL works well in most outdoor situations, but considering of the BG exposure first gives me better control over the whole exposure.