How to control the exposure?

Hi,

I have a very basic question here. When I shoot outside, I notice that most of my shots show blown up sky. If the subject is a bit dark (may be shaded area/ground) I can control the exposure for either the subject or the sky, which spoil the whole composition.

Is there a way I can expose for both, without using filters or flash? Or filters/fill in flash is the only way out?

You can bracket a series of shots such that the ends of the brackets are the metered exposures for the highlights and the shadows, then combine the images in a layer mask in PS.

HDR photography (which is essentially the same as above) with all 3 shots combined for dynamic range beyond what is possible with your camera.

Otherwise, you have to use a fill flash, a reflector, or a filter as far as I know.

Hope this helps.

John

Hmm. The bracketed exposure makes sense. Thanks for the help

bhardwaj.deepak wrote in post #7730494
Hi,

I have a very basic question here. When I shoot outside, I notice that most of my shots show blown up sky. If the subject is a bit dark (may be shaded area/ground) I can control the exposure for either the subject or the sky, which spoil the whole composition.

Is there a way I can expose for both, without using filters or flash? Or filters/fill in flash is the only way out?

There's a book by a guy (Bryan Peterson) called "Understanding Exposure"either buy it, borrow it or steal it. OK, maybe not steal it but do try and get your hand's on it

Yeah I have heard about this one. I'll pick a copy this weekend. Is it a first hand review from your side about this book?

Deepak:

It's a good book and focuses more on outdoor exposure than indoor shooting. It will really help you to understand exposure outdoors. Plus, the author provides some assignments for you to try out and see results of adjusting settings.

Recommended!

dave

Thanks Dave. I definitely need something like this. Indoors I can work with flash, but understanding the exposure control outdoors is giving me a hard time. I'll definitely try it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

What program are you using? If the sky and subject are only 2 stops apart you can use the GND filter in lightroom to bring the the sky back while keeping the subjects exposure the same.