What causes this?

Hi,

I have been a member here for a while and have posted a few things since being here but a problem I have is with the light in my images blowing out.

Now although I have had my camera just on a year now I have only just really started playing with it and what is causing this.

Is this due to what metering mode I am using? Please tell me so I know what to play with to try better my photo's.

Here is an example. Taken today.

This boy has a very pale complexion. Look at the picture overall. His face is the brightest thing in it and is not huge compared to all the other, darker objects in it. Using spot metering would have helped. The ultimate cure is an incident meter. It will give you the proper settings for any situation. Also shoot RAW so that you can recover the blown highlights. After you take the shot, look at the histogram on your camera's lcd. If there is any thing running up the right side, you have lost detail in your highlights. If this is the case, you can use exposure compensation to darken your next exposure. You might try bracketing too.
In this case, you haven't blown the highlights... I lowered the exposure by 1.25 stops and warmed the white balance a bit. Sharpened face hands and chain. Used levels to adjust brightness and contrast.
Other problems... Get him out of the center. His feet are cut off.

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Simply put, your exposure is wrong - for the face at least. His face is going to reflect more light than the rest of him - clothing all dark. It's really not that far off though. Maybe stop down by 1 would fix it.

I use spot metering and then meter off of a specific point that I want to control - so say you meter off of the face and expose for that. It may darken some of the other scene, but that can be fixed later much easier.

I'll have to second Polo and Odi here - they said it quite well.

Basically that black coat threw your meter off. The camera is attempting to meter at around 18% gray and assumes the black jacket is a dark portion of the image requiring more illumination. So it compensates by either giving you the larger f/1.8 aperture. Unfortunately the boys face is probably around 3-stops brighter, so it really blows out.

You want to think "Zone System" or at least in terms of illumination zones. In scenes like this, pick what you think is a midrange average tonal value. Meter off that. The reading should give you something closer to what you need since it will be a compromise between the lighter and darker values. Poloman's suggestion is the best though if you have the time and resources - doing an incident reading. That's the technique I use all the time for outdoor wedding work when you are dealing with white bridal gowns and black tuxedos.

Hope this helps. - Stu

I don't know about the rest of your images, but in this one you have a classic case of a very dark, prominent color fooling the camera's meter into overexposure. Camera meters measure light reflected off of your subject. A black object reflects 9% of the light hitting it, and a white object reflects 36% of the light it receives. Since your camera meter can't tell what color your subject is, the manufacturer sets the meter to correctly measure the light reflecting off of a medium-toned image, something that reflects about 18% of the light that hits it. That's why folks talk about using an "18% gray" card. If your subject is very dark, the meter will think that there is less light hitting the subject, and will overexpose. A very light object will be underexposed.

So, what happened in this shot is that the meter saw that black coat and thought "Oh, my. There's not enough light here." It overexposed the image and the boy's face was blown out. You can easily solve this by working in manual mode. You need to realize when your subject is not a medium tone, then adjust your exposure to compensate. You can also do this by using the exposure compensation function, but I find it's just easier to work in manual mode. Just follow this simple rule: If it's dark, make it darker. If it's light, make it lighter. In other words, underexpose a dark image to keep it dark, and overexpose a light image to keep it light.

The new cameras coming out now have a separate sensor to assist the meter in judging what color an object is (I may be wrong, but I believe the 7d is Canon's first with this feature), so this type of exposure error may be a thing of the past soon. Nikon has had this feature for a few years now, so it surprised me that Canon is just now catching up.

Until you can upgrade to a new camera body, you can print off a gray card from any one of many sources on the internet. Use it as a guide to see if your subject is the same tone. You can place it in front of the camera and take a meter reading off of it, then set your camera in manual mode and use those settings for your picture. Once you get an eye for reading the tone of a subject, though, you won't need the card.

It also occurs to me that if you haven't yet calibrated your monitor, the view of this shot on your monitor may lead you to believe that it is worse than it truly is. Most monitors are too bright.
If you are serious about photography. I would strongly encourage you to calibrate your monitor.
The high overcast skies of England give you wonderful conditions for portraiture. I used to live there, near Bury St. Edmunds.

Thank you very much, This is what I needed to know.

I knew it was because I don't know how to meter properly but now you have all said the same thing, I shall work on it now to get the better results.

Thanks again guys.