That darkling brightness which falls… onto my excessively backlit pics

April 10, 2008 7:02 PM

Help me compensate for backlight in my shots. I often have to shoot with the light directly in front of me, outside, in very, very strong sunlight. Up close, I can use fill flash, but I have massive silhouette-stylee problems if what I’m trying to shoot is far away. Help me learn to adjust the exposure so that you can at least see the subject in the foreground of the shot.

For example, yesterday, I had to shoot a queue of cars at sunset. The shot I needed (crowds of people outside their cars, facing toward me, so their faces were in the shot) had the sun setting over mountains behind the queue. I couldn’t take the shot at another time – the queue was happening at a specific time and I needed to get the shot right then.

I did try from different angles, so I had backup shots and it wasn’t a complete disaster.

But I really, really wished I had known enough about how to adjust the exposure to at least get a useable, if not brilliant shot of the cars the right way round. Because, today a queue of cars, tomorrow a parade at high-noon with exactly the same problem: people walking toward me with the sun behind them. Or someone with very dark skin in very bright light. And on and on. So I need to work it out!

Any tips, help, suggestions, pointers to tutorials, terms to Google would be brilliant or even what section of the (200+ page...) manual I should focus on would be awesome. I’ve tried “compensate for backlight” and “shoot backlit subjects” and various combos of those. Have come up with a bit about metering, but that has just confused me more.

I’m shooting with a Nikon D70 and a Speedlight SB-600 and I'd rate my expertise as Hopeless to Novice.

posted by t0astie to media & arts (21 comments total)

There's backlit and there's trying to shoot into a bright sun. If the other-angle backup shots worked, they were the picture.
posted by bonaldi at 7:10 PM on April 10, 2008

Would you mind posting an example photo for those of us more visually-inclined?
posted by hobbes at 7:16 PM on April 10, 2008

Use spot metering and meter off your subject. If you can, get a gray card into the picture and meter off that. If that's not possible, meter off your subject and compensate (for example, ordinary Caucasian skin is typically about +1 stop, so dial in -1 stop of exposure compensation).

You will blow out the sky, but that's all right, right?
posted by kindall at 7:20 PM on April 10, 2008

Even if that specific example was impossible backlighting and super bright sunshine are problems that I face pretty much every day. It's all sun, all day*, in my neck of the woods, and I frequently have no choice about when or where I'm shooting. I just have to be there when whatever it is is going on.

Hence, the request for tips and advice about exposure and metering other than trying another angle or a different shot! Which, believe me, I do already.

*Unless it's pouring rain and I'm stuck in a flood. But that's a whole 'nother challenge.
posted by t0astie at 7:21 PM on April 10, 2008

I'd suggest manipulating the light itself as well. The camera can only compensate so much for bad lighting situations. Consider using some sort of reflector to bounce light back onto your subjects. A google search will tell you how you can make/buy a good reflector. Good luck!
posted by expletivization at 7:25 PM on April 10, 2008

^ the subjects are too far away.

kindall's advice is pretty much it. You're gonna end up with blown out skies and soft edges, though.
posted by hobbes at 7:30 PM on April 10, 2008

Kindall, shouldn't that be +1 exposure compensation since the subject's face will be in shadow?
posted by bonobo at 7:30 PM on April 10, 2008

Argh, nevermind--your advice was based upon being able to meter the subject's skin in the first place. My bad.
posted by bonobo at 7:34 PM on April 10, 2008

One more thing. I'm often shooting more - scenes? - than portraits. So parades, queues of cars and so on, where I can't get close to a single subject, but have to show a group of people or things that might stretch for some distance. Like... the cars. I do try and get as close as possible, but sometimes whatever it is is just too big. The other day, it was a barge at anchor - with the light behind it. Unless I actually swam out into the river, I wasn't getting another angle on it. And there were crocs in the river, so, yeah. Not swimming!
posted by t0astie at 7:36 PM on April 10, 2008

A quick compensation

1) Point your camera down to eliminate the sky from the frame
2) Press the shutter half-way down to lock the exposure & focus
3) Re-compose
4) Squeeze off the shot

(assumes your camera works like most in automatic)
posted by Fins at 7:39 PM on April 10, 2008

If you're handy in Photoshop, shoot at the lowest possible ISO (which shouldn't be a problem), do it in RAW, and actually underexpose. The reason being is that you can recover underexposed pixels, whereas white pixels (overexposed) will just be white (no data). Later on in Photoshop, you can lighten up the areas that need to be lightened.

What mode are you shooting in? I'd also play with the AE-lock on your camera if you're shooting aperture-priority, or fully auto.
posted by hobbes at 7:43 PM on April 10, 2008

I'll add to Fins advice... If you can get close to or zoom in on your subject do the metering and either remember the exposure and set it manually or hold the shutter button half way and recompose the shot. The problem may be that most auto focus cameras won't allow you to move back and recompose while holding the button. So remember the settings (F-stop and shutter speed) step back, set them manually and bracket.
posted by Gungho at 7:44 PM on April 10, 2008

On the D50 you can use the AF-AE Lock button, and you can change it in your settings menu to just lock the exposure, not the focus. So you can spot meter the face, push and hold the AE lock button with your thumb while you compose the shot and focus with the shutter release button. Then you're exposing for the face, (the sky will be overexposed.) That's what I do, anyhow. I assume the D70 is the same.
posted by chococat at 7:53 PM on April 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'll 2nd and 3rd the tricks above, and add that you can shoot in RAW and process with Lightroom or Aperture. This lets you boost exposure after the fact, more than you could on a JPG image.
posted by zippy at 8:07 PM on April 10, 2008

Can the D70 do exposure bracketing? If you're shooting a subject that's not moving, you could do a 3-shot +/- 1eV bracket and then combine the images in Photoshop. That should give you enough dynamic range to properly expose the lights and shadows.

Another option would be to get a graduated ND filter to reduce the amount of light from the sky. But they take a decent amount of skill to use properly and really work best if there aren't any objects breaking the horizon line. You can see the effect here with different grades of light absorption.
posted by junesix at 8:09 PM on April 10, 2008

Junesix's exposure bracketing idea is sound, but only if the subject does not move at all and make sure that you use a tripod. Then you can just combine the images using Photoshop's File --> automate --> merge to HDR. Makes for some sweet images across a broad tonal range. Gotta love it.
posted by expletivization at 8:18 PM on April 10, 2008

I should have said...Photoshop not an option, sadly.
posted by t0astie at 11:47 PM on April 10, 2008

1. Use spot-metering instead of matrix evaluative (see bottom of this page). Learn the Zone System well. Or if you have the desire to carry around an extra gadget, buy a fancy spot meter.


2. Reduce down the size of the spot-metering circle. It's buried in the menu (Custom Menu option #11).


3. Set for single-focus, not continuous. Try and focus on areas of high contrast, like a hard shadow on a bright face (AF performs better in high-contrast scenes than low-contrast... use this to your advantage if you can).


4. Set for single-area AF.


5. Shoot with a zoom, so you can isolate your subject to do your metering, then lock exposure, recompose, and shoot. If you ever wondered why people change the AF/AE lock functionality from the default settings, now you know. Most SLRs are designed to lock exposure and focus with the same button. That's no good in a highly dynamic scene. What you want is to be able to lock your focus independent of your exposure. Custom menu function 15 on your D70 is your friend.


6. Never shoot directly into the sun (your lens will flare, I don't care how teh aw3sum it is).


7. Learn the two most important times of the day: Sunrise and Sunset. Or get a snazzy watch that does the calculations for you.


8. Know where the sun will be setting at sunrise and sunset.

posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:43 AM on April 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

A little something I, and many of my friends do is to just meter off the palm of our hand before shooting a single frame. In this case point your hand towards the queue of cars let your palm fill the frame and meter. Dial in your exposure (I always shoot manual and dial in exposure 2/3rds over my palm) then shoot away. Change settings as you move around of course and for effect as needed. If you need to then put on a shorter focal length lens and meter, then switch lenses and continue to shoot.

Another trick I have been told and used is that if you are shooting something on grass in harsh light (in my case it is usually sports) to meter off the grass. That should give you a good base to start with. Sure your sky will always be blown out but it's the faces that matter.
posted by WickedPissah at 7:07 AM on April 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The mysterious force that is making you take these pictures straight into the sun needs to be fought against. All the answers here that you are marking best are compromises, and mostly involving the sky going a searing blown-out white. That's OK if it's a must-get shot, but I strongly urge you to start thinking more about your composition. This boat, for example. Were you rooted to the spot and unable to sidestep?

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you're working for some sort of media. I go through hundreds of pictures a day, from hundreds of different photographers, and rarely do I ever see blown-out shots featuring the sun. I just took a quick scan over the AP and PA picture wires (that's thousands upon thousands of shots from across the globe), and found two pictures with a bright sun in frame. Both were silhouettes for effect.

I can believe you getting one or two shots that you have to shoot directly into the sun, but every single day with no option of changing angles or somehow getting the sun out of the frame? Bollocks.
posted by bonaldi at 9:11 AM on April 11, 2008

Thank you everyone for the metering tips - those were exactly what I was looking for.

Bonaldi, of course I don't have to get every single shot facing directly into the sun. And when it looks like I'll have to, I already try all sorts to get around it with different angles.

Sometimes though, all my efforts fail and I just can't avoid the light in front of me. And that's what I was asking for help with. I don't think it's unreasonable to try and learn a bit more technically to help compensate for backlight when everything else I've tried (and God knows, I've tried) has failed.

No, I wasn't rooted to the spot in front of the barge. But the barge was, uh, surrounded by water on three sides. Mangrove swmaps prevented me from walking away and shooting from the sides further back. I climbed down into the mangroves to see if I could shoot from below, but they blocked view of the barge. I couldn't get to the other side of the river to get the light in front of me because the - stuck - barge was the only way across. I asked about tenders, tinnies and runabouts to go out on the water and get the pic - none available. I got on the barge and tried taking the pic back to land and to either side, but both ways were...weird. Looking back to shore, you couldn't tell it *was* a barge and looking either side it looked like it was in the middle of the river - which was no good because the story was it being stuck ashore. I asked about getting up onto a tower on the barge to see if getting up high would make a difference and was refused access. Not possible to get the shot earlier or later because the stuckness only happened at a certain time of day. So either I was in front of it, with the light in front of me, or not getting a pic of it at all.
posted by t0astie at 4:13 AM on April 13, 2008