Im in need of some advice here guys, i know the light hasnt been that good lately but im having trouble getting shots of my subjects when on top off bushes etc and the background is sky, they are comming out a bit dark even when what light there is is at my back, so what settings should i be using as what ive tried is not really working great.

Thanks Andy

Take a through the lens reading of the back of your hand in the same light same direction (assuming you're Caucasian) set this reading on manual but open up one stop and start shooting

Cheers tim, will give it a go.

Andy.

Things you can try...

1 If your camera has 'spot metering', try (spot) metering on your subject, so the camera ignores the bright background when deciding the correct exposure.

2 Use exposure lock. Point down at the bush, or the ground and press the exposure lock button so it locks the exposure on the darker bush. Then focus on your subject and recompose and shoot.

3 After you shoot, check your result on the LCD display. If your subject is too dark, dial in some +ve exposure compansation (+EV), like 1 or 1.5 stops.

4 Just bracket everything so you have a 0 EV version, a +1 EV version, and a -1 EV version of the same shot. (Doesn't need to be 1 EV differences - try 1.5 or even 2 stops.) Then you can decide when you get home which is the best one and bin the other 2. This is the lazy man's way. I use it a lot . For your situation, where you know in advance the issue is going to be a case of needing to increase the exposure of the subject over what the camera will think is the correct exposure, you can shift your bracket, so instead of it being -1, 0, +1, you make it 0, +1, +2.

When you are pointing up to shoot an object against a bright sky you often have to accept that to get the subject exposed correctly you are going to blow out the sky in the process. Remember also when using +EV settings it is going to give you longer exposures, so be wary of motion blur and use high ISO if necessary to get your shutter speed fast enough.

Col

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Thanks col, will be trying this out next time the light is s--t. (that will be the rest off the year then)

Andy.

Hi Andy/

Aye, well, after many years of my standard mode being aperture priority, I have this year switched to shutter priority - because there has been so little light . The problem with shutter priority was always that you needed auto ISO to be able to go fast, and in the past that was just too noisy a lot of the time. But the newer cameras are less noisy and the noise filters in Photoshop etc are so good now that you don't need to be afraid of shooting in high ISO. About half of what I am shooting these days is in the ISO 400-1600 range.

Col

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Hi col, shutter priority (tv) is the main setting i use and as you say most off my shots are in between 400-1600iso then take some noise out on the computer after, i find this setting easier to use on duller days.
thanks for the advice,
Andy.

Hi if you are interested in photography, and want to learn lots more, you should try a site called Dpreview its great, I have been on this site for 10 years and its excellent.
Alan

Hi Alan/

Yes, useful. (We gave DP Reviews a mention in the Guide upstairs )

Here's another useful one for tutorials on techniques, etc.

Cambridge in Colour

Col

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