[mickeymax]

Hi all
I took these photos on the weekend but i"m still not getting the exposure right. I was using my new 50mm f1.8 lens and the camera was in av mode, iso400, 1/4000, f4.0, partial metering.
Should I have gone to manual mode and lowered the shutter speed? would this have lightened it up or should I have gone for a larger aperture?
The first pic is the original sooc and the second has had the levels adjusted.
Any advice is appreciated.

Cheers




Rachel

[Steve]

First of all at a shutter speed of 1/4000 sec you should not be worried about getting camera shake or movement in the shot and thus should be using the lowest possible ISO to keep the noise down.

Secondly, use your histogram. If its showing as being very underexposed on your histogram you can quickly adjust the settings to compensate and over expose to get the correct end result.

Its also likely that you have your camera set to spot metering and that picked up on the highlights of the jacket, thus throwing everything else into relative darkness. You can change your metering mode to average weighted for a more consistent result in these circumstances.

Finally, don't be afraid to use flash even when there appears to be enough light. It can often help when there are huge differences in contrast in the same picture. The dark on the boys clothes next to the light of the girls (being brightened even further by the direct sunlight) is what's causing all the issues in this shot. Flash would have helped balance that out for you.

I hope that helps

[Steve]

Looking at your edited shot, the highlights on the girls jacket have been blow now.

A have done a very quick and dirty edit which I hope is a little better...

[mickeymax]

Thanks steve, histograms is something I need to learn up on. Is there any good clear info out there which explains it?
With regard to the metering, I had it on partial but like you said it may have taken it off her jacket. In this case should I have used evaluative or centre-weighted?
I must have another play with editing it.....I don't have any high tech editing program and did it rather quickly but I see your point on the blown out bits.
Thanks for your help.