Exposure dilema

Cristina Cameron · Oct 30, 2009

Hi there!!
I'm attending a course on photography and I was confronted with this problem:
You are photographing a dark skin bride, dressing in white with the sun behind her, you ca't use the flash, choose at least one option(or more):
1- use matrix meetering and give +3 stops for compensation
2-use matrix meetering
3-use spot meetering on the dress
4-use spot meetering on the face
5-use center weighted meetering

any help available?
thanks

bitdulsus · Oct 30, 2009

I think you search these questions on google. It is the best and the most useful tool.

musicaleCA · Oct 30, 2009

Given the options provided, I'd go with spot metering the face. I mean, you want that exposed correctly, yes? And it's the closest to a neutral grey you're going to find. Just hope and pray your camera has enough dynamic range to capture the dress. Oh, and use highlight tone priority.

davebmck · Oct 31, 2009

Take your best guess at the exposure, take the shot and look at your LCD view and histogram. Adjust accordingly. Bracketing is also a good technique.

Cristina Cameron · Oct 31, 2009

Thanks for your help, but this is for a written test. I'm supposed to choose the best option. If it was a real situation I would definitely use brackting.
Wich one wold you choose?

Garbz · Oct 31, 2009

Writing on the test "Whoever created this test is a retard, does the bride with the dress fill the composition, does the face fill the composition, does the sunset fill the composition, are you trying to take a silhouette, are you trying to shoot the bride, is the sunset important?"

Then I would try matrix metering because whoever wrote the test didn't give enough information to make an informed decision about anything else.

Cristina Cameron · Oct 31, 2009

I guess you're right, I think so too, but I still have to answer it :grumpy:

!
Thanks anyway.

musicaleCA · Oct 31, 2009

Garbz said:
Writing on the test "Whoever created this test is a retard, does the bride with the dress fill the composition, does the face fill the composition, does the sunset fill the composition, are you trying to take a silhouette, are you trying to shoot the bride, is the sunset important?"

Then I would try matrix metering because whoever wrote the test didn't give enough information to make an informed decision about anything else.

This is why I'm bad at academics. I'm the type of person who WILL write that on the test, AND expect a mark for being intelligent enough to see the test's folly. Doesn't work so well. :lmao:

Cristina Cameron · Oct 31, 2009

I have to answer by internet, no chance of writing anything.

skieur · Oct 31, 2009

musicaleCA said:
Given the options provided, I'd go with spot metering the face. I mean, you want that exposed correctly, yes? And it's the closest to a neutral grey you're going to find. Just hope and pray your camera has enough dynamic range to capture the dress. Oh, and use highlight tone priority.

I would agree, however it may be necessary to selectively lower the exposure/brightness of the dress in post processing, to avoid washing out the white.

skieur

Garbz · Oct 31, 2009

Ok I'd say Matrix +3 if I make an assload of assumptions about the situation. Such as the sun location. But really this is something you should argue quite bitterly after the exam. At uni we actually managed to get a question scrapped off the final exam because of retardedness like this.

Consider the following:
Spot metering the face will produce an image that is too bright (depending on how dark the skin is).
Spot metering the dress will produce an image that is too dark.
Matrix metering may work if the aperture is large and the sun is off to one side of the image and the bride gets priority for the exposure.
Matrix metering +3 may work if the aperture is small and the sun is close to the bride and thus heavily influencing the picture.
Centre weighted averaging depends on every bloody thing towards the middle of the frame. Unless you know the exact composition of the shot along with how much of it will be white, black, and sun, you have no way of knowing if this is the right option.

If you fail, write this to your assessor as a complaint, after all the point is that you know the principles of exposure right, and this should give them an indication that you do. ... Err hopefully.

itznfb · Nov 1, 2009

CWA on the sky and use Active D-Lighting for the fill... Nikon ftw. :greenpbl:

Vautrin · Nov 1, 2009

how about just turning the bride around so she's properly lit?

Dwig · Nov 1, 2009

Cristina Cameron said:
Thanks for your help, but this is for a written test. ...

... and a very, very poorly written one at that.

Without a lot more information about the composition (full length, head and shoulders, ...) its impossible to give an answer. Numbers 1, 2, & 5 require that you know the exact composition before you can evaluate the possible effectiveness of choosing those methods, though No 1 seems to be obviously way off base. No. 3 is obviously wrong at this would result in a roughly middle grey dress. No. 4 is doubtful as the bride is "dark skinned"; the result would be overly light (1-4 stops depending on how "dark" the skin) unless "dark" means Caucasian with a distinct tan.

In the real world, the correct technique is a combination of #3, #4, and a solid grasp of the tonal range of the particular camera sensor or film being used. A spot reading from the dress is compared to a spot reading from the skin. You then need to set the exposure so that the dress won't be so light that it looses detail (3-5 stops difference between the spot reading and the set exposure depending on the film/sensors range) and that would also place the skin tone reading the proper number of stops away from the set exposure so that it reproduced an appropriate "dark" tone (whatever that happens to be).