Josh66
Been spending a lot of time on here!
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2007
- Messages
- 14,593
- Reaction score
- 1,239
- Location
- Cedar Hill, Texas
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
I get what you're saying - and I'm really not a dick. I just thought that post came off really sounding like a dick, lol.LOL... If your "highlight" is middle grey, you probably shouldn't go around calling it the highlight... A black background would not influence the meter reading on your subject, assuming your subject was not an insect or something.
IMO, you just need to read up on the zone system, and maybe read up on spot metering... I'm not trying to sound like a dick or anything (and yet I realize that I probably do), but this is pretty basic stuff...
Well you do sound like a dick but I'll let that go ...and now I will expain so that you will no longer be a dick
here is the typical situation that everyone here seem to fall into. Yhey are shooting portraits outdoors with a subject that is backlit. It's beyond the dynamic range of the camera but they take it anyway...then they complain about the "highlight" are blown out.
That is NOT what has happened. The sky behind them is blue which is just slighly above middle gray. But now it looks white (because they exposed for their subject) and they complain. What they really have done is Blown out midones of the sky and made them white.
That is what I am refering to
and if you have never shot concerts you wouldn't understand the influence of a lot of shadow area on metering, even spot.
OK,Mr Dick?
and I say that just kidding, I know you're not a dick...well..maybe
Sometimes you have to let the highlights get blown out... The outdoor portrait example - all you could really do there is add some fill light. Either that, or let the sky be blown out. OR, take control of the situation, and position the model where this issue won't come up.
I didn't think this is what we were talking about though... I mean, if you KNEW that it was going to be blown out, it's not exactly a surprise, is it? IMO, I still say that careful spot metering would do exactly what the OP is looking to do...