Against the sun in the pool

[TonyUSA]

Hello,

At some point I have no choice to take the picture on opposite side of the pool. I have to take picture against the sun but unable to use flash so the picture will come out under exposed. Please advise.

Thank you,

 

[KmH]

Why can't you use flash?
Meter (spot meter) to properly expose your subject.
The background will be over exposed (blown out).

 

[photo1x1.com]

Are you going to have people in the picture? If yes, first I´d wait until late in the evening and the sun is very low. Expose for the people and let the background overexpose. Second - you can add a reflector. White styrofoam board being the cheapest and one of the best solutions.

 

[TonyUSA]

Sorry, I didn't make it clear. It is at the swim meet so I can not use any flash or other equipments. Also, can not pick the time when to take picture. Yes, the picture will be a swimmer. Please see picture below.

 

[photo1x1.com]

haha, yeah, then my ideas have been pretty useless
I wouldn´t mind blown out highlights in these examples and pushed the ISO up a bit. In Lightroom I´d give the shadows a boost and lower the highlights - maybe work with local adjustments to bring out the faces a tad more and it should be pretty fine.
If swimming is your main thing in photography, and you are going for the utmost image quality, you could use a high speed synch enabled battery pack. I for one like the elinchrom ELB400 with the HS head- lightweight and small footprint, but still pretty powerful. If you are creative, you could even attach the head to your camera. It is not a bargain, but you use the 70-200 IS II f2.8, which is not a bargain either .

 

[TonyUSA]

Yes, swimming photo will be my main thing. It is the rule that I can not use flash so I can not use elb400 neither. I guess only way to get better picture to use Lightroom as I don't have any experience with it yet.

Any other advise welcome please.

 

[fmw]

The image is underexposed. You needed to give it more exposure. It isn't any more complicated than that. You should probably read up on photographic exposure so you know how to adjust from the automated metering.

 

[photo1x1.com]

Yes, swimming photo will be my main thing. It is the rule that I can not use flash so I can not use elb400 neither. I guess only way to get better picture to use Lightroom as I don't have any experience with it yet.

Any other advise welcome please.

If you would agree, I´d love to give it a try in lightroom. In case you have the second image in raw format... No need to publish it if you don´t want to - if you are interested, send me a PM.

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you everyone for your advice.

Fred, I will read on photographic exposure. Thank you.

photo1x1.com, I will love to but they are in jpeg.

 

[photo1x1.com]

Thank you everyone for your advised.

Fred, I will read on photographic exposure. Thank you.

photo1x1.com, I will love to but they are in jpeg.

Too bad - maybe next time there isn´t too much you can do with jpgs. I´ll send you a PM with a try of the one above anyway. You will find out that you can do amazing things in lightroom with RAW files. Do some reading or watch some videos about lightroom and local adjustments.
BTW: if you want forum members to give you some suggestions how files can be edited, set "can others edit my photos" in your profile to "Photos OK to edit".

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you,

 

[fmw]

To simplify, the image is mostly highlights. The swimmer is a fairly small part of the frame. Your meter exposed for the highlights because it is trying to produce an average 15% gray across the frame leaving the hard highlights overexposed and the swimmer underexposed. If I had been there I would have told you to open the exposure two stops from matrix metering or spot meter the swimmer. If you have a raw file, spend some time with the editing software to reduce the contrast a bit and bring up the swimmer.

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you,