Blown Highlights

[CorrieMichael]

I am having some issues with my highlights getting blown. I am using diffused light from my window. Canon 40d and a 50mm 1.4 but it doesn't matter what aperature I am shooting at it is looking like I am using a reflector and blowing my highlights? Have I changed a setting somehow? I have been reading the manual and tried googling but haven't found too much.....any help would be great..... Thanks

 

[480sparky]

Post a couple samples, along with the camera settings used.

 

[kathyt]

Are you shooting with your highlights enabled button on? I call this my "blinkies." This will allow you to quickly see the areas you are blowing out, so that you can take another shot after correcting your settings to see if it has improved. Use your histogram too while you shoot. It will be a great tool to see how you are exposing. Also, just because you have a small blown area doesn't mean the image is a waste. It just depends where the blown highlights are.

 

[KmH]

Spot metering mode may also be useful.

Which way does the window face?

 

[PropilotBW]

Which way does the window face?

Doesn't that depend on the time of day?

 

[480sparky]

Which way does the window face?

Doesn't that depend on the time of day?

Your windows move around during the day?

 

[PropilotBW]

Which way does the window face?

Doesn't that depend on the time of day?

Your windows move around during the day?

Lol, good one. Only in certain restaurants!

I have S.W. facing windows in my sunroom that I use for taking pics. I can't use it in the afternoon...so yea, for me it depends on time of day.

 

[kundalini]

Which way does the window face?

Doesn't that depend on the time of day?

Each window will have a nominal bearing, North South, East or West. That is what Keith is alluding to. North facing would be the preference.

OP, in addition to your window light as the Main, can you also add some Fill light with your flash? Hotshoe mounted would be preferred, but even the built-in can aid in this situation.

 

[PropilotBW]

Everingham Rotating House - Home

 

[KmH]

The intensity of light throughout the day is most even from North facing windows.

East facing windows are flooded with light in the morning. West facing windows are flooded with light in the evening.

The OP is in Canada. In the winter below the Arctic Circle in Canada, South facing windows will be flooded with light during the mid-day hours, but not in the summer months.

Using window light is highly variable and the photographer is so very constrained as far as when and how they can light a subject.

 

[Derrel]

The old, old, old black and white film advice has come back!!! "Expose for the highlights, and develop for the shadows." Like Kathy mentioned in post #3, you need to use the "blinkies" and/or the histogram to arrive at an exposure where the highlights are not showin' up on review as flashing or blinking warnings of nuclear over-exposure levels!!! lol... Then, in post, use digital "fill light" to bring the shadows "up"...or use the curves tool to lift the shadows "up".

As KmH mentioned, spot metering might help; One things that often (not always, it depends) happens in window-lighting situations is that the window-lit side is pretty bright, and the shadowed side of a subject is very,very dark. The closer the subject is to the window, the FASTER, and more-rapidly the light drops off in intensity across the width of the picture! Soooo...it's easy to have a very large degree of light fall-off from even one side of a human body to the opposite side, or from the highlight side of the face to the shadow side. If you move more into the center of the room, and FARTHER away from the window, the light's fall-of rate becomes much lower, and the light is shall we say, "more-even".

Anyway, taking the above into consideration, what happens often is the camera's light meter can 'see' all that darkness, the shadows, and can cause you to OVER-expose the smaller highlight zones. And that is where spot metering right below the eye socket on the bright side of the face can be a valid method. That will ensure that you get a highlight-only reading, and then "peg" that as the exposure. Then, after the shot is done and at the computer, lift the shadows.