how can i correctly expose subject and overexpose background?

[fjrabon]

i just bring out my camera to play it out. correct me if i'm wrong i use spot meter to correct the exposure the subject my subject is a water bottle which the light meter indicate at center with spot meter using at f2.8 1/200 iso 100 i recompose it so that i can see the background as well. now the setting will be f2.8 1/60 iso 100 this will overexpose the background. am i doing the correct way ?

If your light meter said that the bottle should be properly exposed at f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100, then that is what you should shoot it at. Shooting at 1/60 (with otherwise the same settings) will make the bottle 2 2/3ish stops overexposed.

In this scenario,

1)meter the bottle,

2) adjust your settings until you have your subject exposed like you want. If it read properly exposed at f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100, you'd use that setting.

3) then you'd meter the background. If you're in manual mode, you can simply read your light meter and it will tell you how underexposed or overexposed the background is using the settings you allowed for in step 2.

4) if it only says that the background is maybe a stop overexposed, then you have to use a different background. There's nothing your camera will be able to do to cause your background to be overexposed if there isn't enough difference in light in the first place between your subject and the background. Typically you'll need a 2-4 stop difference in subject and background brightness to get the background to completely blowout (overexpose to near or pure white)

A fundamental misunderstanding, I think here, is that anything to do with the camera will cause the background to overexpose. All the settings on the camera accomplish is to make sure that it properly exposes your subject. It's up to the light in the scene to actually get the background to blow out with a properly exposed subject. Like I said earlier, the two typical ways you can get that sort of dark subject/bright background are shooting a subject in shadow with open sunlight lighting the background or shooting directly into a setting sun (axial backlighting).

 

[pgriz]

If your water bottle is exposed at 1/200 and your background is at 1/60, then the water bottle is brighter than your background by 2 stops. This is the opposite of the situation we discussed.

 

[Alexr25]

The only way to correctly expose a subject and over-expose the background is to have more light falling on the background than is falling the subject.
If you are using a single light source that just isn't going to happen unless you have an additional light shining onto the background but not on the subject.

 

[junqi]

i just bring out my camera to play it out. correct me if i'm wrong i use spot meter to correct the exposure the subject my subject is a water bottle which the light meter indicate at center with spot meter using at f2.8 1/200 iso 100 i recompose it so that i can see the background as well. now the setting will be f2.8 1/60 iso 100 this will overexpose the background. am i doing the correct way ?

If your light meter said that the bottle should be properly exposed at f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100, then that is what you should shoot it at. Shooting at 1/60 (with otherwise the same settings) will make the bottle 2 2/3ish stops overexposed.

In this scenario,

1)meter the bottle,

2) adjust your settings until you have your subject exposed like you want. If it read properly exposed at f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100, you'd use that setting.

3) then you'd meter the background. If you're in manual mode, you can simply read your light meter and it will tell you how underexposed or overexposed the background is using the settings you allowed for in step 2.

4) if it only says that the background is maybe a stop overexposed, then you have to use a different background. There's nothing your camera will be able to do to cause your background to be overexposed if there isn't enough difference in light in the first place between your subject and the background. Typically you'll need a 2-4 stop difference in subject and background brightness to get the background to completely blowout (overexpose to near or pure white)

A fundamental misunderstanding, I think here, is that anything to do with the camera will cause the background to overexpose. All the settings on the camera accomplish is to make sure that it properly exposes your subject. It's up to the light in the scene to actually get the background to blow out with a properly exposed subject. Like I said earlier, the two typical ways you can get that sort of dark subject/bright background are shooting a subject in shadow with open sunlight lighting the background or shooting directly into a setting sun (axial backlighting).

hi fjrabon,

That means i will meter the subject using spot metering to adjust the setting that i want to read for example f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100. Then i meter the background using f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100 to determine whether i am underexpose or overexpose the background. if i meter the background and the view finder light meter show that its overexpose +1 if i adjust to +2 and go back and capture the subject. the subject and background will be overexpose ?. am i right to say that ? In another words i cannot control the background to overexpose or underexpose ? i have to either get the subject in shadow with open sunlight or shooting direclty into the setting which lead to a proper expose subject and overexpose background ?

 

[fjrabon]

i just bring out my camera to play it out. correct me if i'm wrong i use spot meter to correct the exposure the subject my subject is a water bottle which the light meter indicate at center with spot meter using at f2.8 1/200 iso 100 i recompose it so that i can see the background as well. now the setting will be f2.8 1/60 iso 100 this will overexpose the background. am i doing the correct way ?

If your light meter said that the bottle should be properly exposed at f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100, then that is what you should shoot it at. Shooting at 1/60 (with otherwise the same settings) will make the bottle 2 2/3ish stops overexposed.

In this scenario,

1)meter the bottle,

2) adjust your settings until you have your subject exposed like you want. If it read properly exposed at f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100, you'd use that setting.

3) then you'd meter the background. If you're in manual mode, you can simply read your light meter and it will tell you how underexposed or overexposed the background is using the settings you allowed for in step 2.

4) if it only says that the background is maybe a stop overexposed, then you have to use a different background. There's nothing your camera will be able to do to cause your background to be overexposed if there isn't enough difference in light in the first place between your subject and the background. Typically you'll need a 2-4 stop difference in subject and background brightness to get the background to completely blowout (overexpose to near or pure white)

A fundamental misunderstanding, I think here, is that anything to do with the camera will cause the background to overexpose. All the settings on the camera accomplish is to make sure that it properly exposes your subject. It's up to the light in the scene to actually get the background to blow out with a properly exposed subject. Like I said earlier, the two typical ways you can get that sort of dark subject/bright background are shooting a subject in shadow with open sunlight lighting the background or shooting directly into a setting sun (axial backlighting).

hi fjrabon,

That means i will meter the subject using spot metering to adjust the setting that i want to read for example f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100. Then i meter the background using f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100 to determine whether i am underexpose or overexpose the background. if i meter the background and the view finder light meter show that its overexpose +1 if i adjust to +2 and go back and capture the subject. the subject and background will be overexpose ?. am i right to say that ? In another words i cannot control the background to overexpose or underexpose ? i have to either get the subject in shadow with open sunlight or shooting direclty into the setting which lead to a proper expose subject and overexpose background ?

Yes

 

[Braineack]

That means i will meter the subject using spot metering to adjust the setting that i want to read for example f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100. Then i meter the background using f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100 to determine whether i am underexpose or overexpose the background. if i meter the background and the view finder light meter show that its overexpose +1 if i adjust to +2 and go back and capture the subject. the subject and background will be overexpose ?. am i right to say that ? In another words i cannot control the background to overexpose or underexpose ? i have to either get the subject in shadow with open sunlight or shooting direclty into the setting which lead to a proper expose subject and overexpose background ?

You simply expose for the subject and let the background fall where it may. The background must be brighter than the subject in order to overexpose. This would be incredibly easy to achieve on a normal day.

If you do what you said above, the subject will be +1 and the background +2.

If you really want to control both, you need to use flash.

 

[fjrabon]

That means i will meter the subject using spot metering to adjust the setting that i want to read for example f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100. Then i meter the background using f/2.8 1/200 ISO 100 to determine whether i am underexpose or overexpose the background. if i meter the background and the view finder light meter show that its overexpose +1 if i adjust to +2 and go back and capture the subject. the subject and background will be overexpose ?. am i right to say that ? In another words i cannot control the background to overexpose or underexpose ? i have to either get the subject in shadow with open sunlight or shooting direclty into the setting which lead to a proper expose subject and overexpose background ?

You simply expose for the subject and let the background fall where it may. The background must be brighter than the subject in order to overexpose. This would be incredibly easy to achieve on a normal day.

If you do what you said above, the subject will be +1 and the background +2.

If you really want to control both, you need to use flash.

How will you use flash to overexpose and outdoors background?

 

[Braineack]

I didn't say you could.

To overexpose the background, the background has to be brighter than the subject--there's no getting around that.

but without flash, you cannot independently control the background and subject exposure. That's all I was suggesting there.


The best way to go about this would be to put the subject in shade, but shoot a background that's in full sunlight. When you bring up the exposure for the subject, this will ultimately overexpose the background.