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Sunlight issues.

kylesfreelance

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Hdllo I did a little photgraphy outdoors Pictures are horrible sunlight is direct any advice.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
 
Wait until sunset? :er: Sorry, I couldn't resist that.
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How about posting a couple samples?
 
I gotta see um.
 
1. find open shade
2. use fill flash or a reflector
3. wait for better light
 
1. Find shady areas.
2. Start working with reflectors and diffusers.

To give you some ideas:

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Camera Maker: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D5100
Image Date: 2013-04-16 13:43:21 (no TZ)
Focal Length: 45.0mm (35mm equivalent: 67mm)
Aperture: f/5.3
Exposure Time: 0.0040 s (1/250)
ISO equiv: 800
Exposure Bias: -5.00 EV
Metering Mode: Spot
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Manual
Light Source: Fine Weather
Flash Fired: No
Orientation: Normal
Color Space: sRGB
GPS Coordinate: undefined, undefined
Software: Ver.1.00


You've severely overexposed the shot due to high ISO and an open aperture. Are you even looking at the camera's meter?
 
What meter.

Your camera has a light meter built into it. It will tell you if it thinks you're over- or under-exposing the shot. This information will be displayed both in the viewfinder and on the monitor.

Check your camera's manual.
 
I just tryed auto mode its better than manual mode.

That's because the camera will set itself to the ISO, aperture and shutter speed it thinks will produce a 'correct' exposure. Make a note of those settings, then try again in Manual, but set the camera to those settings and you'll get the same image.

Understanding Exposure, Bryan Peterson. Well worth it.
 
Ok - lets talk about baseline exposures when shooting outside in full sun...

See: Sunny 16 rule - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Basically had you set the ISO to 100, the f-stop to 16, and the shutter speed to 1/100th, then you'd have probably gotten a pretty good shot without even looking at the meter in the camera.

If you learn about equivalent exposures... you'd discover that you don't _only_ have to shoot at f/16 to use the sunny 16 rule... any "equivalent" exposure will also work. For example if you open up the aperture a couple of stops... say f/8 instead of f/16, then could just speed up the shutter by 2 stops (1/400th instead of 1/100th) and you'd still get an "equivalent" exposure.

Pick up a copy of Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" (http://amzn.com/0817439390)

You need to learn to read the meter in your camera and adjust exposures accordingly.

You will notice a digital display around the edge of the display that you see when using the camera through the viewfinder (always use the viewfinder... don't use live-view).

You'll see a scale with a 0 value in the center that looks vaguely like this:

-3..-2..-1..0..+1..+2..+3

There will be an arrow pointing to some point along that scale. The goal is to get the arrow to point to the "0". Adjust either your ISO or your shutter speed or your f-stop and watch the arrow... you'll see that it moves (unless it's hard-over at the -3 or +3 side in which case it may be so far out of whack that you have to adjust the exposure for a while before you see it starting to move.)

Your exposure was ISO 800, f/5.3 and 1/250th.

Your f-stop was 3-1/3rd stops up from f/16 (collecting MORE light), and 3-stops up from ISO 100 (again... collecting more light) for a sub-total of more than 6 stops over-exposed, but your shutter speed was 1-1/3rd stops DOWN from the baseline... giving you a total of about 5 stops over-exposed (a "stop" is a "doubling" or "halving" of the amount of light. So 5 full stops means the exposure has 32 times more light than it needed -- thus explaining why this is completely blown out.

For outdoors in full sun, set the ISO down to 100... there's no reason to use anything faster. If you go into a shade, or heavy shade, or indoors, then you might want to bump up the ISO, but in full-sun just keep it to the baseline ISO of 100.

I generally don't shoot at f/16 ... but the rule is designed to create a mental baseline that you can remember because at f/16 (and only at f/16) the shutter speed can be the
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]reciprocal of the ISO speed, so it's EASY to remember that. At one stop down (f/11) the shutter speed needs to be set to the reciprocal of the ISOx2. At 2 stops down (f/8) it'd need to be set to the reciprocal of the ISOx4. So f/16 isn't a recommendation that YOU shoot at f/16... it's there because it's easy to mentally remember that baseline and THEN adjust per your needs.

If I'm shooting people (even though almost all of my glass is f/2.8) I still usually use f/4 to f/5.6 and for shots where I want more depth of field... I'll use f/8 or f/11. I very seldom shoot at f/16 (and there is a school of thought that says due to "diffraction limits", you should _never_ actually use f/16 on a camera with an APS-C size sensor (such as your D5100). I think that view is a bit extreme... but be aware that it's not entirely without merit.

If I were shooting an outdoor event (because you said in another thread that you're shooting an event in June), then I'd start with a baseline value of ISO 100, f/8, and 1/400th sec when shooting in "full" sun. In light shade, drop the shutter speed to 1/200th. In medium to heavier shade drop it to 1/100th.

If this is confusing, just put the camera in "Aperture" priority mode (as long as you aren't shooting action shots such as sports, etc.), set the aperture to f/8, and let the camera do the rest (the "f/8 and 'be there'" rule.)

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