Why am I getting dark faces, washed out backgrounds?

Question

Hi,
I am trying out my new Digital SLR. I am taking a picture of a person in shade, with a bright landscape background.
What settings would avoid me doing this. I know flash solves this problem and post-processing (photoshop) can also help. I want to do it without either flash/photoshop.

Can you give me some tips on how to get the faces bright and vivid colors on the background?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Change to all manual mode. Set your apperture and setting to the light readings on the subject. You will find that the background will be almost all white, and will probably bleed from over exposure.

Answer 2

Hi. I'm an extra in three local films made here in Oregon, Mr Holland's Opus, Thumbsucker and Nearing Grace. Tools always used by the film production crew are shiny mirror-like reflectors. With these tools, you do not need a flash.

If the daylight is dull from overcast and there is not a whole lot of direct overhead light from the sun, you can have people assisting you who hold flat reflectors in their hands. I've seen people holding these reflectors that are about 2 to 3 feet by 2 to 3 feet square, literally just a foot away from the subject's face and form, since the camera will not pick up anything but the reflection off those reflectors. The reflectors can also be set up on tri-pods or stands.

The surfaces of the reflectors should not be highly reflective, as this could temporarily blind the subject if the reflected light shines on their face and into their eyes. You could even buy "Space Blankets" (TM) and unfold the metalized plastic sheets and have them hanging from ladders or something like that. They are inexpensive, if you buy the ones that are folded up inside the small 1" by 2" by 4" (approx.) package.

Also, if you make sure that any bright sunlight is in back of you, and your subject is in front of you, facing you, you will not get dark faces, and those reflectors might not even be needed. In order to do this, if you already have the background chosen, and you know where the subject is going to stand, that means the sun has to be in back of you just over your shoulder.

It might take a few days to get the exact time down to within a few minutes, but just choose a time to shoot the scenes when the sun is at an angel behind you where the light from the sun shines over your shoulders and directly at the subject and the background. Do it correctly, and there are no dark faces.

Answer 3

Darryl W's answer is great, but I'm not sure just using reflectors will throw enough light into a strongly back-lit face. Realistically, you will have to either combine 2 exposures, one for subject and one for background, or use a flash. Or put your subject in the same light that is falling on the background.

Why don't you want to use a flash for fill? Match the flash to the ambient, so if the bg is very bright, use at full power, if the bg is subdued, flash at -1 or -2. If you have ittl-bl, that is the auto setting to try. You might need to use a small aperture in very bright conditions, to get a shutter speed slow enough to sync with the flash.

Just experiment, with your dSLR, snapping is free!

Answer 4

The camera's meter is reacting to the bright background and underexposing the subject. Try this:

Set your exposure compensation to +1.

If the face is still too dark, try +2.

If this makes the BG too bright, you'll need to balance the exposure by using fill flash or a reflector.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

It's really just a matter of trial and error. Experimenting with aperture, timing, and exposure. I am wondering why you are not wanting to use your flash to solve the problem though. Could you elaborate on your reason?