Tell me how I need to change this

[rouxster]

I am new to photography and I just purchased an Olympus e-500. I have a question about a paarticluar type of shot that I am having problems with. The shot is taking shots of people under a type of overhang (shadow) with a bright background. For instance taking a shot of people on a boat with a cover on a bright day. The way I get it to work is by using the flash, which I think kind of blows out the people. Is there something different I can do to make the images look more natural? See the attached images.

The first image (the dark one) has the following settings:

Image description OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Exposure time 1/50 s
F-number f/4
Exposure program Normal Program
ISO speed ratings ISO 100
Component config YCbCr
Exposure bias value 0.00 eV
Max. aperture value f/3.5
Metering mode Pattern
Light source unknown
Flash Flash did not fire, auto mode
Focal length 20 mm
User comment
Colorspace sRGB
Custom Rendered Normal process
Exposure mode Auto exposure
White balance Auto white balance
Digital zoom ratio 1
Scene capture type Standard
Gain control None
Contrast Normal
Saturation High saturation
Sharpness Normal

The second picture (the more normal looking one) has the following settings:

Image
Image description OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Exposure time 1/50 s
F-number f/4.5
Exposure program Creative program
ISO speed ratings ISO 100
Component config YCbCr
Exposure bias value 0.00 eV
Max. aperture value f/3.5
Metering mode Pattern
Light source unknown
Flash Flash fired, auto mode
Focal length 20 mm
User comment
Colorspace sRGB
Custom Rendered Normal process
Exposure mode Auto exposure
White balance Auto white balance
Digital zoom ratio 1
Scene capture type Standard
Gain control None
Contrast Normal
Saturation High saturation
Sharpness Normal

[windrider86]

I have the same camera and have to play with the settings quite bit when trying to capture a pic like this. Try shooting with your exposure up a tad and setting your white balance to cloudy.
There is also a setting where you can change the color mode from natural to vivid and a couple of others.
You might also try a slave flash with a deflector of some sort on it
Mind you I am no expert and am just learning my camera so am pretty sure some of the others can help a bit more.

[porterd2nz]

I'm assuming that what you want to do, is correctly expose the background and have the people appear with a relative exposure to match this.

I'm not familiar with your particular camera, so will attempt to explain what I do with my Sony.

What I do is set the exposure for the bright background. This usually takes the form of pointing away from the subjects to a representative section of the background that is about the same brightness as what will be behind the subject in the actual shot. Set the camera for this and take a few test shots and check these in camera.

Then it's a matter of setting the fill flash with or without compensation to light the subjects to the same level.

In auto mode on my Sony it's a matter of moving the camera away from the subject, pressing the shutter release half way down and then moving back and taking the shot. On manual, it usually takes a lot longer

PS: On my Olympus C-170 Point & Shoot, the shutter lag is so long that I can do something similar. Take the shot pointing at the bright area and move the camera back to the subject in time to take the actual photo. The lag is about 2 seconds. I so hate that camera

[Robin Sarac]

Meter on the background and pop up the flash to light your subjects? That's what I would try. Maybe even compensate on the negative side a bit. I've found that I can recover a lot more from the dark bits with Photoshop than I can the bright spots, so I tend to underexpose if I have to choose one or the other.

[clockdoc]

Porter provided an excellent description of the process. Use your shutterspeed to control exposure of the sunlit crowd and your onboard flash to illuminate the subjects. Use the aperture for that sunlit exposure along with the onboard flash output to expose for the subjects. If your camera does not have a builtin mode to handle this then you will have to experiment with flash output power, distance of the camera flash to the subjects and aperture.
In looking at your EXIF data, the base exposure for both scenes was 1/50 second at f/4 for ISO 100. This gives overexposure to the crowd based on the Sunny 16 rule (1/100 second at f/16). Even if the day was overcast, the crowd is still overexposed (theoretically as well as visually from your images). If you had taken this shot on game day and observed the results above, closing down one f/stop, in this case to f/4, would have toned dowmn both the crown as well as the subjects. Hopefully I have not confused you on this. If so, please let me know. Also check your owner's manual for details on this particular shooting mode.

[rouxster]

I apologize if this questions sounds basic, but I'm not sure what you mean by "fill flash"

Then it's a matter of setting the fill flash with or without compensation to light the subjects to the same level.

I've heard the term before and I search DPS for some articles, but nothing helped me out much. Thanks for your help so far.

[clockdoc]

Hi,
I found this excerpt on stevesdigicams.com regarding your camera:

"The Evolt's auto/manual popup TTL-controlled flash has modes for Auto, Red-eye reduction, Slow synchro (1st curtain or 2nd curtain selectable) and Fill-in. The X-synch speed by default is 1/180 sec. but can be changed in setup to (1/180, 1/160, 1/125, 1/100, 1/80, 1/60), with Super FP flashes the X-sync is 1/30 - 1/4000 sec. The flash output is controllable ±2 EV in 1/3, 1/2 or 1 EV steps. "

You may want to look in your owners manual for a more detailed explanation of "Fill-in" flash. Sorry I can't be more helpful but I am not familiar with your camera.

[mdwsta4]

like others said, properly expose for the background and use the flash for fill. in order not to blow out your subjects with the flash, adjust the flash output so it's not as bright.

[hpebley3]

Originally Posted by rouxster

I apologize if this questions sounds basic, but I'm not sure what you mean by "fill flash".

Fill flash is what you did: using flash during daylight to balance out the dark foreground with the bright background. You're "filling" in the front with the "flash".