Help: Best exposure for dark / light combinations??

[SandeeWig]

The scenario is dark skin with white clothing, full length shot, most likely dim lighting - this is for a fundraiser/fashion show in a relatively small church.

Do I expose for the white clothing so as not to blow it out? My fear is that I will lose the facial features of the person and get a bunch of noise trying to bring them out in post.

I will most likely shoot in manual mode. Unsure of flash use in the church, but if I can use, I only have the onboard flash. I'm not sure about the lighting situation just yet, but am praying it's not a spotlight.

I have a tripod, will either use the 50mm 1.8 or the 70-300, though I'm afraid it will be too slow.

Don't worry, I'm not going in as if I'm a pro - my friend knows my capabilities and limitations - but I would like to be prepared for worse case...or as prepared as I can be given my equipment limitations.

I wrote this rather hurried, so if I left out any pertinent info, just ask.

Thanks so much for any and all suggestions you have. I would really appreciate it.

[Jim Bryant]

Expose for the skin tones, you can always bring down the whites in curves.

[SandeeWig]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

Expose for the skin tones, you can always bring down the whites in curves.

Thanks, Jim! I appreciate the quick response.

No concern with overexposing or not being able to recover the detail in the whites?

Any other tips?

[OsmosisStudios]

If you shoot in RAW you can usually recover a full stop or two in post from whites/bright areas.

Always ALWAYS shoot for skin. Its the centre of attention.

[kencaleno]

Use a hand held exposure meter and get an incident light reading.Regards, Ken

[SandeeWig]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

If you shoot in RAW you can usually recover a full stop or two in post from whites/bright areas.

Always ALWAYS shoot for skin. Its the centre of attention.

Os, thanks so much for the ditto to Jim's advice. I will definitely remember that in the future.

THANKS AGAIN TO BOTH OF YOU!! I'm so excited to say that I think the photos came out really well, and I can't wait to share some of them with you. I'm processing them now, and hope to have them up tomorrow.

Excellent advice. The lighting was okay. It was spotlight, but they had some ceiling lights on which allowed me to not have to use my flash (which was way too overpowering). The 50mm 1.8 was on a tripod about 10 feet away from stage. Minor adjustments in DPP are correcting the slight underexposure. The outfits were varied in color and make for a really nice series of runway shots.

ETA: Thanks, Ken. Unfortunately...I don't have a hand held exposure meter...and I'm not sure what you mean by "get an incident light reading". Care to explain further?

[OsmosisStudios]

Incident light refers to the light bouncing off the subject, not the light hitting it.

So if you were to get a handheld light meter, youd want to meter for the light coming from your subject and not the light going to your subject.

[SandeeWig]

Thanks for the incident light explanation, Os. Good to know the difference.

In case you, or Jim or Ken (or anyone else for that matter ) is interested...just wanted to post a link to the results of this shoot. It turned out pretty well for the most part. Definitely a learning experience.

Major issues were motion blur and the varying degree of posing styles of the models, which made it difficult to know where they were going to "land" at the end of the catwalk. So, between the two, focus could've been a little sharper. Also, I was shooting fairly wide open (3.2), but I should've had a little wiggle room to play with given I was about 10-12 feet from the subject. The attire turned out not to be a major issue, which was my original concern.

The spotlight worked well enough I didn't need a flash, but had to bump up the ISO to 800, which created some noise. Would love to hear your thoughts on the results. I may post one up for critique a little later.

Thanks again for all your help!!

DPS SYS

Flickr set

[Jim Bryant]

Looks like you had way too much fun...........you got some outstanding images of the fashion shoot.

[SandeeWig]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

Looks like you had way too much fun...........you got some outstanding images of the fashion shoot.

Thanks so much, Jim! Yes, I had a blast!!

Being able to come home and spend little time in post was the icing on the cake.