Taking shots of subject against bright light

[AQUAGEM46]

I took a photo of a subject standing on a beach against a bright sunrise using my EOS-400D. Without using a flash, the subject appeared dark; using a flash, the result appeared washed-out. My objective was to capture the subject clearly without losing the beautiful sunrise as background. Please help.

[teaking]

Im affraid it is one or the other in a case like this you expose for the foreground being the subject or background being the sunset. The only way I know to try to get around this is merging exposures which is also refered to as HDR but you would need three shots with different exposures with the subject remaining still and also some software one free program I know of is Picturenaut Overview

[dcclark]

I suppose you could attempt something with reflectors -- reflect some ambient light onto the subject. But as teaking said, this is basically a one-or-the-other situation. The backlighting will be much brighter than the light on the subject, and your camera can't cover such a broad range of brightnesses (its dynamic range is much smaller than that of your eyes).

[natek313]

Originally Posted by dcclark

I suppose you could attempt something with reflectors -- reflect some ambient light onto the subject. But as teaking said, this is basically a one-or-the-other situation. The backlighting will be much brighter than the light on the subject, and your camera can't cover such a broad range of brightnesses (its dynamic range is much smaller than that of your eyes).

I'm no veteran in flash photography, but is this really a one-or-the-other situation? I don't see why a fill flash (off-camera would be ideal) would wash out the subject. While I've yet to try this particular "problem," I've seen many successful photos taken in these conditions.

[autofocus]

What are you shooting with?..Many cameras will let you adjust your flash output up or down. By doing so, you might strike a happy medium with your photo

Vinnie

[Edsport]

Yup, fill flash. Adjust the camera to set the flash very quickly so it wont wash things out...