blown out background

[bigd]

Hi I have a canon rebel t1i and I was using a canon 28-135 lense and a canon ex500 flash with a wescott umbrella the flash settings were set to +3 it was between 1 and 3pm very sunny and bright. we were inder a balcony in the shade shooting away from the building with a river about 30 feet behind the subject. the subject was lighted very well but the background in half my pictures are blown out and almost completely white. what was I doing wrong and what could I do to prevent this in the future. can i fix these pictures in editing? if so how and what program?

p.s. the batteries got so hot I nearly burned my hand when changing them out. any suggestions??? or is that just the way it is?

[OsmosisStudios]

Example with EXIF please.

[CanonRebelz]

You were shooting with flash at +3? That will lead to blown out background if you do not compensate in camera. If you give EXIF and picture example we can stop taking shots in the dark here

[Swisstony10]

The Lighting Technique forum might be a better place to ask too..

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Example with EXIF please.

+1
yes please.

[bhursey]

Just from the description it sounds like your shutter speed was to slow or ISO to high and your were at to wide of an aperture. Out side is hard unless you have ttl High Speed sync your limited to 1/250. If you switch to AV mode and drop the settings to 100iso I bet that the shutter speed will at least be 1/640+ So in that case you will have to switch to high speed sync and manually set your settings to what the av exposure of the background was and fill.

But really we need an example images and the EXIF data

[bigd]

Camera Model Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Firmware Firmware Version 1.0.9
Shooting Date/Time 7/17/2010 1:30:03 AM
Shooting Mode Shutter-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/125
Av( Aperture Value ) 3.5
Metering Mode Spot Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 100
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Focal Length 28.0 mm
Image Size 4752x3168
Image Quality Fine
Flash On
Flash Type External E-TTL
E-TTL II flash metering Evaluative flash metering
Flash Exposure Compensation +3
Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain sync
FE lock OFF
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode One-Shot AF
Picture Style Standard
Sharpness 3
Contrast 0
Saturation 0
Color tone 0
Color Space sRGB
Long exposure noise reduction 0:Off
High ISO speed noise reduction 0:Standard
Highlight tone priority 0isable
Auto Lighting Optimizer 0:Standard
Peripheral illumination correction Enable
File Size 4310 KB
Dust Delete Data No
Drive Mode Continuous shooting
Live View Shooting OFF

[GadgetRick]

+3 on the flash would be a big part of your problem. When I'm shooting with an umbrella, softbox, etc. I'm usually at much less than full power--especially in bright conditions. Your shutter speed was also slow for bright conditions (as you described but, with no photo, it's hard to tell for sure).

[OsmosisStudios]

The problem here isnt settings: you've got too bright a background. Your flash is powrful, but it can't compete with that much sunlight.

[bigd]

Thanks. I was thinking the same thing but I wanted another opinion. I used +3 on my flash to try and overpower the background. It seems it did not work.