Over-exposed faces during sunset

[IvanS8]

Ok, here is the story:

It was a great sunny autumn day on Sunday so I decided to go out with my flatmates and shoot some portraits and landscapes using my brand new Canon EOS 500D + 18-55 IS.

It was about 16:00, so the sun was just about to go behind the hills and it looked like a perfect opportunity to catch the "golden hours" and capture the yellow leafs on the trees in the park.

Being relatively a newbie into DSLR photography, I decided to "play it safe" and for most of the shots I kept to the auto modes on the dial (mostly P, AV and Auto) expecting that the camera will do a good job in deciding for the exposure values.

Everything looked good on the LCD, but when I checked the pictures out on my PC I noticed that most of my photos were overexposed. This was especially the case with people's faces and also the sky when I was shooting landscapes.

So my question is: is this an expected behavior?
Was i supposed to use the M mode and set all the exposure values myself?
If yes, then why so? Was this a special case because of the time of the day?

Also most of the colors were extra warm, having kinda like orange-ish tone, but i figure out this was because I did not set a custom white balance. This can be easily corrected with post-processing, but not the case with the over-exposed ones, which are impossible to fix.

What was I doing wrong?


Thanks a lot,
Ivan

[Chip]

Can you post some examples, along with the EXIF data? That would sure help us help you figure out what happened. For example, in the photos with the over exposed faces, we could tell whether or not the flash fired and contributed to the over exposure.

[IvanS8]

Hi Chip, thanks for the reply.

Here is some more info about my shots. I was using the central AF point for metering, not the automatic selection (maybe this was my mistake?). Most of the times locking the focus on my subject first, and then recomposing. Flash was never used in any of the photos.

Here are some examples along with the meta data. Notice the faces on the portrait photos, and the too-bright white sky on the landscapes.

Picasa Web Albums - stojmir - Too sunny Autumn

I guess next time I should pay more attention to the histograms.

[natek313]

In addition to Chip's questions, did the landscape scenes you were trying to capture have a wide dynamic range? That is, did the scenes have a lot of dark shadows and bright highlights?

Posting some examples (a couple portraits and a couple landscapes) would help greatly.

[Murtasma]

What metering mode were you using? Since the brighter part of the scene is in the center of the image where the faces are try using a metering mode such as center or partial when your in direct sunlight like this. Your manual can explain the different modes and when they should be used.

Here is a nice short video that gets straight to the point.
YouTube - Canon 50D - Choosing a Metering Mode

[IvanS8]

Thanks Murtasma, I think your theory is valid.

I spent a lot of time the last two weeks reading the basics, including aperture, shutter speed, ISO, DOF, focusing, but what seemed to me like a more advanced topic, turned out to be crucial for my last failed shooting attempt. So, for some reason I presumed that the metering is done at the same time and using the same method as focusing.

I just checked my settings and looks like I was using evaluative metering. I guess that was the reason why most of the faces on the portraits were over-exposed.

I will have this in mind next weekend and I hope I will bring back some good photos worthy for show-off. :-)

Thanks a million for your prompt responses.

[Chip]

Remember that most of us only show our good shots, not our failures. We're all (hopefully) always learning.

It really does help a lot to learn your camera and to learn how it reacts in different situations. But this takes time, attention to detail, and - unfortunately - lots of mistakes along the way.

That way, for example, if you run up to a similar situation again, you know now that your camera will over expose the faces if you leave it in evaluative metering. So, you can either (a) keep it in evaluative, but turn down the EV by (just a guess) one stop; or (b) spot meter off one of the faces. Then, with the results you get from that session, take note of your results, and toss that into your bank of experiences.

Soon, and with enough attention to what worked and what didn't, you'll know what your camera will do in a wide variety of situations, and using the right settings will become 2nd nature.

For your landscape shots, it's very hard to expose a photo properly when part of the scene is in shade and part is a sunny sky. Maybe frame a shot so that the sky isn't included? Pointing the camera away from the sun should help, too. Again, trial and error, with some attention given to what works well and what doesn't, should prove useful.

Keep it up!

[natek313]

Originally Posted by IvanS8

Thanks Murtasma, I think your theory is valid.

I spent a lot of time the last two weeks reading the basics, including aperture, shutter speed, ISO, DOF, focusing, but what seemed to me like a more advanced topic, turned out to be crucial for my last failed shooting attempt. So, for some reason I presumed that the metering is done at the same time and using the same method as focusing.

I just checked my settings and looks like I was using evaluative metering. I guess that was the reason why most of the faces on the portraits were over-exposed.

I will have this in mind next weekend and I hope I will bring back some good photos worthy for show-off. :-)

Thanks a million for your prompt responses.

Yeah. Basically, your camera exposed for everything surrounding the two people. The background (which makes up the majority of the frame) was darker, so the camera wanted to use a longer exposure that properly exposed the scenery but blew out the faces.

A lot of people prefer to use spot metering when doing portraits. That may be something you want to look into. Also, Chip gives a lot of good advice as well.

Happy shooting, and don't let the mistakes get you down. We all make them.

[Toronto111]

I don't know if this has been recommended, but on three of my cameras, I just adjust the EV (exposure value). For example, when there's extremely bright sun at the ground level with the average metering setting, I'll often change it to minus point 3 or minus point 7. When I quickly switch to taking a photo of a bird in flight, I might change it to plus point 3 or plus point 7. I do that rather than use the spot meter.

I'm always checking each photo after I take them, and adjusting the exposure. It's just fast for me to do it that way.