metering

[metoo]

I was playing around with the metering modes because I *thought* after reading hte manual that it would help me bet a better lit back round and subject? I was happy with the backround but my subjects came out orangey....



Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 53 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
Orientation Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution 72 dpi
Y-Resolution 72 dpi
Date and Time (Modified) 2010:10:17 15:58:04
YCbCr Positioning Co-sited
Exposure Program Manual
Date and Time (Original) 2010:10:17 15:58:04
Date and Time (Digitized) 2010:10:17 15:58:04
Metering Mode Partial

It was other wise good lighting what did I do wrong? It was about 4:30-5:00ish and just beautiful out!

[RichardTaylor]

Very nicely captured.

It is a White Balance problem that has occured because you were shooting late in the afternoon.
You may be able to fix it when PPing (just cool it down a little)
Drop the colour temperature a little (remove the yellow cast).
If you shot in RAW, DPP (a program that came with your camera) the has tools to adjust it

This may help.
Understanding White Balance

[MrJones]

you are photographing late at the afternoon.
if you'll go out this afternoon to the same place you'll see the camera is right and your kids do have a orange face caused from the sunset light which is golden.
funny you're complaining about it, most people love it and want that affect

[JoanieA]

I think the coloring is beautiful. I usually edit my pictures to add warmth to them, but you got that already. I wouldn't change a thing. In fact, I often shoot on cloudy even in sunlight just because I like the warm colors.

[metoo]

ok I kind of feel like a moron now. I guess the rest of them didn't come out as bad as i thought then lol.

One more quick question. Was it the metering that got the sky to come in nice like that or was it just the setting/time of day? I generally get a lot of blown out skies or very underexposed kids. I was very happy with the way my backrounds and subjects both seemed fairly well exposed in this set and would like to be able to do it again.

also is the tree and the shadow to annoying?

[RichardTaylor]

Re the metering. Mainly it is the relationship to the sun to you and your subjects, and shooting at the right time of day does also help - so you are not shooting into the sun.

I can post a couple of example if you like.

Re the tree shadow. It is a bit of distraction to me. Why not try cropping a lot of the foreground (to up near the girls feet) and see how it looks then.

[BigFuzzy]

Re: the coloring, others have covered it well, it's the nice glow from the sun and has nothing to do with metering. It's all to do with WB IF there were something wrong, there's nothing 'wrong' with the color as it seems an accurate representation of what was going on.

Re: metering, it's all about how much light is in the image (or parts of the image), not the color of it.
As for how you got the sky nice.. it's all about light and how much of it is hitting your background vs how much is hitting your foreground (and what part you're exposing for). If there is a lot of even light hitting both the foreground and background, then you get a nicely lit image like this one.

If you have a brighter background compared to the subjects in the foreground (and you meter for the subjects in foreground) then the background will be blown out. And the reverse is true if you were to meter for the background... it would cause the foreground to be underexposed.

It's all about getting an even amount of light to show both your foreground and background (if that's what you want to do). That's why it's often better to shoot flash at your subject if the background it really bright.. because then you're making the difference between foreground and background more even.. which often (not always due to artistic reasons) will lead to a 'better' exposure..

To be honest, this is all quite basic lighting/exposure talk.. if you're interested in light and learning it, I always recommend reading Light: Science and Magic.. THE bible on learning the basics (and more) of light.. both natural and artificial (ie flash) .

Good luck!