Shooting faces in a bright sunny day while maintaining a blue sky background

[Shama Farabi]

Hi

A few days ago I went to the liberty island in New York and faced this problem. It was a bright and sunny day and I was trying to shoot one of my friend having the sun in the background.


I underexposed the shot so that the sunny sky background appears blue and does not blow out. Consequently the subject became very dark. I looked online for tips .Some suggested to use spot metering mode and spot the subject to meter off excess light.Other options are using a fill flash or to use positive exposure compensation to make the subject brighter (which I fear may blow out the sky again).

Therefore I was wondering ,If am shooting into the sun and want to have a sharp subject (my friend in this case ) while maintaining the blue sky mode , what do you think may be the perfect setting.I am using a cannon EOS 50D.

I am confused with the spot metering options suggested online ...some recommended spot the subject while others are of the opinion spot a blue sky ,then press * and recompose into the sun.

It will be great if you guys can help me to select the most appropriate out of all these options.


Thanks in Advance

[Rentham]

You need flash to make this shot work. Expose for the sky, then add flash to bring the subject up to the proper exposure.

[SusanH1970]

Agreed with Rentham. In bright, full sun, you definitely need flash to expose both your subject and the sky well. Spot metering would get you good exposure of your subject, but you'd be left with a blown out sky.

[kcoppock]

To add to what's stated above, from what I understand (since your camera has a max flash sync speed of 1/250") you may also want to use a neutral density filter to lower the shutter speed, if it's very bright outside (e.g. proper exposure is faster than 1/250"). Alternately, just lower the ISO or close down the aperture, depending on what results you're going for.

[digirebelva]

You can use high speed sync if your flash has the capability so you can go higher than 1/250, but you will lose power so it would become necessary to move the flash in closer.

[IABoomer]

With the sun behind the subjects, a reflector could also fill in light on their faces. In any event, you'll need some kind of fill lighting to make the image work without blowing out the sky.

[Shama Farabi]

thank you guys for helping me out .