Having trouble with white clothing

[JodyGall]

Originally Posted by ttosifa

Actually, I'm thinking it might have been matrix metering, assuming that is black velvet or something under the basket (and not a product of PP). If so, the dark is much more prominent that the white, and the camera might be exposing for that. You could dial in negative exposure compensation and look at the histogram or the highlight blinkies as a guide.

Yep, matrix metering and black velvety cloth.

Ok...sorry, I'm so bad with all the technical terms....what does dial in negative exposure compensation? LOL! Sorry.

[KathrynWilson]

I actually WOULD use spot metering. I would go up close to the baby, spot meter off their skin, take a test shot and check the highlights on my camera's histogram. If the whites were blowing I'd meter off the white. It's easier to burn the black out if you bring it up too light than it is to recover blown whites.

[KathrynWilson]

And I actually just opened up the image in Lightroom for a closer look. To get the skin etc to about the right place, the overall shot required a 0.86 increase in exposure, but I was able to recover the whites. Had you exposed correctly for the skin, the whites might have been blown, which is why previous posters have suggested that you 'bracket' - meaning that you shoot and different exposures so that you would get a shot where you had the correct exposure for the skin, and a shot that you had the correct exposure for the white.

Nonetheless, Lightroom was able to recover the blown whites after I upped the exposure for the skintones:

[ttosifa]

Originally Posted by KathrynWilson

To get the skin etc to about the right place, the overall shot required a 0.86 increase in exposure, but I was able to recover the whites.

Yes, I agree with Kathryn that the overall image was underexposed, even though the whites were blown. I was focused on the dress, so my comment wasn't ideal for the overall shot.

JodyGall, there are excellent sources for exposure compensation, and I couldn't do it justice here. Your manual ought to provide you with some basic information and instructions.

Bracketing the exposure might have worked here, but it would be less useful in shots of a moving baby and less light.

Others are more knowledgeable than I on this topic, but it seems to me that the real problem is the lighting. I think the highlights in the dress are getting blown out because sunlight is being reflected from the dress. Maybe if you could get a white sheet or something to diffuse the direct sunlight on the dress, it would help?

[candleman]

[QUOTE=KathrynWilson;285107]I actually WOULD use spot metering. [QUOTE]

aaahhhh.. ok.. interesting.
i'll have to try that.
hmm... i'm pretty sure when i did the wedding, even metering off skin was not giving a good exposure (in Apeture priority)

maybe i was actually going off the dress but cant remember properly..


good point KathrynWilson. thanks

[WooD]

Nice shot, and a great edit Kathryn.

I seem to use center weighted metering a lot.

[JodyGall]

Okie doke! So general concensus for the future is to experiment with my metering mode and my exposure in post processing? Got it! Off to experiment with post processing on this session!

Ya know, I don't think I've ever changed my metering mode to spot. I'll definitely play aorund with that this weekend! Thanks!

[visper]

Since no one seemed to cover your on camera exposure compensation (what you would be using to bracket on the auto modes) I figured I'd hop in with that. On the D40 you have a little +/- button right below your shutter release button. This will change your exposure compensation. If you have it at default setting of zero and you take a picture and think that it is too dark or too bright you can adjust that simply by holding that button in and turning the little notched dial. It gives you alittle more control over your exposure in the auto modes and (hopefully) saves you the trouble of adjusting post exposure.

Hope that helps.

[SusanH1970]

Whoa, this is an OLD thread. Jody, I just gotta say you've come such a long way, your work is just amazing now! It's fun to go back and see where we started, though.

[sarahdavis]

*L* I didn't even realize this was an old post until I got to Susan's reply. Kathryn's edit was awesome by the way.

Jody, mind if I ask what you ended up doing - spot metering for example? Because I've had this same problem, about a year ago I have a shoot with a baby girl, and a few of the shots (in a basket, in the shade, wearing light clothes) came out very similiar to this. Couldn't figure out what I needed to do since I couldn't expose anymore - the whites were already getting blown out. Good to know we can still learn from each other's posts 3 years afterwards!