So today as I was taking pictures of my son playing in the backyard, I noticed the strange shadowing on him, from trees and bushes, and just where he was playing (in his play house) and the hilights were blown, and the shadows were too dark etc. I just dont know how to fix this. I tried adjusting my exposure up and down, changed the white balance, but no matter what, the hilights were completely blown no matter what I did, but I like to take pictures of him playing in our yard, I am just not sure how to do a good shot with the weird bits of sunlight streaming through.
It's fun. I spend a big part of yesterday afternoon shooting shadows on my son...asking him to move to play (in his room) where there were lots of shadows through the window/curtains.
From what I've seen, most digital cameras still have a tough time zone exposing (balancing out the highlights and shadows). Too light in one area, too dark in another. I thought I was losing my touch when shooting digital after using film cameras for years. It either takes a lot of practice, or the sensors still have some tweaking in their future.
If you're shooting at the high sun of the day, it may be worse. Early morning, or later in the day may be better.
I don't know what kind of camera you use, but it it allows a separate flash, consider a fill flash perhaps dialed down a bit. That may help.
@daisy I have taken pictures at various times of the day but I think with the way the sun hits our yard, we will either have shadows all over or it will be all in shade-which is preferable to the blown hilights, but I can't really control when my 15 month old feels like playing you know? These are very in the moment kind of shots, mostly just personal snapshots but I would like to look back and remember the day not how much the sun distorted the shot.
@amorton1437 There's not really much you can do other than what's already been suggested ... add a bit of fill flash or wait until there is lower contrast in the light ... unless you want to create your own shade ... still not very practical when chasing a little one around.
Unfortunately as @moncooga mentioned, the digital sensors we're using still don't have the dynamic range that film has.
I agree with @moncooga (Chris). There is not enough dynamic range on digital sensors to cope with dark shadows mixed with bright spots. You need fill flash or, at the very least, a reflector, to fill in the shadows. Then you can just expose for the highlights.
If shooting in bright sunlight there is one trick to fill flash - you cannot, no matter how big your flash unit is, overpower sunlight. You can do a full manual dump and it still won't blow out the shot, if you've exposed for where the sun is shining. Of course it may look a bit unnatural with fill flash so bright, but it is better than having patchy photos, and you can always dial it down as needed from there. When I'm doing scene work in bright sunlight, I use full dump from a Metz CL-45, and it gets rid of the shadows almost completely.
@jinximages@moncooga what they said... plus turn off the auto exposure and stick you hand out in the bright sunshine, set your exposure off your palm, leave it there and set your flash to full and that should give you what you want...
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If you're shooting at the high sun of the day, it may be worse. Early morning, or later in the day may be better.
I don't know what kind of camera you use, but it it allows a separate flash, consider a fill flash perhaps dialed down a bit. That may help.
Good luck.
Unfortunately as @moncooga mentioned, the digital sensors we're using still don't have the dynamic range that film has.
If shooting in bright sunlight there is one trick to fill flash - you cannot, no matter how big your flash unit is, overpower sunlight. You can do a full manual dump and it still won't blow out the shot, if you've exposed for where the sun is shining. Of course it may look a bit unnatural with fill flash so bright, but it is better than having patchy photos, and you can always dial it down as needed from there. When I'm doing scene work in bright sunlight, I use full dump from a Metz CL-45, and it gets rid of the shadows almost completely.