Comments inline:
Pieter Nagel wrote:
>
> On Tue, 3 Jul 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > I've been using my ZX-M for about six months. On a recent vacation I took
> > some photos in extreme, almost overhead, sunlight. I did what I could when
> > composing to try and get the sun behind me, but... let's just say the photos
> > are less than what I'd hoped for. Lots of shadows on the subjects' faces...
> > some of them are very underexposed as well (the landscape looks great,
> > though!).
>
> I don't think you need to use flash at all. Camera-mounted flash can
> make photos look dull and flat. Natural light is more interesting.
If you just let the camera do its auto thing you get that
effect. Intelligently used fill does not do that it just
lightens forground objects. If it wipes out shadows it is
over done.
>
> It sounds as if the landscape in your photos was significantly
> brighter than your subjects, and dominated the scene, thereby
> dominating your lightmeters average reading. You could using over
> exposure compensation - effectively telling the camera "I want the
> scene brighter than *you* think it should be, because I know these
> small darker shapes here are more important than the average
> landscape, dammit!"
If the forground object is the subject that is ok, but if
both are important you have to use some kind of fill,
whether fill flash or reflectors, to lighten the forground
or the backgroud is way to light.
>
> One thing flash *will* remove is the shadows that strong overhead
> light casts on faces from noses, eyebrows and other protrubrances.
> But often there are other, more interesting ways to get rid of those.
> Hve them stand near a bright, reflecting wall. Under trees that
> diffuse the sunlight. etc.
>
> PS: I don't know where the "sun must be behind the photographer" rule
> comes from, but I think its junk. It makes people squint. It gives
> flat light. Try having the sunlight come in from an angle, to the
> side.
>
The sun behind the shoulder rule is another one of those
obsolete things left over from the days when just getting a
printable negative was a challenge for a snap shooter
(non-adustable cameras).
-
This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe,
go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to
visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
