How can I expose a sunset portrait without making the subject a silhouette if I don’t want to use flash?
Asked 5/24/2018
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When I photograph portraits at sunset, I can expose the sky the way I want, but then my subject becomes very underexposed because they’re strongly backlit. In one example I was shooting at f/4. Would changing metering, exposure compensation, or switching to manual exposure solve this, or is there a better way to keep both the sunset sky and the subject visible without using flash?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
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That's a nice silhouette!
You're running into the same problem that anyone runs into when photographing a very backlit subject: a lot of light is coming from the background and creating a drastic difference in ideal exposure between the background and foreground.
Given this, you can handle the situation a number of different ways:
Change the Exposure to Equalize - This is the most ideal in a pinch, but least ideal overall. In your example, you would open up ~2 stops to get the sky on the edge of blowing out. This will create a very underexposed person - but it's better than nothing. You'll need to do quite a bit of post pro work with the RAW file, potentially even exporting a file made ideal for the background and a file made ideal for the subject - and then mask them together. Because the subject will be very underexposed - you can count on a good deal of noise to deal with as well.
Take Two Shots - If you can, take a shot with proper exposure for the background and one for the subject and then merge them together in your post-pro editor of choice. The benefit here is that you will have two great files to start with - so how exactly they map together is really up to you - and overall image quality can remain quite good. Auto-Exposure Bracketing and multi-shot can be used together to string the shots back to back.
Get a Reflector - Shine some light back on your subject! A single reflector can do wonders and it might just be all you need.
Add some flash - On camera flash is nobody's favorite - so if you can, move the flash off camera and into a better location for your lighting.
On exposure compensation...Backlit subjects are some of the hardest for the meter to get right. In these cases, I'd highly recommend shooting in manual so that you can meter the background, meter the foreground, and then use your judgement to pick the best exposure for whichever method you intend to use from the above.
Originally by user67377. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user67377
8y ago
0
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This is mainly a dynamic-range problem, not a metering problem. At sunset, the bright sky and a backlit subject often differ by more light than one exposure can capture well.
If you raise exposure with compensation or manual settings, the subject gets brighter, but the sky will also brighten and can lose the sunset look. So exposure changes alone usually won’t fully solve it.
Your practical options are:
- accept a silhouette
- brighten the subject in post from a RAW file, though this has limits
- shoot multiple exposures and blend/HDR them
- use a reflector for some fill, if there’s enough ambient light
- add light to the subject with flash or a constant light
For this kind of scene, adding fill light is the most reliable solution if you want both a dramatic sunset sky and a properly exposed person. A reflector may help a little, but at sunset it often isn’t enough. Flash or another artificial light source is usually the real answer.
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