Help/Advice needed : Vivo's Snowman

[JeeT77]

HI, Took this over at Vivo City, it was quite a bright sunny day with some clouds...

When i took this pic, sun position was on my left, Time around 2:30~3pm...

Please advise how do i set it up as such I don't need to go through PP and auto-contrast it like what i did in the 2nd photo.... Much Appreciated... Should I have open up the aperture ? (couldn't really check the image as it was sunny outside)

D40, P-mode, 55mm, 1/400, F/10, 0EV Exp comp., ISO 200

Same as above, Auto-Contrasted

 

[calebk]

May I inquire as to what your metering mode is, and what you metered on?

Shooting on Program AE gives you less control.

 

[JeeT77]

May I inquire as to what your metering mode is, and what you metered on?

Shooting on Program AE gives you less control.

Hi Calebk,
was with on Matrix mode, I was focusing on the actual "snowman" itself...

 

[fWord]

Looking at it from here, the first picture appears to be underexposed. In general, very light to white subjects may fool the camera meter into underexposing. White therefore, turns out looking a little grey instead. Very dark or black objects on the other hand, may cause the camera to overexpose the whole picture.

In this case, try dialing in +1/3 to +2/3 exposure compensation to see if there's any improvement. The sky is also pretty lifeless here, and the use of a circular polarizer may cause clouds to 'pop' out more, plus increase saturation in general.

 

[JeeT77]

Thanks...

circular polarizer? hmm... need to do a search on this then... never used b4...

as for the exp compensation, do you mean i should dial -1/3 to -2/3 when focusing on very dark / black objects?

Thanks for the tip and advice !

 

[tribal.snake]

next time try metering on a brighter area

 

[JeeT77]

next time try metering on a brighter area

Thx Tribal... i assume you are refering to my statement abt taking "dark/ black" objects right?

So does that mean i should turn off matrix metering and rely on spot metering?

Also, if i do get a Circular Polarizer, should i use spot metering as well? or the matrix is fine?

 

[anakin0618]

If you have the 18% gray card is will be good for metering to get the correct exposure. Normally I will meter onto a patch of grass that are exposes to the same light ie. not under shadow. The grass patches have similar light reflectance of the 18% gray card.

Yes, meter with the circular polarizer on. If meter without the circular polarizer on and then take the photo after putting the filter it will result in about 1 to 1 1/3" stop under exposure.

 

[JeeT77]

If you have the 18% gray card is will be good for metering to get the correct exposure. Normally I will meter onto a patch of grass that are exposes to the same light ie. not under shadow. The grass patches have similar light reflectance of the 18% gray card.

Yes, meter with the circular polarizer on. If meter without the circular polarizer on and then take the photo after putting the filter it will result in about 1 to 1 1/3" stop under exposure.

Thx Anakin... however the shot was kinda on the spurr of the moment kinda thing... i.e. was focusing on the Sweedish ship that was parked outside Vivocity and then when i was walking along the balcony, saw this cute funny lookingn 'snowman' ... and it'll be hard to meter with gray card (when i do get one soon) but point taken for correct metering...

I understand that i need to meter with circ-polarizer on, but do i stick with spot metering (i.e. the cam only meter the center spot of the viewfinder) or can i continue using the Matrix metering mode (i.e. the cam meters while taking into account the exp of the whole frame) ?

regards,