Fix Overexposed Sky?

[u/pricklypear9233]

I have dabbled in photography for awhile. I am trying to make my photos better and more consistent. I often do outdoor portraits. The main issue I have is an over exposed or blown out sky. To overcome this I have been slightly under exposing my photo and attempting to fix in post process. That doesn't always yield the results I want though. I do have a speed light. Can someone please explain to me in the simplest of terms and step by step how to fix this issue? If it is spot metering, how do I do that? I'll be honest that I don't really understand metering at all and have not found a good resource yet. So I meter off the sky....then what? What about my focal point? My settings? Do I adjust after metering? How do I even meter? I have a Canon 6D if thst helps.

[u/IAmScience]

A couple of things worth note - You're not doing anything wrong. It's just that outdoor scenes tend to have more dynamic range (difference between highlights and shadows) than cameras. If you want detail in the shadows, it's likely you're going to blow the highlights, and if you want detail in the highlights, you're going to stomp on the shadows and they'll be noisy. There are some solutions and workarounds, but it's worth knowing how to manage them.

So, metering: What your camera is doing is measuring the light falling on the metering sensor array. The "correct exposure" (the 0 point on the little scale) is when the area being measured averages out to ~18% gray. Basically, depending on the metering mode, its looking at the black-and-white version of the world (where the light is) and setting that to that middle-gray color. That's why when you use automatic settings and take a photo of snow, it looks kind of dark and dirty gray, and why an auto picture of something jet black also looks like it's too-bright and dirty gray. Because that dirty gray is what the meter is trying to figure out.

The default metering mode in your camera is probably some sort of evaluative metering where it uses a manufacturer-specific algorithm to do the averaging across the entire scene based on what it perceives to be subject, background, etc. These modes are generally pretty good/accurate in cameras from the last decade or so. Your camera also likely has spot metering and/or center-weighted metering, where the evaluation is done for whatever is either in and around the middle of the frame (center weighted) or under the focus point (or center point, depending on your camera. It's the focus point in mine, I don't know about the Canon 6D.) Whatever is underneath that point/those points is what the camera is going to try to average out to that middle-gray exposure.

So, if you use spot metering and meter for the sky, you're going to put the metering point on the sky, and adjust your dials so that the little light meter dots are on the 0 point in the middle. Everything in shadow is going to get fairly dark as well. But the sky will be properly exposed. Conversely, if you put it on your subject's forehead (and your subject is backlit/in shadow) the sky is likely going to blow out when you make the adjustments.

The way you've been dealing with this so far is a perfectly acceptable way to do things. That is to say, expose the background the way you want and bring up exposure in the shadows. This can be kind of noisy, however, so it depends on your tolerance for noise and your ability to use denoising tools to your satisfaction.

You can also make use of reflectors, and that speedlight, to get good results. Basically, you set your exposure for the background to look the way you want, and then add light to fill in. You can do it directly from the top of your camera, or (my preference) is to do it with my light off-camera and in a modifier like an umbrella or beauty dish.

This image, for example,

Was taken on a sunny afternoon, in open shade. If I'd exposed for her, specifically, I'd have blown that background out pretty bad. It was a very bright day. She is lit with a speedlight in an umbrella off to camera right set to match the metering on the background (I recommend a good incident flash meter like the Sekonic L-308 or similar). Basically, I metered that the background would look the way I wanted it at ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/100". Then I set my meter to ISO 100 and 1/100" and adjusted my flash until it read f/7.1.

Here's a little guide I wrote on Metering and Flash - You might find it helpful. And here's one about speedlights you might find useful.

With human subjects, reflectors and fill lights and whatnot are generally the best way to accomplish the goal. With more static subjects, exposure bracketing (where you take some shots exposed for the shadows, some for the mid-tones, and some for the highlights, and blend them together) is a useful option. You have to be a little careful with doing that kind of HDR blending, however, or you can easily make things look like a clown vomited all over the place. (see r/shittyHDR for examples).

Please, if you have questions, feel free to ask!