Difficult light

Learning goal

You will be able to recognize the scenes that throw the meter off in the same direction every time, and set up a quick working recipe for each one. You will explain why you shift toward plus in bright scenes such as snow, beaches and white streets, and toward minus in dark scenes such as night lights, a stage spotlight and candlelight; you will make a conscious choice in backlight between a silhouette and a lit face; you will know which metering mode and which check to use in each scene; and in each of these difficult lights you will record faces of different skin tones in detail, especially two people sharing the same light.

The question

Some scenes fool the camera in the same direction every time. Photos taken in snow come out gray, those taken on a beach washed out, and those taken at concerts either with a pure white spotlight patch or with a musician's face you can't make out. When you photograph your loved ones at sunset, either the sky is pure white or the faces are jet black.

Snow, beach, concert: how do you fool your camera? In fact you aren't fooling the camera; you are telling it something it doesn't know, the scene's tone. In this module you learned the tools for this one by one: the meter's middle gray assumption, metering modes, compensation, the histogram, the blowout warning and dynamic range. This lesson brings them together scene by scene and offers a short recipe for each difficult light.

Context

Difficult light means the scenes that depart most from the meter's middle gray assumption. What these scenes have in common is that a large part of the frame is either very bright or very dark, or that bright and dark stand side by side in the same frame closely enough to go beyond the sensor's range. The camera's suggestion doesn't count as a mistake; it is a guess that is right for an average scene, but these scenes aren't average.

A scene recipe is a starting point, not an exact value. How much plus a snow scene asks for changes with whether the snow is in sun or shade, how much of the frame it covers, and how the camera's metering mode works. That is why every recipe ends with the same loop: shoot, look at the histogram and the blowout warning, zoom in on the face, correct if needed. After a few tries this loop gets so fast that you apply the recipe without thinking.

Simple explanation

What do you do in bright scenes?

Snow, a sunny beach, a sparkling lake surface or a street full of whitewashed houses fills a large part of the frame with light tones. The camera takes this brightness for strong light and darkens the photo toward middle gray. In a bright scene the recipe is short: with matrix metering, shift compensation toward plus, usually between one and two stops. The weight of the graph should move into the right half, while the very last column stays empty; the texture of the snow or sand should be visible.

The second trap of bright scenes is bright reflections. The sun's reflections in water or wet sand, a car's window or ice glints on the snow may blink. If these are small points they are acceptable; but if a lake's whole surface is blowing out, detail is lost and you need to take the compensation back a little. In a bright scene, spot-metering a mid-toned surface, for example a tree trunk in the sun or a bag, also gives a good start; you take the reading from that surface, fix the settings, and then set up the frame.

What do you do in dark scenes?

City lights at night, a musician under a stage spotlight, a table by candlelight or a single window in a dark church fills a large part of the frame with dark tones. The meter reads this darkness as a lack of light and opens up the frame; the blacks turn gray, and small light sources and lit faces blow out. In a dark scene the recipe is: with matrix metering, shift compensation toward minus, or better, spot-meter the subject the light falls on and fine-tune with compensation if needed.

Dark scenes where the light is constant, for example a stage spotlight or a candle, are ideal for manual mode: you meter once, fix the settings, and don't touch them again as the scene changes. Candle and firelight are also very warm in color; neutralizing the white balance completely wipes out the atmosphere, while leaving a little warmth keeps the feeling of that moment. There is little light in dark scenes; if the aperture and time have reached their limit, putting the remaining gap onto ISO is better than settling for a dark frame. Small light sources blowing out inside the darkness are usually acceptable; what matters is the detail of the faces and the subject.

Silhouette or face in backlight?

If the sun or a bright window is behind the subject, the scene's range often goes beyond the sensor's range, and you need to make a choice. One path is the silhouette: you set the exposure for the bright background, the sky stays colorful and detailed, and the subject turns into a jet black shape. An intentional silhouette is a conscious choice and a strong storytelling tool; the shape of two people walking at sunset can tell a story even without their faces being seen.

The opposite path is rescuing the face: you set the exposure for the face and accept that the background blows out; or, as you saw in Lesson 9.6, you narrow the range by giving the face light with a reflector or a flash, and try to protect both together. In backlight, spot-metering the face stops matrix from darkening the face because of the bright background. What the photo will tell decides which one you choose. What matters is that the silhouette forms not by accident but knowingly: leaving a person in the dark in a photo where you want to see their face remains a mistake.

How do you protect faces in difficult light?

Difficult light doesn't affect different skins equally. In snow or on a beach, a dark-skinned face standing in front of a bright background stays in the dark sooner than a light-skinned face, because the difference between background and face is bigger. In these scenes, judge compensation not only by the background but by the face too: if the snow is white but the face is dark, either go a little further toward plus or give the face light with a reflector.

Two people sharing the same stage light are especially difficult. When you photograph a dark-skinned person singing under a spotlight and a light-skinned person next to them in the same frame, exposing for one face can throw the other off: if you expose for the dark face, the light face's forehead can blow out; if you expose for the light face, the dark face's shadows can drop to jet black. Here you need to lean the reading on one of the two faces, pull it toward the middle with compensation, and check the light face's bright points with the blowout warning and the dark face's shadows by zooming in. By candlelight, on the other hand, warm color and low light come together; dark skin can both darken and slide toward orange, so light and color should be checked separately.

Visual evidence

Imagine photographing an afternoon and evening spent on a beach on a summer day. In the afternoon, a dark-skinned child playing in the white sand. The first frame you take with matrix metering is washed out and gray; the sand isn't white, and the child's face is dark. You set compensation to plus one and a third: the sand is white and textured, the histogram stretches to the right but doesn't press against the edge, and the child's face and laughter can be made out. A few glints on the water are blinking; you accept them.

At sunset you photograph two fishers gathering nets on the pier, with an orange sky behind them. You set the exposure for the sky and knowingly leave the two fishers as silhouettes; their shapes and the lines of the net are sharp against the sky. In the evening, at a small concert on the beach, you photograph two women singing under a spotlight; one's skin is dark brown, the other's light pink. With matrix metering, both their faces blow out. You switch to manual mode, spot-meter the dark-skinned woman's cheek and set compensation to a third of a stop minus; in the blowout warning only a small glint remains on the light-skinned woman's forehead, and when you zoom in on the dark-skinned woman's face, her eyes and her cheek in shadow can be made out. Three scenes, three recipes; in each, the last word went to the faces.

Common mistakes

Summary

Difficult light means scenes where bright or dark tones fill most of the frame, or where the two stand side by side closely enough to go beyond the sensor's range: shifting compensation toward plus in snow, on beaches and in white streets, toward minus with night lights, a stage spotlight and candles, or spot-metering the subject, is the basic recipe. Making a conscious choice in backlight between a silhouette and a lit face, switching to manual mode in constant light, and confirming every try with the histogram and the blowout warning speeds up the work. Difficult light doesn't affect different skins equally; against bright backgrounds you need to check dark faces, and with people sharing the same spotlight, both faces, separately.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will try three difficult-light recipes in the field.

1. Choose a place dominated by light tones and shoot with matrix metering, shifting compensation toward plus step by step until the graph's rightmost column stays empty.
2. In a dark scene, by the light of a lamp or a candle, photograph a face first with matrix metering, then with spot metering and minus compensation if needed.
3. In backlight, photograph a person once as an intentional silhouette and once with their face lit, and write down what the two frames tell.
4. If possible, photograph two people of different skin tones sharing the same light, and check both faces with the blowout warning and by zooming in.

Check yourself

• In bright and dark scenes, were you able to choose the direction of compensation correctly without thinking?
• In your silhouette frame, was the silhouette an accident or a choice?
• On both faces in the same light, did the bright points and the shadows keep their detail?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. If a photo taken with matrix metering on a sunny beach is washed out and gray, what do you do?

• A) Set compensation toward minus
• B) Set compensation toward plus and check that the histogram doesn't press against the right edge
• C) Turn off the flash
• D) Change the white balance

2. Why can a musician lit by a single spotlight in a dark scene blow out with matrix metering?

• A) Because the camera takes the dark scene for too little light and brightens the photo
• B) Because a spotlight is always too warm
• C) Because the musician is moving
• D) Because the aperture is too narrow

3. What makes a silhouette in backlight a conscious choice?

• A) The camera being in auto mode
• B) The subject being far away
• C) The exposure being knowingly set for the bright background, and not wanting the face to be seen
• D) The flash not firing

4. What do you do when photographing two people of dark and light skin sharing the same spotlight?

• A) Expose only for the light-skinned face
• B) Expose only for the dark-skinned face
• C) Split the photo in two later and edit separately
• D) Meter one face, pull it to the middle with compensation, and check both faces with the blowout warning and by zooming in

Answers

1. B — The meter takes the white sand for strong light and darkens the frame; plus compensation turns the sand back to white, and the histogram shouldn't press against the edge.
2. A — If most of the frame is dark, the meter thinks there is little light, brightens the photo, and the face under the spotlight blows out.
3. C — A silhouette is a choice, not an accident, when you expose for the bright background and want the subject to stay in the dark.
4. D — Exposure left on one face throws the other off; pulling it to the middle with compensation and checking both ways protects both faces at once.

Summary card

• Bright scene (snow, sand, white street): plus compensation, histogram to the right but not to the edge.
• Dark scene (night, spotlight, candle): minus compensation, or spot-meter the subject; manual in constant light.
• Backlight: silhouette or face, choose knowingly.
• Every recipe ends with the same loop: shoot, look at the histogram and the warning, zoom in on the face.
• Check a dark face against a bright background, and two faces under the same spotlight, separately.

Bridge to the next lesson

Finding the right exposure in difficult light takes a few tries. But what if you have no time for these tries, while the light changes fast or the moment won't come again? Two of the camera's tools protect you in this case: the button that locks the exposure at one point, and bracketing, which takes the same moment several times at different exposures. The module's last lesson describes these two safeguards.