Cloudy days

[forno]

OK, went out today to a couple of car meets, sun was trying to break through the cloud resulting in a bright white sky

Result alot of blown out skies and under exposed dark cars:(

what are the tips and tricks you guru's have to offer:D

[coldrain]

Well, if you look at the exposure metering, you see from top to bottom:
[(.)]

[( )]

[ ]

(well, sort of anyway).

Choose the [( )] and meter on the car instead of the surroudings/sky. Press the button on the top right, 2nd button to the left (clear, aren't I :D ) and the camera will stick with the metered exposure. Now you can adjust the framing, and make the photo with the correct metering for the subject.

You can also use fill in flash to lift the subject, while keeping the metering for the sky right.

[cdifoto]

Something else you can do, if the lighting is consistent (ie the clouds arent coming in and out, or the sun isnt setting, etc) is meter something neutral (pavement, concrete, or even someone's white t-shirt by increasing exposure by about 1 stop) in manual mode. Check your histogram to make sure you got a good exposure, then shoot with those settings. When the light changes, do the same thing again. You'll be consistent across the board then.

PS: On overcast days, I don't worry about skies. They'll usually blow out anyway due to the limited dynamic range of current digitals....without a powerfull fill flash. And with a powerfull fill flash all you get is grey/white/murky/ugly clouds anyway....at least by my definition of overcast. :p


EDIT: OOPS! I read "cloudy" and automatically assumed overcast. Ignore my advice re:blown skies if you meant blue skies with clouds. The manual metering should still work though. It'd give you the closest balance you can possibly get.

[forno]

Thanks guys, it was overcast Don, those horrible bright overcats days where there is no general light if ou know what I mean just this huge white light in the sky:p

I put in about a stop on the av, but I am still working out how to get a natural looking fill from the built in flash (angle from lens wont help though)