njarendt Loc: wisconsin

having problems with the d7200 nikon with portraits with a bright background. Any ideas on a solution - tried using a flash (probably need more practice with that) and messed around with some settings but there is a lack of information that I can find on the internet about solutions. Ideas welcome.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

High Key, use of reflectors, utilize exposure compensation, or better yet, move to an other location and compose where the light is better.

Charlie'smom

Just commenting so I can be notified of answers.

njarendt Loc: wisconsin

unfortunately not able to move to another location so stuck where I need the pictures. Too congested for reflectors but a good idea in some other areas.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

do you have an example of the space to share...

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

It sounds like you are getting too large a range of light values here, but posting an example would be helpful.

In addition to adding fill flash to the low values, you can resolve this a bit in post processing or by combining HDR images, in or out of camera. This is a pretty common problem. Try searching the Hog with the phrase "high dynamic range" or "bright background".

Andy

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Meter for the background, adjust a diffused flash for the subject.
Edit: Shoot manual, set your exposure for the background, adjust the flash output for the subject. The shutter speed will not affect the flash exposure, but be sure it is at or below the camera’s sync speed.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6GXRdAR1GM

Here's a short YouTube video that helped me understand how to better photograph back sun-light subjects. Perhaps it may be of interest to you as well.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

A speedlight is only going to give you harsh, flat light, unless you have a second pair of hands and use a large flash-mounted bounce modifier, like a Rogue Flashbender 2 XL or a A Better Bounce Card STUDIO-PRO - both are around $60, but if you are clever, have some glue and rubber bands, you can easily fashion something like a Better Bounce Card out of hobby foam sheets for less than $5.The second pair of hands is so that you can provide a little directionality to the light, which will make the result look like you had light stands, monolights, softboxes, and an entourage to help you.

https://makezine.com/2010/03/03/diy-ladig-cutout-bounce-card/

My go to solution involves a second pair of hands to hold a reflector to add soft light to the portrait. Doing this offers a lot of flexibility with the amount of fill and placement for good light/shadow contouring and you don't have to take test shots to view the result.

Better yet, pick a better time of day when the sun is in a better place, or use the bright backlight creatively.

https://www.adorama.com/alc/5-simple-tips-for-shooting-backlit-portraits-outdoors

njarendt Loc: wisconsin

I received three links to youtube videos that were not mentioned in responses which I appreciated and thought I would share these as these came direct to me and not in the chat above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6GXRdAR1GM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OY0hrJRX0g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asr-NjmYO68

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

"Having problems with the d7200 nikon with portraits with a bright background" Are you talking about exposure? It seems like so.

If the problem is exposure you should know beforehand that ANY exposure meter is going to be fooled by the bright background. You do not seem to know how to use flash or how to meter under those circumstances. If I am talking about the problem you are facing I have some suggestions for you.

1- Use spot meter on the face. If a Caucasian the skin is going to reflex 36% of the light reflected. That implies that for a good exposure, not a grayish face, you ned to add 1 stop of exposure more than the meter indicates. Be aware your bright background is going to be BRIGHTER because you are exposing for the subject. If the skin is closer to a middle tonality (18% gray) just follow the meter reading.
2- If you do not have a spot meter in your camera and ALL modern cameras do then use center weighted metering and take a reading of the face ONLY. Make sure you follow the same rules I mentioned in No.1.
3- Use a diffuser to lighten the face but expose for the background if it is important, it usually is not for portraits.
4- Use fill-in flash. You can use iTTF (intelligent TTL) in such occasion that adopts a different name according to the camera in use. With Nikon it is matrix filling flash I believe, not sure of it. I do this with an exposure for the background (if important) and cut the light from the flash by at least one stop depending on the subject. YOU NEED GOOD FLASH KNOWLEDGE to use that technique.
Photography is not difficult when the basics are known and common sense is used.

leftj Loc: Texas

Tony Northrup has a video on YouTube showing how to do this very thing.

BebuLamar

Do you need the background? Sometimes I just let the background goes white or very light. I just set the exposure for the people.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Use a TTL flash and be sure it's in TTL mode. Learn how to set your camera in the menu to use high speed sync. Then, use Manual mode, and start with ISO at 400, F4.5, and 1/200 for shutter speed. The shutter speed will control the ambient light in the background and using a very high shutter speed, up to 1/8000 for your camera, will make it go very dark. The TTL feature of the flash will control exposure on the subject and will adjust its output with F stop or ISO changes. You can change the F stop to affect DoF or increase ISO to get a bit more range from your flash.

tomad Loc: North Carolina

You don't need to comment. Just click on "Watch" above the first post in the thread.