Sunny and Shady: I had a problem the other day shooting with my Canon T7i this time. I was shooting a kids party and some of the yard was sunny and some of the yard was shady. Is there...

kscanman Loc: Wisconsin

I had a problem the other day shooting with my Canon T7i this time. I was shooting a kids party and some of the yard was sunny and some of the yard was shady. Is there a way to set a pre set on my camera so that it puts me in the ball park for shade? That shoot was definitely no fun for me.

Dave327 Loc: Duluth, GA. USA

What mode are you shooting? I shoot in manual and in difficult lighting situations I set The ISO to auto.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

You were shooting candids and action, not posed portraits? Once I learned that my T3i could do auto ISO, that was a great help for quickly changing light conditions.

I no longer have the Canon, but have stuck with those options for the past 3 years with my current gear. Like Dave, I set the aperture and shutter speed as appropriate for my desired depth of field and "stop motion" and let the camera finish up the exposure with ISO.

(I shoot in raw, for a bit more dynamic range and ability to manipulate in pp)

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I find the best way to deal with this kind of situation is to compose in such a way that the shot is either predominantly sunny or shady, and expose accordingly. Usually this requires moving around a lot and avoiding wide angle as much as possible.

CO

You could have the camera in evaluative metering so it considers the entire scene and then add some + exposure compensation. You could also meter in the shady area and lock that exposure.

kscanman Loc: Wisconsin

I was shooting in manual mode, but not in auto iso at first. Let me digress by saying I forgot that the glasses I had on were transitional. It was a horrible mess. The first 5 images were blown out before I realized that. Lol!

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

kscanman wrote:

I had a problem the other day shooting with my Canon T7i this time. I was shooting a kids party and some of the yard was sunny and some of the yard was shady. Is there a way to set a pre set on my camera so that it puts me in the ball park for shade? That shoot was definitely no fun for me.

You could take the sun reading and then the shade reading and split the difference in RAW.
OR, move in closer so that your either shooting in full shade or full sun. I would prefer shooting in full shade. Shadows on faces in full sun are always an issue unless your using fill flash.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's a tough situation. It's similar to back lighting - a dark subject with a bright background. Expose for the scene you want. Half will be overexposed, and half will be underexposed. Using Lightroom, and other programs, you can use the Shadows slider to adjust the darker portion of the picture. If there isn't any movement (unlikely with kids), you can take several shots and combine them using HDR.

https://digital-photography-school.com/make-natural-looking-hdr-images-with-aurora-hdr-2018/
http://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-do-hdr/
http://captainkimo.com/hdr-software-review-comparison/
http://digital-photography-school.com/step-by-step-how-to-use-hdr-merge-in-lightroom/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmRFpM_j8RY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmL1Ahug_GM

Free -
https://www.easyhdr.com/download/basic/

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Sometimes it's just a matter of compromise. It's a classical lighting problem. And candid, kids outside, kinda photography, as opposed to set ups or studio work. You just may have too accept less than perfect exposures. So you must decide which is best for any given scene. Blown highlights or too dark shadow areas.And I all ways thought it was sonny and Cher (Oh come on, somebody had to say it)

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Learn to use flash for fill. Also an obvious solution is to control the light by moving yourself or moving the subjects.

saxman71 Loc: Wenatchee, WA

Always a difficult photographic situation. My approach is to shoot in RAW so I can recover detail in the shadows. It really does make a big difference. When taking the photographs I would use the histogram to try to get the exposure as far to the right as possible without blowing out the highlights. But photos with part shade and part bright sunlight are always going to take some post-processing work to get the most out of them.

ronpier Loc: Poland Ohio

kscanman wrote:

I had a problem the other day shooting with my Canon T7i this time. I was shooting a kids party and some of the yard was sunny and some of the yard was shady. Is there a way to set a pre set on my camera so that it puts me in the ball park for shade? That shoot was definitely no fun for me.

Auto ISO usually works. The camera will adjust the ISO as you move from shade to sun and vice versa.

Ralanco19

Most of the time in this situation of mixed lighting color balance, it is one of those times when Auto White Balance is pretty reliable. Myself, I use (outside) Daylight 90% of the time, even on cloudy days. (Interestingly, I switch to Cloudy during the Golden Hour for even warmer sunsets. But that’s another story for a different discussion.)

So, if your subject is in constant and deep shade, Shade White Balance can be relied upon to warm up the color a little more. But if in and out of sun-shade-sun, etc., then AWB will be safe, and less stressful. Some tweaking to warm or cool your shot in post “might” be necessary. But usually not much, and not always. The other time AWB is often useful is when you have mixed lighting indoors ... especially with Tungsten light and daylight. But, that’s another discussion. So, at your next picnic/party in backyard, make it less stressful on yourself and just use AWB. Your pics will come out just fine. Have fun!

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

Raw vs auto WB. In every case that I know of WB setting doesn’t affect actual raw results although some post processors will make it seem seem so.

Charles 46277 Loc: Fulton County, KY

kscanman wrote:

I had a problem the other day shooting with my Canon T7i this time. I was shooting a kids party and some of the yard was sunny and some of the yard was shady. Is there a way to set a pre set on my camera so that it puts me in the ball park for shade? That shoot was definitely no fun for me.

If the scene is part sun and part shade, I wouldn't shoot it unless it is some sort of special effect.. I know pros who don't shoot people pictures of any kind in mid-day sun. Even worse (sun and shade together) there isn't any way to get great pictures that combine both underexposure and overexposure in the same frame, except for special effects.

If the occasion simply requires some sun pictures and some shade pictures, any form of auto will handle that--or manual if it can be set. It may be possible to stage certain shooting in one area, and then in another (setting up for each).

Fill flash on the camera may work well where sun and shade are both important and speckled together, and if you have a number of flashes, the fill can trigger them where you have placed them. Outdoors, fill flash may not look like flash in the pictures. Your camera can do auto exposure outside with the fill flash.