Leta

I have a Nikon p520 and would like to know what setting to use when taking pictures in the afternoon bright sunlight. I went to a flower festival and kept trying different settings to get pictures that were not washed out. A lot of them went into the trash can. Is there a solution? Thanks

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

Post an example of the washed out rejects, so we can see what's the problem.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

If you post a photo we might be able to answer you question better, but off the top of my head, I would guess the background was dark and the camera tried to compensate cor that, washing out the flower you wanted to shoot. I'll bet there is an exposure compensation dial or setting somewhere on your camera.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

There are two things you can do to assure good expose and good color representation.

1. A quality meter to get the best exposure

2. X-Rite Color Checker Passport for accurate color representation. This only works with Adobe products to the best of my knowledge.

3. Calibrate your monitor.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

This might be one of the situations where "Spot Metering" is the right exposure mode to use. You'd just have to be very careful that the spot fell on the flowers that you were shooting.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Flowers at high noon are always problematic. Best suggestion I can offer is to use a collapsible diffuser and have a helper or friend hold it above the flowers to reduce the highlights and shadows so you get a much more accurate rendition of the subject.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Very good idea. A friend of mine bought a small diffuser and used it at the park on some flowers and it worked great.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Basic point to work from:
Bright Sun = EV 15 = ISO 100, 1/125, f/16
This is not intended to be a specific answer; based on the data you gave, this is the optimal starting point. Subject matter will dictate adjustments.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Read your manual about metering. Your in-camera light meter generally has three modes: "average, center-weighted, and spot. If it is set on "average" and part of the scene is very bright, the rest of the scene will be dark in the photo. If it is set on spot metering and you center on something in the shade, the rest of the photo will be washed out.

If all else fails, use exposure bracketing - take three photos - one based on your camera's metering, one photo 1 or 2 f-stops above, and one below. Many cameras have an AE setting on the menu which allows you to adjust this range, and then you simply take three photos in a row, and the settings will change automatically.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

I agree that bracketing is wort a try..Remember all metering is based on 18% neutral Grey. The classic problem of 'a black cat in a coal bin" is ultimate metering problem. You might try metering off a neutral grey card. I just realized that I spelled worth wrong. I can't spell worth a dam.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Just remembered that in lieu of a grey card the palm is a reasonable substitute. If the background is very bright and you are worried about washout you might think about using fill in flash.Placing a thin tissue over the flash helps soften the harshness. Try using manual with this technique. An old trick from by B&W days.

rrforster12 Loc: Leesburg Florida

Suggest using Spot Meter setting on your camera.

jane g Loc: western NY

I agree with those who suggested a diffuser. I always carry a collapsible white umbrella for just that purpose. A light gray one would work as well. The only problem is that they can be hard to find.

PhotoArtsLA Loc: Boynton Beach

Shooting foliage is a general issue for in-camera meters. The problem is all the green, which is very dark, makes the meter think the scene is dark, and suddenly, lots of overexposure.

Digital cameras favor underexposure, which is recoverable, but overexposure can render detail free whites, which are generally unrecoverable.

The histogram of your camera can be useful. If you check the histogram of an image, if the "mountain" goes all the way to the right where it suddenly cuts off, the shot is overexposed.

Speaking in very broad terms, you want an exposure such that the "mountain" in the histogram is centered, falling off to nothing (no vertical "clipping") at either end.

When the histogram clips to the left, you are crushing the blacks. To the right, you are blowing out the highlights.

So what to do when your camera is want for overexposure? If it is a DSLR, use exposure compensation for your auto exposure. If the image is too bright, you compensate toward the negative. Too dark, compensate toward the positive.

In the demo image below, the auto exposure of the camera wanted to make a light, washed out color image. I wanted drama, so, even with auto exposure, setting the exposure compensation to about -3 f/stops, I restored the mystery and color for a more interesting shot.

There, nuff said for now.

This was auto exposure with about minus 3 f/stops of compensation

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Page 64 of the P520 manual explains exposure compensation and how to set it. The simplest answer is there: just set the camera to take a darker photo than it would otherwise :)

Keep in mind that this will make the entire image darker, so your background might even look a bit black if there are shadows there.