jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Expose for the background, then use fill flash on the subject. This is sometimes called dragging the shutter.

Jeffers

Can't help you with future shoots but if you want to fix what you've got, the best tool in Elements is the Levels Adjustment Layer. For most images it's quick and easy. For some tough ones, you may have to mask the foreground and use Levels just on the background. Levels is also excellent at fixing lighting issues associated with cell phone images. Typical cell phone photograph can be fixed in less than five minutes.

drklrd Loc: Cincinnati Ohio

I really need more info than given. What ISO, ? What shutter speed? What f stop? What is the light reading of the background? What do you have the flash set for in camera and on the flash? So far you have a lot of good guesses to fix the problem with but you need give more info than you gave. A good fool proof professional answer is hard to give without adequate info.

drklrd Loc: Cincinnati Ohio

Only works good if mounted to a tripod. I have shot many a wedding scene in a dark church this way but I was always on a tripod with a hand held remote release. I used a Bronica SQA with an air pressure bulb release. I have gone as long as the count of 5 with the flash and camera set at f8 on very stable tripod.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Like a lot of things in photography, there are several possible ways to deal with tricky lighting situations.

1. Fill flash is a good way to deal with back lighting. Keep experimenting and learn to do that.

2. With any of the auto exposure modes (A, S, P or M with Auto ISO), use spot or partial metering (instead of matrix or center weighted). Both meter a smaller portion of the image, so the exposure isn't influenced as much or at all by the brighter background. Spot is smaller and partial a bit larger, so choose between them depending upon how much of the image area is occupied by the backlit subject.

3. With any of the auto exposure modes (A, S, P or M with Auto ISO), but leaving it set to either matrix or center weighted metering pattern, step closer to your subject until it fills the viewfinder, meter it up close, and then use AE Lock to keep the system from changing the setting while you move back to take the shot. Once again, this is done to minimize the influence of the bright background on the exposure settings.

4. With any of the auto exposure modes (A, S, P or M with Auto ISO), use + Exposure Compensation to override the camera wanting to underexpose due to the overly bright background. How much + E.C. will be needed varies depending upon just how bright the background is and how much of the scene it is influencing. It can take some practice to learn to judge the amount of E.C. to dial in.

5. Switch to fully manual mode (no Auto ISO) and set the exposure using other means, to avoid any influence on the exposure from the overly bright background. You could step close, as above, and take a meter reading. Or set exposure by eye (Sunny16 rule or similar). Or use a separate, handheld accessory incident meter (either way, be sure to check using the playback & histogram, making adjustments and retaking as needed). Any of these might work, then by using fully manual mode you prevent any automation from overriding your settings.

#2 through #5 can be done with or without fill flash. Note: Check your camera/flash manual about how to use Exposure Compensation with flash, if that's what you are doing.

Avoid "Full Auto" or any "Scene" modes.... These "super auto" modes generally will not allow you to do some of the necessary adjustments mentioned above, such as dialing in Exposure Compensation or using a different metering pattern.

GAS496 Loc: Arizona

Take several exposures. One for the bright background another for the subject and another for the mid tones if necessary. Then put them together in PS.

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

You can try taking two shots, one with the exposure correct for the background and the second correct for the actual subject. Then merge/combine the two in post-processing.

chikid68 Loc: Tennesse USA

thanks for the link I am going to make the card

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Great answer.

OP did not provide examples at first. But if outdoors, there’s about a two stop difference between the sunlit and shadow sides of a subject. Fill flash needs to be no more than a stop under the sunlit (set) exposure. To taste from there...

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

This is not dragging the shutter. What you suggest is exactly the opposite.

Exposing for the background will result in a very short exposure, lower ISO and smaller lens opening, which may be beyond the max shutter sync speed of 1/200 on the D3300. And FP Sync is not an option on this camera either.

Dragging the shutter is done where you want to mix in some ambient light AFTER you have determined the proper exposure for your flash.

https://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/dragging-the-shutter/

drklrd Loc: Cincinnati Ohio

Good idea but for me I prefer to fix it in pre not in post. Shot too much slide film that back then could not be fixed in post. Get it right in pre I always say, as did my Audio/Video instructors in College.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

That *was* the way we did it, when using ‘chrome film. Movie producers used color negative films to have the latitude we AV crazies didn’t. Today’s raw files and 10-bit video follow essentially the same logic.

There was, and still is, a place for both pre-and post-processing.

Ob1 Loc: Utah

Let me give this a try. Others have told you what needs needs to happen but here are the steps I use. You will need to use a flash with high speed sync. ISO 100, Aperture wide open, adjust the shutter speed until you get the background as you like it (usually higher speed). Don’t touch the camera settings after determined. After this is finished then turn on the flash set the flash to high speed sync and and determine how much fill you will need to properly light your subject. It might take a few shots but not many. It is not hard and kind of fun you will get good at it. Often I defuse my flash and use off camera flash which helps a lot. Have fun it’s a fun puzzle.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

As an alternate, do a two shot composite. One with the group and one without. Blend in the properly exposed background in Photoshop. A tripod would be handy.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Without a "sample" it is difficult to trouble shoot an issue and advise on an exact remedy.
In any event- KEEP IT SIMPLE:

With outdoor portraiture, you have control over location so try and select a background that is not overly lighted. If you change your subject and camera position, likely, you can shoot into a darker area.

If you can not change locations, all you need to do is either use off-camera flash or a reflector to pump in your MAIN light and make certain that the exposure is about 2 stops higher than the background. Take a spot reading from the subject and lock it in. If the camera reads the background and integrates it into the exposure, you may get "subject failure", that is, where the camera exposes for the background and renders the subject as too dark.

There are other methods to subdue distracting or hot background. One method involves a camera vignetter. Of course, it is best to throw the background out of focus as well. If you have an old skylight filter, apply a strip of black pin-stripe tape diagonally across the filter. At a wide aperture, the tape will not show but the background will be a bit darker and more scrambled.

If the background is controlled in the camera, further darkening can be applied by burning it in during post processing- it it not badly overexposed and out of range, it will darken withou graying down.