Hi,

I am having trouble with filming people outside or inside with a bright light source behind them. Their faces appear dark and the only way to make them bright is switch to manual mode and change the app ring. But then if I pan away I have to change it again. Is there a quick way that anybody knows?

Isn't there a backlight, or sunlight preset on that camera?

With back light of any kind you will have to make a decision on what is important. If the face is important then you will have to open the iris and except the blown out back ground. If you want both, you will have to work some kind of fill light to brighten the faces you want. A reflector in front of you bouncing some light back at the faces or a light from your side to provide the needed light. With simple photography, you will often use a fill flash. Because you need light longer than a flash you will have to do something to make up the difference. A light mounted on your camera would work but is not usually the best solution. Look elsewhere in this site (search for "Fill Light") for more help.

Filming people outside generally has one very simple soloution.....have them face the sun and shoot with your back to the sun....ie:no backlight. A reflector as mentioned above is also a very handy thing to have...be it a white sheet, a purpose made metallic reflector or even a large white piece of cardboard. It's taking lighting techniques to heart that help to make video look professional.

Or, if you can't use reflectors or move the subject, let the background burn out--not something you can do for professional productions that might end up on TV, but OK for home movies. Sometimes you can also move around just a little and find a darker background, like a tree or building or something, that will help. lt any rate, you need to practice with the camera's manual settings. Using automatic only works well in certain situations, and this is one in which it doesn't.