backlight button
 

is there a backlight button on the xl2?? i wasn't able to find one, or read about one in the manual. if there is none what would have to do to correct backlighting??

thanks
jason

Two options. Best way is to control the contrast between the foreground and background. Hard to do outdoors unless you have huge diffusion f stop absorbing panels. Option 2 is tons of bounce or hot lighting for the talent in the foreground.

I think the backlight buttons of the past were sort of a consumer product crutch to assist in getting the forground a bit better exposed.

properly light what you are shooting. Read, read, and read some more and then practice with lights. Just because you spent 5K on a camera you can't expect it to do everything for you.

That would be the Spotlight mode. It measures in the center of the frame and ignores the edges. Suitable for spotlighted subjects but also exactly what you want for backlit subjects as well.

i am unable to get lighting by using lamps, or reflectors, the reason for this is because all the shots are done on the fly. in my situation weddings, alot of churches have strong backlights so how would i have to try and correct that while shooting?? any suggestions?

isn't spotlight the total opposite of backlight?? considering spotlight adds to the lighted areas, and darkens the darker areas, as the backlight lightens the darker areas.

thanks
jason

Hi Jason. You can set the AE Compensation dial to give more (backlight) or less (spotlight) exposure, but I'm not sure if the adjustment range is sufficient. Have you tried it already?

Other than that, there is always manual mode, using the zebra stripes as a guide to exposure on the subject.

Richard

What the meter does in spotlight mode is measure the thing that is in the center of the image and ignore the rest of the picture thus it is suitable for any situation in which the lighting on the center is dramatically different from the surrounding bits. This desecribes both the spot light situation in which the subject is brighter than the background and the back lit situation in which the subject is darker than the background.

There are other ways to skin this cat. One would be to zoom in on the subject to the point where he/she/they fill the screen and then hit and hold Exposure Lock while you zoom back to the composition you want and record. Another would be to use an Expodisk (18% transmissive frosted filter), point the camera at the light that will be illuminating the subject, set color balance and exposure manually and then use that exposure as a starting point. This is what I would probably do more for the sake of color balance than exposure because I think I could find the proper exposure pretty quickly by using the zebra stripes set at say 90% to be sure I was not over exposing the subjects (the background would be all zebra stripes presumably). There is no reason not to use manual exposure in this case. The groom isn't likely to turn and run, much as he might want to, so things should be pretty static.

<<<-- The groom isn't likely to turn and run, much as he might want to, -->>>

:)

<<<-- Originally posted by Kevin Kocak : properly light what you are shooting. Read, read, and read some more and then practice with lights. Just because you spent 5K on a camera you can't expect it to do everything for you. -->>>

I'm learning that myself.