# Question on shooting white hair



## kellylindseyphotography (Apr 23, 2008)

HI all
I am shooting a little boy whose hair is so blonde, its nearly white.  I shoot using only natural light.  I have taken his photos before and I always seem to blow out his hair.. here's an example:






My settings were:
f5.6
ss 250
iso100
focal length 55

Used the kit lens, its all I have.

What's the best method for exposure when dealing w/a situation like this?


----------



## PattiS (Apr 23, 2008)

Hi Kelly,
If I'm photographing a child with hair this light I do my best to stay out of direct sun and instead seek out open shade.   If open shade is not possible, and the blow outs are clearly going to be at a level that's intolerable to you, another option is to put a hat on him.  I also think kids look adorable with hooded jackets or sweaters with the hoods up- I try to do this when photographing my light blonde little niece.
Hope that helps!  
Patti


----------



## kellylindseyphotography (Apr 23, 2008)

Hi Patti
That does help, some.  I plan to stay in the shade as much as allowable.  Believe it or not, that picture of him above was taken on a cloudy day.. 

Is there anything you (or anyone) can recommend for post processing also?


----------



## PattiS (Apr 23, 2008)

Hi Kelly,
I find that even on cloudy days the light is often still very directional!  
As far as post processing, if your concern is how to bring back blow outs, that is not possible because all of the detail has already been lost.  But if you underexpose slightly to keep hair blow outs to a minimum while photographing, some brightness can certainly be brought back to the rest of the image in post processing.  
Patti


----------



## Jedo_03 (Apr 24, 2008)

Kelly - nice composition and I love the serious look on the little feller's face...
Looking at your image overall - it's overexposed not just on his hair but also on the grass and on his right shoulder.
I'd suggest you try different exposure values:
Bear in mind the "sunny 16 rule" - in bright sunlight shoot f16 at the reciprocal of the iso you are using. eg at iso 100 go shutter speed 125:
Here's a little conversion table for different weather conditions that you can try. Rem if your iso is 100 keep with a shutter speed of 125. Judging by the roundness and darkness of the shadows, looks like f11 would have been close.
Cheers

Jedo
Set the shutter speed to the setting nearest to the ISO film speed
Set the f-number according to the table below:
Aperture  Sunny Distinct Shadows [FONT=Georgia,serif]_f/_[/FONT]16   Slight overcast Soft Shadows with round edges [FONT=Georgia,serif]_f/_[/FONT]11  Overcast Barely visible Shadows [FONT=Georgia,serif]_f/_[/FONT]8 Heavy Overcast No Shadows [FONT=Georgia,serif]_f/_[/FONT]5.6 Sunset[FONT=Georgia,serif]_f/_[/FONT]4





kellylindseyphotography said:


> HI all
> I am shooting a little boy whose hair is so blonde, its nearly white. I shoot using only natural light. I have taken his photos before and I always seem to blow out his hair.. here's an example:
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## TCimages (Apr 24, 2008)

I recommend spot metering.  This will help meter your subject properly and not use the background to determine the exposure.


----------



## JerryPH (Apr 24, 2008)

Spot meter on the hair, increase DOF so that the eyes are tack sharp... adjust what needs to be done in post.

Walk in the park!


----------



## kellylindseyphotography (Apr 24, 2008)

But if I spot meter on the hair, won't his face come out overexposed?  

(thanks for the suggestions so far!)


----------



## Peanuts (Apr 24, 2008)

Actually if you spot meter on his hair his face will be underexposed - but anyways, bring a grey card and meter off of that.  Try exposing for the light using the values you find there. If your camera is blinking at you because he hair is overexposed, then back off a bit with the exposure.  The entire image exposure doesn't need to rely on his hair


----------



## kellylindseyphotography (Apr 24, 2008)

Sorry, underexposed.. am I just way overthinking it?   I'll remember the sunny 16 rule as well as try spot metering and bring a gray card w/me.. hopefully I can find the sweet spot!


----------



## tennis-joe (Apr 24, 2008)

Shooting children is always a quick take the shot before they move especially that small.  They will in the future want to see what the hair was like when they had some.  Beautiful child for sure!


----------



## Tiberius47 (Apr 24, 2008)

Try exposing for the hair and using a flash to bring up the light levels on his face.


----------



## JerryPH (Apr 24, 2008)

Peanuts said:


> Actually if you spot meter on his hair his face will be underexposed


 
Bingo, it will... but only by about 1/3rd - 1/2 of a stop. What will also happen is that you won't have any sections blown out and thats the important part!

A pic with blown out parts are sections forever lost. With *lightly* underexposed areas, its nothing to add a touch in post. Also, facial features will come out nicer too. Kids have amazingly perfect skin and that is just a way of getting a little more detail out of the pic.


----------



## JerryPH (Apr 24, 2008)

kellylindseyphotography said:


> I'll remember the sunny 16 rule as well as try spot metering and bring a gray card w/me.. hopefully I can find the sweet spot!


 
The Sunny 16 rule works great with film... it is near useless for us digital camera people who can change an entire pic by just upping the ISO manually without needing to change to a higher ISO film.

I consider it more of a VERY loose guideline now and prefer not to shoot F/16 all that often anyways.  It is past the sweetspot on most of my lenses and it is rare that I need an extremely deep DOF.

That grey card is an excellent idea.  Let me one up that.  Take a metering off a grey card, remember the number... meter off your hand, note the diff... chuck the grey card in the desk at home and forget it.  You may not always have a card around, but its kinda hard to misplace your hand (lol).


----------



## kellylindseyphotography (Apr 24, 2008)

JerryPH said:


> The Sunny 16 rule works great with film... it is near useless for us digital camera people who can change an entire pic by just upping the ISO manually without needing to change to a higher ISO film.
> 
> I consider it more of a VERY loose guideline now and prefer not to shoot F/16 all that often anyways.  It is past the sweetspot on most of my lenses and it is rare that I need an extremely deep DOF.
> 
> That grey card is an excellent idea.  Let me one up that.  Take a metering off a grey card, remember the number... meter off your hand, note the diff... chuck the grey card in the desk at home and forget it.  You may not always have a card around, but its kinda hard to misplace your hand (lol).



Duly noted!  I was thinking in my head that I never shoot f16 so I was thinking that rule is generally worthless to me.   I'm going to practice tomorrow metering some white random things in different conditions in my backyard and see where my camera takes me.


----------

