[KellyL]

Kirk asks why I make this so hard.

A beautiful blue sky. White clouds. Subject in front of sun. Want to take a lasting picture where the sky is blue and the subject is well illuminated. Exposing for the subject blows out the sky, exposing for the sky and the subject is in the dark.

Have the subject turn around and face the sun! Forget it. Squinty eyes do not make a beautiful picture.

So...get a grip on the five stop dynamic range of the camera. Doing the test helped me to visualize what five stops look like. If I meter for the highlights, I have to be willing to accept that anything two stops below the highlight will be lost. If I meter for the mid tones, I have to accept blown highlights because the dynamic range of the camera can not withstand the dynamic range in reality.

So to create that beautiful blue sky, open sun picture, I have to learn to mix my flash with ambient light. That is what this thread is all about.

It has been suggested along the way to just put the camera on auto and fire away. When I tested that idea, the results were better handled by the camera than when I tried to take matters into my own hands.

Jay, I have noticed that when I have my flash on and in P mode, the camera automatically sets to 5.6 1/60, which is what Mark McCall uses to create much the same shot you did here. Your camera opened up to 4.0, which allowed a bit more ambient light in.

Your hiking picture looks pretty good. I wonder what it would have looked like without the flash. Was the camera close enough that the flash had an effect?

Rense: I'll check out that link. I am still trying to figure out the importance of this zone system. The two latest books I have read both refer to the system. Exposure and Lighting for the Digital Photographer Only and SKIN both bring up the zone system and the dynamic range issues.

And why is it that the 30D IS only a 6 mp camera. It should have been 10. With a greater DR.

I have also read in book, after book, about how difficult exposure is for digital capture and that many folks struggle with it. So I know I am not alone.

So...why make it so difficult? Because, without thinking I want to:

1. Create a shot outside with a beautiful blue sky and a subject well lit.
2. Create a shot outside with a beautiful blue sky and subject in shade well lit.
3. Create a shot outside when it is partly cloudy and have colors look fully saturated.
4. Understand how to take a shot outside in the evening and have the background exposed properly as well as the foreground.

I could keep making that list.

But I want to make sure that I have all of these things practiced and nailed so that I don't have one bit of guesswork to do and can be more creative and at ease with my subjects.