34 Better Available Light Digital Photography
Shooting through trees provides an exposure challenge. The elegant fi ve-star Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado
Springs, Colorado, is often photographed from the front or from one of several other “photo op” spots around
the main hotel buildings (see Chapter 7). Barry discovered this unique angle the previous afternoon during a
scouting trip around the hotel’s golf courses. He’d been commissioned by Colorado Avid Golfer magazine to
document the hotel’s preparation for the U.S. Senior Open. His experience told him that the hotel would be
bathed in early-morning light, with a good chance that the trees in the foreground would still be shaded.
Barry’s inclination was correct, and early the following morning, he captured this view from the edge of the
17th hole on the hotel’s East Course. Basic in-camera metering would not have yielded a proper exposure,
because the deep-shadowed foreground would fool the meter into overexposure. There are two easy ways to
get correct exposure in this type of situation: One, take the light reading, in Manual mode, using a longer
lens (or zooming tighter), bypassing the shadows, and reading only the light refl ecting off the buildings and
grass—then switch (or zoom) back to the original focal length to take the photograph. Two, use the Exposure
Compensation control on the camera to counteract the meter reading that overcompensates for the shadows.
© 2007 Barry Staver.