It really bothers me that he just disappeared because

he was such a great part of the forum!!!

If you do read any of these posts Mandrake, please at least

let us know that you're OK!

Oksana - I hope he returns your email and if he does please

let us know that he is OK.

Thanks - Dale.

Michael

Mandrake, where are you! We all miss you! 

Michael

to contrast the bright sun in the shots she posted.

That's why she's the pro and we're the students!

We can always learn from others with more knowledge

and I for one appreciate that.

I'm calling for everybody to get together and ask Mandrake

to come back and post some comments about our pictures.

Haven't seen any posts for a while and it's not the same forum

without him as a part of it.

Dale.

A solution to this is to shoot RAW and the recover shadow or highlight in post. I agree that shadows are easier to recover then blow out highlight. Lightroom does a wonderful job in doing this. 

While taking portrait I also do prefer to shoot in the shade, on a cloudy day, early in the morning or late in the evening due to softer quality of light. So sometimes I do like that midday dramatic look with hard shadows. From your photos I like the first one the most. I like how the light in falling on her face creating a shadow around it. Even if she has sunglasses on, my attention is still driven to her eyes. I can tell that she is focusing on something. 

I attached some photos from photo session under the bright sun, where I think it works, because this couple wanted a fashion fill to it. I don't mind very dark shadows in this case.  As I remember, I think I even added some extra contrast in post. I have to check the original image. This image was taken a long time ago and I don't have an original in front of me right now. I also used some reflector while shooting to fill in shadows on their faces a bit. 

Try and put your subject in the open shade if you have to shoot in mid day light, or plan to shoot closer to sunset (golden hour) the light is very soft, pleasant and very forgiving. 

To help reduce blown highlights I always have the blinking highlight indicator on, for overexposed highlights on the preview screen. Its easier to recover shadows in post, than too much over exposed highlights. 

But thats the way I shoot, every one has to find what works best for them.

Good luck!

Aleksandr

I like the third shot ...

And i too like shooting only in manual mode..

Great set of shots...

I'll have a play with metering over the weekend and see what I can do. I can now see that on the girls cap (2nd image), there's no visible detail, so if I understand correctly, I would meter on the cap to ensure it exposes correctly and adjust the levels post production for the rest of the image?

I'm from a Photoshop background, but whilst I'm learning photography I'm trying to get the shots as good as I can straight out of the camera i.e. without doing post production adjustments.

Yogi

Nice pics.

I always use manual mode too. If I can give you

a little advice I would recommend playing around with

the metering on shots. I generally use spot metering

and meter for the brightest area then correct where necessary

in Lightroom. Personally, I've found that if I use evaluative or

other choices I end up with blown whites a lot and that is hard

to correct. It's a matter of choice for me and I'm sure that

you will find the perfect combination (if one exists lol) for great

pictures. I also dodge and burn sometimes to correct over dark or

light areas.Done correctly it can really make a big difference.

Good luck and have fun shooting and posting lots of pics for us to

look at!

Dale.

Three images taken in Monaco around noon.

Canon T4i / EOS 650D

#1 ISO-100 - 1/320 - f/5.6 - 250mm

#2 ISO-100 - 1/400 - f/5.6 - 55mm

#3 ISO-100 - 1/500 - f/5.6 - 171mm