Correct Exposure on a Wedding dress in broad daylight

[photostein]

Hold translucent material over the dress to create shade for it, then expose for the gray card in the shade and you will be good with your exposure. White is much better in very soft light due to the extremes pointed out in your first photo.

The only things that look good in high contract light are edgy subjects such as old things, advertising of certain kinds, etc...., but doesn't make for a nice, classic look to your subjects that deserve such respect.

[abril1127]

Thanks for all the tips. The wedding is going to be in a rose garden. There is no shade. So I wanted to get a better hold of shooting in any harsh light situation. Since I will be at the suns mercy during the ceremony!
The bride said to me, "the record wedding in my family is 14 minutes, we're gonna do it in 10!"
ROFL She is a different kind of bride! :)

[doctahjones]

Originally Posted by bondarnes

My suggestion would be to get over shooting wide open in full sunlight or find a camera or film with an ISO of 25. YMMV

this was the -hardest- thing for me to learn.

the largest aperture (smallest number) of a lens isn't exactly what you want to shoot at -all- the time. for some reason i thought that was always best, and would just have the shutter compensate....now i at least know better and only go low if i -really- need the shutter (for long focal legnths like 400mm i try to stay 1/500 or better).

[williamkazak]

Simply, your dress is overexposed. Shoot on manual and adjust your incident/hand held meter reading as necessary. Shoot in raw for a tweak to bring down the highlights if necessary.