Pro tip Spot-on metering
Work the exposure settings for perfect files
Scenes with an extremely bright subject against a darker background are often best underexposed by one or two stops. That’s because the dark background fools the camera into thinking the scene needs more exposure, and the result is an overexposed subject. Adjusting exposure can be quickly done by using the compensation dial when you’re shooting in auto-exposure mode. This will make the overall scene dark, but don’t worry because that will be resolved when the exposure of the shot is corrected in raw processing later on. By underexposing the scene, what you have done is to ensure that the subject retains detail in the highlights, so that you can recover them in post-processing. Exposing according to the camera meter means that there is a risk of the highlights blowing out, meaning they can’t be recovered, producing a total loss of detail.