Often enough we are relying on our camera’s intelligent to meter the scene for appropriate exposure. While the technology advancement has made our digital cameras so clever that they get it right on the spot most of the time, there are sometimes, under some tricky lighting condition, our camera metering can be fooled by the scene. This is when we should adjust our exposure compensation EV value. One of the example is shooting portrait under overcast weather. Your portrait will be mostly under exposed if you were relying on camera’s matrix metering. In most happened occasion, you should increase the EV value to at least half a stop to capture a proper exposed portrait. Look at the example below. This portrait was shot with exposure compensated to +1/3EV of a stop. The overall exposure is alright with no clipping highlight and shadow. However, if you look at the portrait alone (in this case would be my 2 children), they are slightly under exposed. This is where the mid tone is. How to create a cleaner portrait shot? I’ll need to adjust its level in post processing

Read the original here High Key Photo – The key to outstanding portrait shot