This will help get consistent results on exposures while not losing the detail of the highlights. First dont use your exposure meter in the camera set every thing to manual. Use ISO 200 and start at F8 and 1/800 sec. For white subjects stop down 1 stop for example my camera is set to 1/3 stop for shutter speed, so for a white subject in bright light I would set it to F8 and three clicks higher on the speed to equal one stop or a resulting 1/1600 sec. For a dark subject brown or black you would open up one stop or 1/400 sec (remember three clicks of the shutter speed is equal to 1 f stop) at f8 or 1/1600 sec at f7.1. You can adjust the settings depending on how you want the background to show. The lower the f/stop the better separation you can achieve between the subject and the background if the shot is tight. The higher the f/stop the more detail you can draw into the focal plane from the background.