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Does anyone use a D100 and has worked with a bright white background ?
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Mike,
OK, let's start at the beginning (and yes, I also shoot a D100 so what you're hearing is what works for me).
First off, when you put the camera in the manual exposure mode, your in-camera meter doesn't do a darned thing. So fergget about it.
What you need to do, when you are purposely setting up a model in front of a white background for a 'high key' effect is to set the lights so that the background is getting about a stop to a stop and a half more light than the model.
Here are two ways to determine your expsoure...
(a) if you have a flash meter .... meter on the model's face. Then meter on the background. The model should be 1-1.5 stops less light than the background. Make sure that none of the light from the background spills over onto the model or you'll have to worry about additional light overexposing the backside of the model.
(b) if you don't have a flash meter... find a piece of white paper. Say, your background paper or something. Get out your instruction manual and notice that there is a way to set the display in the LCD so that it flashes on any of the image that is overexposed to the point of losing all detail. To do that, you move the big round button on the back of the camera one press to the right from where you see the histogram displayed.
Now, set up the model and have her hold the white piece of paper (make sure it's not glossy) right up to her nose (I usually use a Macbeth color chart.. it's got one square of white that works well for this, and also gives me the added benefit of known colors and grey boxes to use for other things as well). Pop the flash. Is the white sheet of paper flashing? Nope? Open up the aperture one more click (1/3 of an F stop) and repeat the flash. Find the smallest opening at which the LCD shows the flashing part of the image that shows it to be overexposed. Now, stop down 1 F stop from that point and use that as your F stop. You'll actually wind up just a teeny tiny bit underexposed, but you can deal with that easily... you can't re-establish detail in a white surface that has been overexposed to the point of losing detail.
Now that you have the model set up, do the same for the background.
Or, if you prefer, you can set the background lights first (looking to make sure the light across the background is even and that the flashing begins all across the image instead of just on one side or the other) and then light the model. Whatever works for you.
Been shooting the D100 for a couple of years now.. love it to death. Lemme know if you've got other D100 specific questions.
Wayne
Shot with the (B) metering method as described above... Yeah, I've got flash meters, but this is quick, dirty, and foolproof!