This simple sign was a tough shoot...it took me twelve shots to get it right. I wanted to expose so that you could see it was foil (and not just white light) while at the same time not underexposing too dramatically the underlying building. The sign is foil on black, posted on a shingle siding that is deep gray-khaki. The side was in full shadow, with the sun behind and above the building (slightly to right of center).

As a result of the bright day, the foil fully reflected that brightness and appeared as "White on Black", which was the signmaker's intent. You had to get close to it to see the foil. In the dark shadow of the building side, the sign stood out dramatically. But when it came to shooting, it was a bear. Once I got close enough to fill out the frame, moving even a half a few inches in either direction would shift highlights from the sign and destroy uniformity. The sun hanging just over the roof of the building created a backlight that the hood couldn't handle, so hand-shielding also became essential.

I ended up using spot metering and shooting at -.3 EV, focusing on the base of the second "T". Dark as the photo is, the histogram shows the entire dynamic range captured without spilling over into either under or overexposure. And if you look closely, you can see the gradation from sign to shingle, and determine that the sign is foil and not white glass or plastic.