How do I photograph this light situation

[Hemant Joshi]

Hi all , was clicking this subject using sony a6400 and 16mm signa lens  , but the neon words and lobo over subject's head got over exposed , some of my friends got it perfect in their cell phone camera

[Krish Chandran]

Modern cellphone cameras have HDR - capturing multiple images at various exposure & combining them into a single optimal image, Tone mapping - that adjusts the tonal range to prevent clipping & Scene mapping software that optimizes the phone camera settings based on the scene detected. 
This combination of hardware and software enables the kind of pictures that your friend may have shown you on his phone. 


Using a regular camera, three ways that I would approach this problem

1. Multiple exposures/ HDR: In manual mode, take a few pictures exposing for the bright neon light and a few exposing for the model. Choose the best ones of each and combine to get a properly exposed result using Adobe Lightroom / Photoshop or any other program with that feature. This would be my preferred method. The other two (below) I know theoretically, but do not have much practical experience of.

2. Fill flash : this would involve some experimentation - to limit /control the spread of the light - to ensure it does not spill on the already bright parts of the frame.

3. Continuous lighting: Raise the overall ambient light with two or three properly placed lamps lighting the dark areas so that the overall brightness of the image is close to or matches that of the neon sign. With the variation in exposure reduced it will be easier to expose the image for a decent shot. 

[ashutosh1979]

Here is a step by step if your camera has on-camera flash, or a flash attachment.
1. Select the lowest ISO
2. Set shutter speed to 200 ( or whatever is the sync speed of your camera)
3. Select a high the aperture of 3.5 or higher (4, 5.6) neon sign should be barely visible or barely invisible
4. Pop the flash and select flash strength and/or aperture combo to get the subject lit correctly ( try few times to get it right) get the right look you want, forget the neon signs for now.
5. Steadily decrease the shutter speed till you get the neon sign back the way you like it. (Don't go as low as 1/2 second or 1 sec)
6. If flash and/or ambient is not bright enough for exposure adjust the ISO in 1st step to brighten over all exposure of the photo

Note 1
Also please do note, since chair is close to the wall your flash will light the wall as well so overall effect will not be same, but both subject and neon sign will be exposed as properly as possible

Note 2
If possible bounce the flash off the ceiling or a wall for better results

Note3
For this scene a little under exposed subject might better than a properly exposed subject

Hope it helps, best of luck