Sometimes you can take advantage of natural reflectors in a scene to fill in the shadows. If you can photograph your subject in surroundings including bright reflective surfaces like light sand, white buildings, or snow, the light reflected from them will often fill in the shadows to produce the effect that you want. On overcast days or for subjects in the shade, the lighting contrast is very low. In these situations you simply use Center Spot metering to determine exposure, or use bracketing to obtain a good exposure. With this very soft and shadow free lighting, you won't need to use fill flash or reflectors.
Overcast days are ideal for taking pictures of people because the soft lighting flatters skin tones.
You're bound to encounter some unusual outdoor lighting situations, such as those found on foggy days or on the back porch during a rainstorm. In such situations, your best friend is an exposure meter or the automatic setting in the DC4800. The auto-exposure feature works well in such situations because it is programmed to recognize the signals of the contrast differences and bias the exposure for the important subject area. You must be careful not to aim the lens directly into a bright light, such as a stray spotlight or even a reading lamp. If you do, the meter will underexpose the subject.