Why do all the highlights in my pictures wash out?

I try every setting I can but I can't seem to keep detail in highlights of a picture without having the shadows go too dark.Why do all the highlights in my pictures wash out?
Digital inherently has less dynamic range than film, which can make it more difficult to keep detail in the shadows and highlights in contrasty light.





Depending on the specific scene, you can sometimes use the flash to fill in the shadows and reduce contrast.





Failing that, the best thing to do is to is to adjust your exposure compensation such that none of your highlights are blown out. You can usually then pull some more detail out of the shadows in Photoshop without affecting the highlights too much.





In an extreme situation, you can take three exposures of the same scene. One should be relatively normal, one grossly overexposed to pull all of the shadow detail out, and one grossly overexposed to get all of the highlight detail. You can then use the ';merge to HDR'; command in Photoshop to make a composite of the three. This tends to look a bit fake to my eye, though, although your mileage may vary.





Another option might be to pick up a cheap film camera and use a good low contrast color negative film like Kodak Portra 160NC. If you do this, expose for the shadows, and the highlights more than likely will still retain detail.





Perhaps the best solution, though, is to just try to avoid high contrast scenes in the first place.