Photo's too dark

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Not sure why but when i take some good quality photo's on a cloudy day i can see them just fine on the lcd screen. But after they've been uploaded to computer they seem much darker.

Is it because i'm shooting in raw mode and i have to sort that out in pp ?

[Diabolos137]

Can you post some examples ?

[Pirate Neilsouth]

1
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q167/neilsouth/New%20Church%20Kent/SideViewWindowsAndgraves2.jpg

2
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q167/neilsouth/New%20Church%20Kent/TreeandGraves.jpg

[DoubleT]

they are definatly under exposed, try adjusting your exposure compensation .

a tip..

adjust the brightness on your LCD screen on your camera to match the brightness of your PC monitor.

get them side by side and brighten up your cameras display to match monitor

[Chappers]

I think you'll find that the view on the LCD screen if from the jpeg file within the RAW file. I always find that this gives lighter results on the screen than the same image using the default settings in my RAW converter.

I would suggest your best method to determine exposure is the Histogram.

Yes you can lighten the images in pp but it's always best to get them as good as possible in the camera. A quick check of the 'gram enables you to decide if you need to adjust the exposure or not.

[Wookie]

do a proper brightness contrast gamma setup on your monitor first.

a simple tool available here: http://quickgamma.de/indexen.html for win98 & XP

do a web search on : " monitor calibration gamma " and you'll find quite a few photo websites have quick setup checks on them

There's no point adjusting the camera or the photos if what you're looking at is not what you've got.

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Thanks all :D

[Wookie]

I've been having a look at your thread with the church set "Church of St. Nicholas - My best shots + HDR " (over here: http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=46062 ) and they have a lot of darkness anyway. Most of your foreground subjects are in shadow but there are bright patches of sunlight in the background that are properly exposed or just close to burnt out. Some lovely skies.
Are you metering off your subject area or letting the camera take a best guess on overall exposure?
The bright patches also tend to spoil your nice composition as the eye is drawn to the bright patches beyond instead of the relatively dulled out subject area.
Its a bit of a shame as I like quite a few for their composition, but the dull subject lighting drops out the wow factor. Have you tried using any fill flash outdoors?

[Wookie]

fancy marking your profile for editing? people could then repost adjusted copies of them to show you.

[Pirate Neilsouth]

I've been having a look at your thread with the church set "Church of St. Nicholas - My best shots + HDR " (over here: http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=46062 ) and they have a lot of darkness anyway. Most of your foreground subjects are in shadow but there are bright patches of sunlight in the background that are properly exposed or just close to burnt out. Some lovely skies.
Are you metering off your subject area or letting the camera take a best guess on overall exposure?
The bright patches also tend to spoil your nice composition as the eye is drawn to the bright patches beyond instead of the relatively dulled out subject area.
Its a bit of a shame as I like quite a few for their composition, but the dull subject lighting drops out the wow factor. Have you tried using any fill flash outdoors?

Basically all i use is " White Balance - Shader " , Manual Mode , F5 - 11 , shutter speed and the under and over expose. I don't know anything about metering , although i've gone from blurred images to good images i still need alot of advice as some are still way below average.

I have a Canon Rebel XTI 350D Eos

[Pirate Neilsouth]

fancy marking your profile for editing? people could then repost adjusted copies of them to show you.

Oh and Done :thumbs:

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Any advice on the fill flash ?
Or the metering?

[davidbridges]

it looks like you have exposed for the brightest areas in the shot and not the darkest, try doing longer exposures

[chrisc]

i had a wee play with the first 1

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b234/focus1234/edit1gg.jpg

[Pirate Neilsouth]

it looks like you have exposed for the brightest areas in the shot and not the darkest, try doing longer exposures

I was using manual mode , using longer exposures is this done via slowing the shutter speed?

Very nice chrisc , can you please tell me how you did that without ruining it?

When i do shots i either get the sky too bright or the ground too dark i can't seem to get both equal in brightness

[chrisc]

yep only found out my self there the nite have a look at this thread i put up

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=46304

[Cobra]

Image Nuked :thumbs:

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Hmm i prefer chrisc's one that one has gone very noisy and too sharp.. No offence :)

[Cobra]

Hmm i prefer chrisc's one that one has gone very noisy and too sharp.. No offence :)

Ok No worries :thumbs: the sharpness is very subjective anyway, but it looks fairly natural on my screen. I'll nuke it

[Pirate Neilsouth]

yep only found out my self there the nite have a look at this thread i put up

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=46304

Thats pretty much like the HDR technique of merging two photo's :woot: