50D - Do you +/- exposure compensation?

swag72

swag72

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Sara
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I have recently changed my setting on the picture menu to neutral on my 50D. I have found this good for me and it suits my preferences for previewing the pic on screen prior to downloading.

However, the pics I have downloaded onto the PC since doing this have all looked very flat. A quick tweak with the levels and they are spot on, so I what I am wondering is whether a -1/3rd exposure compensation would get them just about right as they are taken?

Do any of you do this? I know this has been mentioned before somewhere, but I don't remember it being with a 50D.
 
Unless your shooting in manual I'd say you always need to use compensation of one form or another.

Take a look at the situation and decide for your self, is it brighter or darker than an average 18% grey shot and adjust accordingly. Shooting in RAW will buy you some breathing room to breath as well.

I can't imagine when I won't have compensated in some way, either by directly using the +/- button or by using spot metering intelligently.

Go out and have a play with it, My shooting really improved when I started.

-Rob
 
It probably depends on what your previous picture setting was.

If it added saturation, and you've reverted to neutral, you will lose saturation.

"Under-exposing" by 1/3 stop, which is what I think you're suggesting, may give the appearance of more saturated colours, but I don't think its exactly the same thing.

However, if you're happy with the results that you get - go for it!
 
Thanks Rob. Probably shoot in manual for about 90% of my pics. I do change the metering according to the lighting and effect I want. Never really had the reason to look at exposure compensation until now.

jerry12953 said:
If it added saturation, and you've reverted to neutral, you will lose saturation.

"Under-exposing" by 1/3 stop, which is what I think you're suggesting, may give the appearance of more saturated colours, but I don't think its exactly the same thing.
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Thats is exactly what I am finding - Interested on some peoples thoughts who are shooting with the 50D. Anybody out there?!!
 
swag72 said:
Thanks Rob. Probably shoot in manual for about 90% of my pics. I do change the metering according to the lighting and effect I want. Never really had the reason to look at exposure compensation until now.



Thats is exactly what I am finding - Interested on some peoples thoughts who are shooting with the 50D. Anybody out there?!!
Click to expand...

I suspect this is not an issue confined to the 50D.

While underexposure will give darker colours overall, they will not necessarily be more saturated. The latter is a software related change.
 
50D user here.

I can't say that I find a problem; I set the "picture style" to neutral the day I got it, and have never changed it since. I do shoot exclusively in RAW, but quite often convert to JPEG without doing anything other than bumping up the Clarity.
 
I used to have a 50D - I can't say I ever really had any problems with saturation but from what I gather its not uncommon for them to sometimes shoot a little hot - that is to say that they may tend to over expose slightly in automatic modes (inc Av Tv) if that were the case then you'd notice an improvement by adding some negative compensation because it would stop the colours washing out.
 
Perhaps also to do with your perception of your images. When I've looked at images that you've posted and comments that I've seen you make on some others images I think that your preference is for images that I would consider to be over saturated.

That is not intended as a complaint btw - I dont know how they look on your screen and I'm currently awaiting the travelling calibration kit, so my view could be wrong. Please take it as a comment, not a dig.
 
It reads to me like you're suggesting modifying the exposure in order to make the camera's LCD image look better. This will mess up your final exposure, which you do not want to do! Sorry if I've got this wrong.

If you don't like the look of the LCD image when the exposure setting is optimum (and there is only ever one optimum setting) then you can tweak that with Picture Styles. But in that case you will have to work off the Raw image files which will allow you to override the Picture Styles settings to get you back to the final image parameters you want.
 
who? said:
That is not intended as a complaint btw - I dont know how they look on your screen and I'm currently awaiting the travelling calibration kit, so my view could be wrong. Please take it as a comment, not a dig.
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Absolutely not taken as such (y) Thanks for the comments - I guess I'll just stick with a levels tweak!!

I guess I do quite like saturated colours - Although even I go :eek:
at some!!

Worth asking the question, so thanks to all who took the time to answer. I really don't want to change the picture setting, as I am happy with how it is showing on the LCD (and it stoped me getting despondant!)
 
swag72 said:
I really don't want to change the picture setting, as I am happy with how it is showing on the LCD (and it stoped me getting despondant!)
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This came up a while ago...

Do the picture style settings actually affect the image on the LCD, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is just a very small jpg taken from the RAW file?

Someone said they definitely did, and someone else later said that they didn't.

I'm very disappointed with the image on the LCD of my 5D, but the processed RAW file looks great. Which is more important to you, swag?
 
jerry12953 said:
This came up a while ago...

Do the picture style settings actually affect the image on the LCD, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is just a very small jpg taken from the RAW file?

Someone said they definitely did, and someone else later said that they didn't.

I'm very disappointed with the image on the LCD of my 5D, but the processed RAW file looks great. Which is more important to you, swag?
Click to expand...

Yes, Picture Styles affect the LCD image. It's not hard to check - just switch to mono and have a look!

With Canon (and I suspect all manufacturers) if you shoot Raw then the Picture Styles pre-sets will be applied to the JPEG you get for viewing (you cannot view the Raw on-camera) and they are also tagged to the actual Raw files so if you don't change them or delete them in post processing, they will also be applied to the final JPEG. But they are not imbedded in any way.
 
hoppy will they be applied if i use lightroom not the eos utility? as ive never bothered with the dammed thing and really don't wanna add another step into my review/process process
 
david1701 said:
hoppy will they be applied if i use lightroom not the eos utility? as ive never bothered with the dammed thing and really don't wanna add another step into my review/process process
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LOL I know how you feel, but I'm not sure about Lightroom. Either way, you will be adjusting levels in post anyway so it will be just a different starting point in your processing. If they are there, just turn the the Picture Styles settings up, down or off as you like.

I use Canon's DPP as it's very good, easy, free, and has the unique lens aberrations corrections facility to give images that final polish. DPP does pretty much everything I need and I hardly ever use any further Raw processing programme TBH.
 
I love the organisational aspects of lightroom, never played with DPP I had PS and bridge then lightroom to do my organising/editing
 
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