Images on LCD screen brighter...

[ShoeQueen]

I was reminded about this by a post in another thread.

When I'm shooting with flash at events I usually use the flash TTL, sometimes o manual. I usually take a quick look at the screen to check before taking the next shot to make sure I've the exposure ok and to check I've not got people blinking etc.

I've noticed that some shots on screen look ok, bright, well exposed, but when I come to process them they are are too dark and I need to increase the exposure to get the result I want and what I saw on the screen. I'm shooting in raw.

Suggestions on what I am doing wrong?

 

[NikkiA]

I was reminded about this by a post in another thread.

When I'm shooting with flash at events I usually use the flash TTL, sometimes o manual. I usually take a quick look at the screen to check before taking the next shot to make sure I've the exposure ok and to check I've not got people blinking etc.

I've noticed that some shots on screen look ok, bright, well exposed, but when I come to process them they are are too dark and I need to increase the exposure to get the result I want and what I saw on the screen. I'm shooting in raw.

Suggestions on what I am doing wrong?

Judge exposure by the histogram, not a backlit LCD.

Depending on the camera you might be able to turn down the backlight level to give you a better feel for the brightness of the exposure, but I'm not sure I'd recommend that really, different lighting conditions make the camera's LCD useless for accurate level reproduction anyway, and you're better off being able to see it (at all) on a sunny day to view the histogram, than having the preview show up 'at the right brightness' under one or two lighting conditions.

 

[RobertP]

If Nikon works the same way as Canon then the preview on the back screen is the jpeg you would have got using the jpeg settings you have in your picture style camera settings.... even if you are shooting raw. I have my jpeg settings very flat for when I shoot video so my raw previews on the camera look a bit dull but I know they are not.

 

[ShoeQueen]

Thanks - has highlighted the two things that I was thinking
- need to be checking the histogram
- I'm looking at the jpeg image on screen

I'll need to work on using the histogram!

 

[Flash In The Pan]

Just adjust the brightness on the lcd to match what you are seeing on your computer screen and all should be well.....

 

[ShoeQueen]

Just adjust the brightness on the lcd to match what you are seeing on your computer screen and all should be well.....

Yeah, didn't think of that! It only seems to be in low light shots, and I can fix it in post, I'd just rather be getting exposure right in the first place.

 

[NikkiA]

Just adjust the brightness on the lcd to match what you are seeing on your computer screen and all should be well.....

If that makes the screen unviewable in bright sunlight (yeah, not a problem right now *looks at 60mph gales and sheet ice rain*, but...) then it is kinda counter productive

I generally do knock the backlight brightness (which is usually the 'LCD brightness' control) down a setting or two, but I still wouldn't try to calibrate it to a monitor that is under controlled/consistant lighting.

 

[ShoeQueen]

I'll turn it down a bit - but the main thing is that I should remember to check histogram. Its only in very low light shots that I've noticed it to be an issue.

 

[ohara]

I made this mistake once, forgot I had turned the LCD brightness up after viewing it in direct sunlight one day. Did a load of nightclub stuff with flash, was fooled by what I saw on the LCD, came out with 400 underexposed shots which thankfully were mostly fixable with a bit of batch post.

 

[ShoeQueen]

I made this mistake once, forgot I had turned the LCD brightness up after viewing it in direct sunlight one day. Did a load of nightclub stuff with flash, was fooled by what I saw on the LCD, came out with 400 underexposed shots which thankfully were mostly fixable with a bit of batch post.

Had a look and brightness hasn't been turned up, its at 0, but in future I'll turn it down a bit when doing low light stuff with flash (would prob be nightclub like settings - coloured, flashing lights etc.)