School boy error!

Speedy136

Speedy136

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Nick
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Went for a walk down Cowes sea front yesterday with it being Cowes week.
I was thinking sea scapes and bright sun so I left the circular polariser on the front of the lens but on checking my shots most of them are 2 stops underexposed. I thought the metering system would have accounted for the polariser and exposed properly or is it only best to used only mainly skies?
 
Speedy136 said:
Went for a walk down Cowes sea front yesterday with it being Cowes week.
I was thinking sea scapes and bright sun so I left the circular polariser on the front of the lens but on checking my shots most of them are 2 stops underexposed. I thought the metering system would have accounted for the polariser and exposed properly or is it only best to used only mainly skies?
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Metering system should cope pretty well with a circular polarising filter - that's why they're made circular.

Suspect some other problem. Shooting into bright sun, sea and sand will naturally fool the meter into under-exposure. You should always double check the histogram in difficult situations like that.
 
Thanks for replying Richard, was about 50/50 for properly exposed and underexposed. There was a lot of sky and some very reflective subjects so I guess they would fool the meter. Got some pretty skies though lol.
 
Nick do you have the histogram turned on for image review. It might look a little complicated but it's in fact dead simple and a really handy tool for quickly checking your exposure.
 
Hi Graham yep was using the histogram and most of the shots where showing ok but it was a real bright day and struggled to see any kind of detail on the lcd. Having rechecked them some aren't too bad, typical polariser shots but the ones with a lot of reflected white in them are approx 2 stops under. Learnt a new lesson! only use a polariser for shots with even exposure levels and not as a walk around filter.
 
you might get the same exposures with or without the filter on ,its most likely that the meter was fooled into under exposure , as Richard mentioned above , and you agreed the next post down ,
 
donutagain said:
you might get the same exposures with or without the filter on ,its most likely that the meter was fooled into under exposure , as Richard mentioned above , and you agreed the next post down ,
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This ^ ^ It wouldn't have made any difference, it was simply fooled by the high glare contrast so taking the polariser off wouldn't have helped. However, now you are aware of it, you can compensate accordingly next time. Perhaps use the cameras inbuilt bracketing, or dial in a some over-exposure, or just manually adjust, take the shot at differing exposures if you think its a situation where that is/might be happening. ;)
 
Here are a couple of expamples: all with polariser on. I think basically there is a time and place for filters and I should have taken more notice of the histogram.
All part of the learning process.

DSC_0090.jpg


DSC_0089.jpg


DSC_0074.jpg


Thanks for looking and your replies:)
 
Total shot in the dark here but I can see from the exif that you were using spot metering. Do you know what you were metering from? If it was a large white area, the camera will underexpose as it will try to expose the white as mid grey which in the case of the last two pics certainly looks to be the case. First one does't look far off though.
 
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gad-westy said:
Total shot in the dark here but I can see from the exif that you were using spot metering. Do you know what you were metering from? If it was a large white area, the camera will underexpose as it will try to expose the white as mid grey which in the case of the last two pics certainly looks to be the case. First one does't look far off though.
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And aperture-priority :eek: Spot metering in any mode except manual (and you have to know all about 18% grey and stuff) will send your exposures all over the place.
 
HoppyUK said:
And aperture-priority :eek: Spot metering in any mode except manual (and you have to know all about 18% grey and stuff) will send your exposures all over the place.
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In fairness, the OP could be exposure locking once metered but I've always found that a right pain in the arse.
 
gad-westy said:
Total shot in the dark here but I can see from the exif that you were using spot metering. Do you know what you were metering from? If it was a large white area, the camera will underexpose as it will try to expose the white as mid grey which in the case of the last two pics certainly looks to be the case. First one does't look far off though.
Click to expand...

OMG I was in spot metering mode:thinking: I can't even remember using spot prior to this:bang:

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read through this post and help sort out this little conundrum:thumbs:
Still can't remember using spot before though. :rules:note to self, check all settings before I go out for the day.
 
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