Dark pictures help

Geezer1000

Hi folks. When taking pics on a cloudy dull day, my pics seem to come out very dark. What settings are the best for brightening/sharpening up my pics. Canon 450D

magicbastarder

what setting are you using on the main dial? do you have exposure compensation set?

Geezer1000

magicbastarder wrote: »

what setting are you using on the main dial? do you have exposure compensation set?

Used a few different settings (even auto) but cant seem to get the brightness or sharpness that id expect. Ill hunt out a few pics and youll see what i mean

Geezer1000

Ballyman

The reason your pic is so dark is because the glare of the sun off the water is fooling your camera into thinking the whole scene is very bright so therefore the camera tries to darken the exposure.

You could do a few things to help this.

When you take the shot in Av or Tv then dial in approx 1 stop over compensation to help the camera. Check the screen afterwards as you may need to dial in more or less, depending on how bright the scene is.

Use the M function on your camera and set the shutter, aperture and ISO values yourself. This will take a little bit of trial and error to get right. If possible take a few sample shots and view the histogram and determine whether you need to brighten or darken the image.

You could als use flash to light up the scene. Not a great idea though as it will look very obvious and not natural.

You could use spot meterng also so that the camera only meters for whichever duck you have focused on and the camera should expose correctly for the duck. It can howver blow out the surroundings badly depending on the dynamic range.

Nothing in that pic looks in focus either. Were you using spot focusing or Multi focusing? I'd use spot focusing ideally with a largish DOF (which you used at f8) so you should get everything in focus properly. Also use AI Servo for moving targets.

If you don't know what any of the above means then the next item on your shopping list should be "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. Will help you out no end.

Best of luck!

Geezer1000

Ballyman wrote: »

The reason your pic is so dark is because the glare of the sun off the water is fooling your camera into thinking the whole scene is very bright so therefore the camera tries to darken the exposure.

You could do a few things to help this.

When you take the shot in Av or Tv then dial in approx 1 stop over compensation to help the camera. Check the screen afterwards as you may need to dial in more or less, depending on how bright the scene is.

Use the M function on your camera and set the shutter, aperture and ISO values yourself. This will take a little bit of trial and error to get right. If possible take a few sample shots and view the histogram and determine whether you need to brighten or darken the image.

You could als use flash to light up the scene. Not a great idea though as it will look very obvious and not natural.

You could use spot meterng also so that the camera only meters for whichever duck you have focused on and the camera should expose correctly for the duck. It can howver blow out the surroundings badly depending on the dynamic range.

Nothing in that pic looks in focus either. Were you using spot focusing or Multi focusing? I'd use spot focusing ideally with a largish DOF (which you used at f8) so you should get everything in focus properly. Also use AI Servo for moving targets.

If you don't know what any of the above means then the next item on your shopping list should be "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. Will help you out no end.

Best of luck!

That answers that

Freddie59

Have to agree about that book. It is a must if you're venturing into the world of DSLRs.:) The shot below was taken around two months after purchasing a DSLR (450D) and I was still struggling with it.

Barname

Geezer1000 wrote: »

yummy,

its not a camera you need, its a shotgun....

bogman

Barname wrote: »

yummy,

its not a camera you need, its a shotgun....

Ah Lordy Lord

Geezer1000

Barname wrote: »

yummy,

its not a camera you need, its a shotgun....

Ha ha ah aha. Have them too

pullandbang

Barname wrote: »

yummy,
its not a camera you need, its a shotgun....

Barname

pullandbang wrote: »

A lefty