underexposed!!

[cowman345]

It seems that after my first couple sessions with my 10d, I've found that the camera tends to underexpose my shots quite frequently.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Also, in the past, I've used auto-levels in photoshop, but with my 10d shots, I hate the results, they're nothing like what I saw through the viewfinder, so I just use auto-contrast. I'm no digital expert, so I was wondering what could be the cause of this?

-dave-

[brault]

If anything I think my 10D sometimes slightly overexposes the highlights.

A guess at why auto-contrast works better, is that auto-levels (I believe) changes the color while auto-contrast does not. The color on the 10D is excellent (Popular Photography rated the color accuracy of the 10D the highest of any camera they have tested, film or digital). So any changes in color that auto-levels makes are likely to be wrong.

Frank B

[CyberDyneSystems]

What settings are you using brault?

I have found exposure to be pretty spot on when I don't do something wrong myslef,. like I did my first day with the the 10D by using spot metering on white swans in the water... :( haha.

Also,. be sure and try exposure bracketing,. see what that does.

[cowman345]

I'm really not unsatisfied, because after auto-contrast I end up with beautiful shots, and I have indeed found the 10d's color to be incredible.

FWIW, I've also found the color rendition nearly perfect on the aladdin photo printing at walmart, of all places!

-dave-

[martcol]

cowman345 wrote:
Also, in the past, I've used auto-levels in photoshop
-dave-


I've never got good results with auto anything in PS except on occaisions and maybe, with the exception of auto option inside the curves dialogue box. Then, if you use an adjustment layer, you can tweak your adjustments to your hearts content.

My 10D exposes pretty much, perfectly.

Martin

[lziering]

The best way to take well exposed digital photos is to learn to read histograms. Set the camera to give you a review with info. This will give you a small thumbnail and histogram after every shot on the LCD on the back of the camera. If the histogram is "clipped" or bunched up at the left side, then you will need to increase expousre. If the histogram is "clipped" on the right side it means that the highlights have been clipped and you need to reduce exposure.

Once you have a shot with a good histogram you will need to bring it into to Photoshop and add a "Curves" layer. If there is an area in the photo that you want to be true white, use the highligt eyedropper to designate that as the white point. If there is an area that you want to be true black, then use the eyedropper to make that the black point. If you have an area that you know to be a true neutral grey you can use the center eye dropper to sample from it and correct the colors.

Once you have set the white, black, and neutral ponts (if they exist, and if the don't just skip using the eye droppers) then bend the curve into an nice "S" shape until the image looks good to your eye.

[brault]

For now I have the 10D set at 1/3 fstop underexposure with Evaluative metering. I'm pleased with that for most pictures. When necessary I adjust.

Frank B

[quote]CyberDyneSystems wrote:
What settings are you using brault?

[brault]

cowman345 wrote:
...
FWIW, I've also found the color rendition nearly perfect on the aladdin photo printing at walmart, of all places!

-dave-


Not surprised. I have heard that Walmart prints are good.

Frank B

[hodgy]

The best way to obtain perfect exposures is to know your light. Digital is like shooting transperency film. Your exposures have to be bang on. Have you done a greycard test to determine your working ISO?

Shoot a greycard under controled lighting. Say one light in an umbrella. Exposure 1/125 f8. Shoot the card full frame and nothing in the frame but the card. Look at the histogram for that image. You SHOULD have a spike directly in the centre of the histogram. If it's slightly to the right, then your camera is overexposing, if it's to the left, then it's under.

That way you can just dial in exposure compensation. My D30 underexposes by about 1/2 stop, and my 10D is about 1/3 over.

[cowman345]

Thanks you guys, this has been a big help! Anyone else have any handy tips for getting good exposures?

-dave-

[henkbos]

Nothing is 'auto' in Photoshop. You can change the settings for auto to your own preferences and tweak it to your liking.
To do so, go to levels, double click on black point and set your values. Do the same for white points and neutral. Save these values and make them YOUR default.
Now you an use 'auto' properly.