Canon 300D with very soft or dark photos

[okteh18]

I was so excited to finally bought my 300D but all world falls apart when I saw the result. Basically, all photos are either too soft (not sharp) or too dark when taken indoor with the 550ex flash. Does anyone out there have the same problem?

[MiG82]

Do you honestly think it's the camera's fault? It could be, but I doubt it.

[okteh18]

Actually I've just got a loan from Canon for the 300D while they check mine and have just shot off 20 over shots and NOW I am happy with the sharpness and flash photos. So my intuition about the unit being faulty is correct!

[defordphoto]

It takes a bit of time to get used to a new piece of equipment such as the Drebel. Be patient, read the manual and experiment.

Oh and by all means: Have fun!

[mlfrancis]

I have a new 300D and it seems to produce darker than expected interior shots. Even bumping up the ISO to 800 and uping the exposure compensation will end up in dark images.

Has anyone else had this issue? I'm going to do a reset default values, pull the batteries, and then see what it does. If it is still dark, I guess it is going for exchange.

Any other experiences?

[clos]

mlfrancis wrote:
I have a new 300D and it seems to produce darker than expected interior shots. Even bumping up the ISO to 800 and uping the exposure compensation will end up in dark images.

Has anyone else had this issue? I'm going to do a reset default values, pull the batteries, and then see what it does. If it is still dark, I guess it is going for exchange.

Any other experiences?

It sounds like your flash is not firing. You should get bright pictures even at ISO 100 with the flash assuming of course you are less than 10 feet away.

If you are trying to shoot without flash then dark or blurry pictures are to be expected. Get more light or use flash.

If the flash is not working return it, otherwise try reading up on the fundamentals of SLR photography. I wouldn't blame the camera just yet.

Good luck!

-Clos

[Butzl]

okteh18 wrote:
I was so excited to finally bought my 300D but all world falls apart when I saw the result. Basically, all photos are either too soft (not sharp) or too dark when taken indoor with the 550ex flash. Does anyone out there have the same problem?


There are many people in this forum willing to help others solving their problems, or vice versa. However, a description like the above is not enough information to really hit the point. With one or two sample pictures and technical details on shooting mode it would be much easier to analyze!

--Jens--

[mlfrancis]

Sorry about that. Good point. ;-)

Here is a link to a few shots all taken indoors with either full auto, portrait, or Program unshifted. All using the internal flash. The EXIF info is there as well. They just seem way too dark to me.

http://www.mindspring.com/~mlfrancis

I shrunk the files slightly because I don't have much webspace to put them on.

I have tons of these shots different places different lighting and even different ISO, but all seem very dark.

What's weird is I get the same dark shot even when using my external 420EX. If I use my G2 with it's internal or 420EX attached, I get brighter shots. Maybe f4-5ish is just too tight for the interior lighting? I don't know exactly how the G2 aperature relates to the RD. Maybe it is the kit lens? - Oh, this is whith the kit lens by the way. I don't have others.

I understand about the 18% gray metering and how the flash exposure is metered the split second after a full press and before the main shot is taken. I also understand how the flash power is tied to the currently active AF point(s). And I can explain away some of my shots by going back and really looking at where the AF point was. I don't typically do the focus lock and recompose so that shouldn't be an issue.

Are others have these same kind of dark shots?

Thanks in advance,
Michael

[mlfrancis]

Oh, and by the way, when I am talking about how dark they are, I am particularly talking about how dark the skintones are. The background should be able to be controled with the ISO, but the skintones just look down right too dark.

Later,
Michael

[Hatem Eldoronki]

mlfrancis wrote:
Oh, and by the way, when I am talking about how dark they are, I am particularly talking about how dark the skintones are. The background should be able to be controled with the ISO, but the skintones just look down right too dark.

Later,
Michael

How about trying Custom White Balance? That should give you the correct skin tone..and also in the parameters, try changing the 'Tone' setting..

[who10]

mlfrancis wrote:
Sorry about that. Good point. ;-)

Here is a link to a few shots all taken indoors with either full auto, portrait, or Program unshifted. All using the internal flash. The EXIF info is there as well. They just seem way too dark to me.

http://www.mindspring.com/~mlfrancis


Michael,

Here's one of your shots with some post processing adjustments:

http://www.haskellct.com/EE_Galleries/Gallery1/webguests/128_2861_cmpr.jpg

Here's a full size image:

http://www.haskellct.com/EE_Galleries/Gallery1/webguests/128_2861_lvls

I believe you can do essentially the same thing with Photoshop Elements.

Perhaps a little post processing is all that's necessary.

_____
David

[AliasMoze]

You know, for the first few weeks I had the 300D, my exposure was all over the place. My experience up until then was with all-manual SLR's, and the method I had come to rely on for years revolved around an in-camera spot meter, which of course no DSLR has. Trying to go manual with the 300D, I've found, is really slow and not so accuate without a handheld meter.

So I switched to AV and TV mode, and the problem is gone. Using the evaluative metering is a bit disconcerting, but I'm slowly learning what to expect and how to ride the exposure compensation levels for each shot.

So, for me the biggest different when going digital wasn't the digital; it was all the automatic functions.

[who10]

mlfrancis wrote:
http://www.mindspring.com/~mlfrancis

I have tons of these shots different places different lighting and even different ISO, but all seem very dark.


Michael,

When I got home from work I applied some noise reduction to the image in my earlier post:

http://www.haskellct.com/EE_Galleries/Gallery1/webguests/128_2861_noNoise

On my monitor 128_2861 brightens right up after very little touch up.

_____
David

[mlfrancis]

Wow! Significant improvement.

Looks great, but it still doesn't help me with my concern over the camera. I know there is a difference between the G2 and DSLR, but the DR is giving me very dark shots interior with a flash. The G2 gives much brighter shots.

In the defence of the DR, I have seen the G2 blow out highlights in interior flash shots - sometimes. I've never seen the DR do that and, as you proved, you can pull more detail out of a dark shot than you can get out of one with blown highlights. ;-)

I'm going to go to the local camera shop tomorrow and shoot some shots in the store with one of theirs. I need to look for a new bag anyhow.

Thanks!
Michael

[clos]

Yeah they look a bit dark and it sounds like you know what you are doing. Sorry for my obnoxious post earlier.

Does the DR have flash compensation setting?

If you have already reached the limits of your DR you might think of returning the DR for a 10D.

Let us know how it goes, we have heard that the DR has an advantage over the 10D when it comes to internal flash. I would be interested to find out if this is a unique anomoly or a short coming of the DR.

Good luck.

-Clos

[Malaxos1]

Are the batteries fresh in the flash? I have a D rebel and not having any probs with indoor shots with the 420EX. I am shooting in Av and M modes only.

[Butzl]

Thanks for the additional info. You obviously know what you're doing and you haven't made a technical mistake with your posted pictures, at least I cannot find a reason for turning out that dark. Of course, you can improve with PS but that shouldn't be necessary and it cuts your dynamic range.
If I understand you correctly you got a loan 300D and it worked fine for you, then your copy of the 300D seems to be the problem.

--Jens--

[mlfrancis]

Short story:
New camera = all better now.

Long story:
What a weekend. I usually buy electronics off the Net, but for some weird reason I went to the local camera shop this time. That happens to be Ritz/Wolf Camera. Their price wasn't too awful when I considered I could have the Digital Rebel in my hands immediately. I didn’t think I would need the extra security of being able to return it. Boy was I wrong.

I went down Saturday, 25 miles from home, to a Wolf camera, but not the one where I actually bought it. I showed them the receipt and explained what was happening and asked to shot some shots with the demo model. They said, “nah, we’ll just switch it out for you.” Sounded great to me, couldn’t be worse.

25 miles back home I unpacked and loaded it up. Turned it on. Ugh, a big bright blue pixel stuck on the LCD. Well, okay, it wasn’t any bigger than any other pixel, but it looked huge when I first saw it. I shot some shots with it all night long. Same kind of shots that was giving the previous one fits. I am happy to say, MUCH BETTER. I’m not sure what was wrong with the first one, but it definatly hat problems and I was much happier with the second.

That is until I slept on it. By Sunday morning, the blue dot really bothered me every time I turned it on or looked at a menu or picture. I know the Rebel Digital is the cheapest digital SLR around , but it still isn't "cheap." So what’s a guy to do? I loaded up the wife and two kids and proceeded the 25 miles back down to Wolf.

Granted I don’t think they were elated to see me particularly since they didn’t get credit for the original sale, that was a different Wolf, but they where pleasant enough when they swapped the blue dot one out for yet another.

So it seems three cameras later, I’m a happy camper again. This has been one time I was glad I bought local. If I had done my usual mail order route, it would have been a real pain and I probably would have stuck with the camera with the blue dot on the LCD since its shots were fine.

Thanks to everyone that offered suggestions. See you around in some other threads.

Later,
Michael

[sp00g3]

I noticed you used a relatively fast shutter speed (1/60) for the indoor portrait.. Slow it down a bit to (1/20) Should still be fast enough for slight movement by someone like a child, but slow enough to let enough light in to expose for the lack of "True Light" that the Sun will almost give you.. :)

[mlfrancis]

1/20th sec for a 1 and 2.5 year old?!?! Maybe if they were sleeping. LOL!

I have decided that my children are faster than the speed of light. I came to that conculsion a when I realized that a camera is really a device for captureing light. Then I realized how many times the kids move between the time I hit the shutter and the time the shot is taken. Therefore, they are faster than light. Just wait until they are old enough for the Olympics. ;-)

The problem I was having was the majority of flash shot were badly underexposed. I could have gotten around some of it using Av to or Tv, but my wife who only uses Auto would have never let me know how crappy the pictures coming out of the camera were. Once I exchanged it for another, those problems went away. Well, seem to have gone away.

Happy shooting,
Michael

[sp00g3]

haha.. I understand... I have had good luck with AV.. Recently I have been using a better lense then the 18-55 that came with it.. That has made a HUGE difference.