10 D dark pictures - LCD looks fine

[ronchast]

I am shooting in a studio setting with Quantum T2 D lighting ( x 3 ) , as well as several other types of studio lights and my D 60 and 10 D both exhibit the same phenomena - The LCD looks great bu pics are always dark. The histogram shows dark and that is what I end up using, but why does the LCD look fine when the pic is almost black when I load it into Photoshop ?

We meter the lights for , say f11 at 60, all is well, the LCD looks great, the histogram looks dark and it IS dark...very dark, when we open it in PS - even after it was metered. Is there a setting anywhere I need to know about ? I am sure it's me, but having to check the histogram is a bit slower than looking at the LCD to see where I am at. Both the D 60 and 10 D do it, so it must be me ??

Thanks all,
Merry Christmas !

Ron

[John_T]

Have you checked the camera menu to see what level you have the LCD set to? This setting won't directly affect your pix, but it will affect how you set up your shot.

[slin100]

There are a lot of things to check. Make sure your meter is set at the same ISO as your camera. I'm not sure if the Quantums support E-TTL, but if they do and your studio lights are slaved optically, it might be that the slaves are being triggered by the ETTL preflash. Try aiming the camera at the studio light and take a shot. If the light isn't lit in the picture, then it's definitely discharging at the wrong time.

The default LCD brightness is one or two notches high. Turn it down by adjusting it in the Menu.

Doublecheck your monitor calibration.

[ronchast]

Thanks for the input.
The slaves are all on Free Wire systems, I know about the pre flash triggering. That bit me several times.

The LCD levels don't reeally affect it, bit I know what you are saying.

We tried ISO's from 100 - 800 , and metered the lights each time.

What I get is a very nice looking LCD , dark picture, and relatively accurate histogram on the camera. I just wander why my LCD shows fine when the pic is almost black ...

Thanks for the input, I will keep testing.

[ryleung]

For the record, the same problem happens to me with my DRebel as well. Whenever I shoot, I just have to make sure that the pictures look like they are overexposed on the LCD. If they look like they have the correct brightness on the LCD, I know they're gonna be way dark (by about 1.5 stops) when they show up on the computer.

-Rick

[Motorsports Photo]

You cant trust the camera LCD for exposure. You can zoom to check sharpness or see if someone closed their eyes on the shot but you HAVE to use the histogram to check exposure. I have yet to find the histogram wrong, but the camera itself screws up exposure a lot!

-Pete

[BrettD]

Make sure you are looking straight at the screen, ie the screen is not at an angle to your eyes.

I have found that many LCD displays, (my laptop and 10D included) have the effect of increasing the gamma dramatically if you look down on them.

I still always use a 4 second with histogram review mode though, as it never lies.


Brett D

[mrbobco]

if the lcd and histogram look properly exposed, this sounds an awful lot like you are processing the raw files as linear tiffs which will yield a nearly dark photo...

just a thought...

bob

[scottbergerphoto]

As most others have said, the LCD gives much brighter pictures then what the histogram and converted picture show. I suggest that you don't use the LCD to judge exposure. Have the LCD set up to show the histogram and small picture after each shot, not just the picture if you haven't already done that( be prepared to go through more batteries). Use the histogram to judge the exposure. I use the LCD image to judge composition and focus. Also, as already stated, if your using BreezeBrowser and Linear Conversion, you will get very dark photos that come right up with levels. This looks much darker then a shot that's underexposed by 1/2- 1 stop.
Scott

[ronchast]

Thanks all, at least I know it's me and not the camera.
I will use the dual view to reference the exposure.

Merry Christmas


Ron

[Longwatcher]

Just from my experience, The LCD display appears to use the THM files to display the image. It corrects for all sorts of things including exposure, sharpening and contrast. It will lighten dark exposures and if not for blown highlights would darken light exposures a bit. I have noted that it will also show what appears to be better contrast and saturation then then the RAW file will initially show.

As has been mentioned, don't trust the LCD it does its own processing of the image. I have noted that extracting the Jpeg file using the Canon software tends to show similiar results as that of the LCD.

Use the dual display using histogram for exposure level and the LCD for composition, shadows and facial features.

It only took me 6 months before I figured it out for myself (by reading this forum)

[ronchast]

Thanks , that makes a lot of sense. At least I know the
camera is not malfunctioning.

God Bless


Ron