Dark Pictures

[dave8051]

I haved a Digital Rebel Eos with efs 18-55 3.5-5.6 lens and am getting dark pictures with low indoor light. I added a 420EX and still getting dark images. The pictures appear better on the LCD then they do on the computer. I am using AFS. Any suggestions for getting lighter pictures would be appreciated. I have made some adjustments to ISO but not much better. Would a faster lens solve this? f2.8? or 1.8?

[tpinchback]

Hi dave welcome to the forums

What mode are you using?

if you are in low light a 3.5 to 5.6 apature is not going to cut it as far as shutter speeds go. i would go for the $80 50mm 1.8 to help with those low light situations.

[dave8051]

I had it in auto mode. here is a link to a sample picture...
http://www.members.aol.com/car1615/rebel

[Hellashot]

That image you posted doesn' t look that bad. Did you post process the image? You'll find that just about every image you take with a Drebel you should post process to make look how you want. Include the EXIF data for that image please.

I just noticed something, you said you had it in auto mode. Did you mean "green square"? If so you are leaving all the settings up to the camera and any ISO changes you did will not have been used. You need to know what the camera is doing on its own in each of the camera modes. Whenever I am indoors in dark areas I usually use P mode so I can control ISO.

[rick barclay]

Take longer exposures if you're shooting still objects. Experiment. It's fun.

[technosavy]

I have been playing with my new EOS20D for about three weeks now and I notice that my indoor and outdoor shots are dark and need at least a full stop to stop and a half to make them look decent after viewing them in Photoshop or Adobe Elemens.

I bracketed several shots of the same scene from a normal
(exposure bar- dead center in the LCD display) then overroad the exposure by +1 full stop and 1 1/2 full stops than viewed them with a calibrated monitor under Photoshop. On the normal dark images, once they are "brightened" under Photoshop, the pictures look great, flesh tones, shadow and all. On images compensated 1 to one and a half full stop, I do not need to "increase brightness" with Photoshop and they appear right on.

Firmware is 1.0.5. I use a variety of lenses from a 17mm to 85mm Canon EF-AF(IS) to the super sharp 85mm F 1.8 and a impressive Sigma 28 to 300mm. The results are consistent with the variety of lenses so it's not a lens issue. I also tried all the shutter, aperture, programmed modes so these are not issues. I also tried the built-in flash and my 440ex. Same results ( at least a full stop darker) I also understand and prefer a slightly underexposed image ( since I edit all my images anyway) - maybe 1/3 to 1/2 stop at the most, but a full to 1 and 1.5 stops is a bit much.

I always shoot at the highest JPEG setting and also tried JPEG + RAW and results are consistent ( dark images 1 to 1.5 stops)

Since the camera is barely 1 month old, should I send it back to Canon for re- calibration? HAs anyone experienced this?

Thanks,

Technosavy

[robertwgross]

I also tried the built-in flash and my 440ex.

I have no idea what 440ex is. There is no Canon flash unit by that number that I am aware of.

If you guys would read this forum routinely, you would see that you are all complaining the standard complaint, that flash shots are too dark by one stop or so. Fine! That is what exposure compensation is for. If your shots are consistently one stop dark, then crank it up a stop. On some cameras, you can do that in the camera. On other cameras, you have to do it in the external flash. You will also read that you can beat some of that with a different exposure mode. Then, there are other tricks and methods as well.

I would wager that if you send such a camera to Canon for some kind of recalibration, they will send it back "no trouble found". That is a polite way of saying "it meets specs."

Now, if you shoot and the flash photo is three stops low, then that is probably a problem.

---Bob Gross---