Canon A85 Dark Pictures?

[sharibrat]

Hello.......got the Canon for Christmas....new to the digital world and am used to a high quality 35 mm :(

Anyway, it seems almost every picture I take comes out dark. It looks perfect on the LCD but when I view the histogram the bars are all to the left (meaning dark?) and when I upload the pc, they are somewhat dark. I end up having to lighten almost every one.

I have stopped editing them with zoom browser because I take most of them to Wal Mart to be printed so I end up lightening them on the machines there......but this takes me 40 minutes to edit (about 60 pics) every time I go! Frustrating!

I am mainly using the Auto setting in our house. Our house is almost all windows with no curtains and is very light. We have a lot of backlit situations so I try not to shoot directly at the windows but it is still happening.

[Monarque1972]

I have the A95 and I very often use the exposure compensation founction. The auto mode can sometimes be dead on, but most of the time, especially for indoor pics, the exposure compensation has become my best friend. So play with it!!!


I know that the LCD on my A95 is different than yours, but I have noticed that in order to have bright anough pictures (on my computer screen and on paper), they have to appear REALLY bright on my LCD. Maybe I should learn to work with the histogram, but just by looking at my LCD, I know now wether or not my pics will come out bright anough.

By the way, in my opinion, the best mode to get beautiful pictures inside a house is "P" with the flash set on automatic. And if some pictures still don't come out the way you want, use the exposure correction.

For instance, when I take pictures of people inside my house (when it's dark outside and under artificial lighting), I know that I have to set my exposure compensation to about -1 when they are standing within 3 or 4 feet from me, or else they will be overexposed!! The night mode is also a good idea if you don't want the background to be too dark, but most of the time, you'll need a tripod because the shutter speed will be pretty slow.

So once again, my best advice for indoor pics : mode "P", flash on automatic, and exposure compensation if necessairy.

regards

[love811]

Hi...I got my Powershot A75 last Dec 2004 too. Had the same experience as you did since I initially used the AUTO setting and how the picture looked on the lcd is brighter as compared when you view it on the computer. Because of this, I have set the dial to P and adjusted the exposure vale to +2/3 all the time so that it saves editing time. You can also try experimenting on taking pictures on different areas or lighting conditions so that you can know how much exposure compensation you need to adjust or try ISO settings as well.

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Hello.......got the Canon for Christmas....new to the digital world and am used to a high quality 35 mm :(

Anyway, it seems almost every picture I take comes out dark. It looks perfect on the LCD but when I view the histogram the bars are all to the left (meaning dark?) and when I upload the pc, they are somewhat dark. I end up having to lighten almost every one.

I have stopped editing them with zoom browser because I take most of them to Wal Mart to be printed so I end up lightening them on the machines there......but this takes me 40 minutes to edit (about 60 pics) every time I go! Frustrating!

I am mainly using the Auto setting in our house. Our house is almost all windows with no curtains and is very light. We have a lot of backlit situations so I try not to shoot directly at the windows but it is still happening.[/QUOTE]