20D Histogram

[markwinter]

Please could someone correct me if i am wrong....i have recently moved from a 300D to a 20D. Whilst using the 300D taking aviation related photographs I found that when putting the images in to Photoshop CS and attaching a colour profile for printing commercially that they looked ever so slightly underexposed. If I looked at the Histogram in photoshop it had a slight fall off towards the right hand side. This was easily cured by dragging the right hand most slider in to meet the histogram and bingo you had a correctly exposed shot. After purchasing my 20D last week I perhaps expected too much and hoped that this problem would dissappear. To no avail, I am left with the exact same problem. I am now wondering if this is me, or is this a general problem (be it minor) with digital photography.
I would be grateful for any comments

[lomond]

Mark, I don't know much about aviation photography but I'm guessing the exposure meter for the 300D and 20D has been fooled into underexposing due to the brighter sky behind the aircraft.

This is common for most if not all metering systems.

From my experience photographing snow scenes with the 10D it is necessary to increase the exposure compensation by one or two stops. This is also true for bird photography, in my experience.

[Dante King]

What metereing mode are you using when shooting aviation shots? metering mode will make a big difference.

[lomond]

What metereing mode are you using when shooting aviation shots? metering mode will make a big difference.

I agree, metering mode will make a difference but unless the subject takes up a fair chunk of the viewfinder even partial metering at 9% might be fooled.
I find a few test shots adjusting exposure compensation to suit helps.

[markwinter]

Thanks for all your replies, I am using the "evaluative metering" mode on my camera.
I can understand what you are saying with reference to "does the subject fill the frame"

Doing the sort of aviation photography I do, (I am staff photographer at a UK International airport) two things spring to mind.

1. The subject usually has about 35% sky area, 35% subject and 30% tarmac/concrete - if its a bright day then the concrete apron reflects light and I assume this can fool the camera.

Once again, many thanks, any further advice is evry welcome

Regards
Mark

[tim]

The 20D tends to expose for the brightest area in the photo, which often leaves the shot looking slightly underexposed. What you need to do is watch the histogram while you're shooting, and if it's not looking how you want it dial in some exposure compensation.

[markwinter]

Thats a good idea, thank you.

I thought it was me, just starting to get paranoid and thinking I had suddenly become an incompetent photographer