D-60 color

[One Shot Photography]

I am having problems with the outdoor pictures being bright enough when received them from the labs. On the computer they look perfect & on the camera but when I get them back they are really much darker. 200 speed film in the AWB mode. When I down load prints to the computer I load directly into photoshop 7. I also have been shooting all images in the large format state to insure good enlargements. What do you suggest? What should I change in photo shop to help correct this problem?

[BWiley]

Welcome to the club! You're now one of a multitude of D60 owners who have learned to rely heavily on exposure compensation (both camera and flash exp. comp.) to get good pictures. After compensating however much you estimate to be appropriate, you can also adjust the images on your computer in Photoshop.

This is a complicated subject and you will find many entries in the forums pertaining to "D60 exposure problems." I went far enough to test my D60 in a variety of exposure settings, burned a CD documenting the problems and returned my D60 to Canon for adjustment. Got it back just like I sent it, basically demonstrating that this particular camera has definite exposure issues (with and without flash) that require a lot of reading and practice to optimize.

Note that I didn't say "overcome," because I have yet to hear of someone who has resolved all the exposure issues concerning the D60.

Don't throw in the towel, because some great pictures are being taken with D60s, but I think most of us would agree that there's been a lot of frustration in dealing with exposure problems. Just plan to carefully evaluate your subject and setting for brightness and contrast and adjust the exposure compensation accordingly.

Good luck!
Bill

[lziering]

Just a quick word on this. The best way to understand exposure on a digital camera is to set the menu option to review each image showing the histogram. What you want to do is compensate for the camera's bias to not blow out highlights by underexposing. Try to use exposure compensation that makes the histogram look like a bell-shaped curve centered in the middle. For more on this go to Luminous Landscape and read what is written there.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/digital-workflow.shtml

[wcapald]

If your images are exposed correctly in camera - ie the histogram curve is centred (not at the LHS - underexposed; RHS - overexposed) then its NOT your camera, its colour mangement between your monitor and your lab. You need to have your monitor set to 6500K and your lab should be profiled. Otherwise its likely your images will be dark.

Lots on the forum about it. Wayne