New T3i not happy with first shots

I just got the T3i and popped off a few shots, all auto. They seam washed out and too bright. Is there a setting I can do to fix this?
I am a novice. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

Considering the harsh light and subject, it looks pretty good to me. Better than my 5DII would do in auto.

If it looks way over-exposed, it could be that you have your monitor too bright. If it just looks brighter than you'd like, then I would suggest you use a non-auto mode to at least control exposure compensation.

The washed-out look is the light, but if you learn some post-processing you can certainly make shots like this look better than any of the in-camera settings.

Hello Den - I'm guessing you used Av, Tv or Program to shoot this picture, and when you metered the scene I'm the camera likely evaluated the darker area of the trees at the center. Meter automatically compensated for this by either giving you a slower shutter speed, or larger aperture opening. This is fine and normal. But then the sky and foreground grass which is brighter to begin with only gets brighter in the overall exposure of things.

The way around this when using any of the auto modes is to meter on a mid-tone value......like the grass, or even the sky. This will cause everything to go a little darker. Or if you were in manual mode, just stop down one more stop, or use a faster shutter speed. This picture really is not that far off - you were quite close in your metering.

Also keep in mind that you took the picture at midday. Typically this is a very uninteresting time and will give you washed out looking results. That's why many shooters ( like me) prefer to do much of our work prior to 10 AM or after about 3:30 PM during the summer.

What were your camera settings? That will help in providing a more specific solution.

I agree, you are not that far off. I'm assuming that you used the "green box" full auto mode and let the camera pick everything. For this shot I would set the ISO to 100 or 200, use AV mode and pick an aperture of 6.3 or 7.2 and let the camera pick the shutter speed for those settings. If you shoot in RAW and use the program that came with your camera, DPP, then you can easily adjust with a little playing around with the saturation, shadow, and highlight slide bars. Then use convert and save with jpeg as the output. A little over exposed is better than underexposed. DPP may look overwhelming at first, but you really can't hurt anything and can always reset to the original RAW image.

This is literally about a 1 minute post processing in DPP using your jpeg image. Hope you don't mind that I worked with it.

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That's pretty much what I get from my T2i if I shoot on a sunny day. All pictures look washed out and dull. If you don't want to post process, you can try adding -1/3 EV to darken the image a bit but you'll have to get out of the full Auto mode to be able to adjust the value. In Auto mode, you the camera does everything for you.

Get out of the auto mode and learn to shoot M Its not the camera's fault. Keep shooting and trying different things with M mode to see what works and what doesn't.

Yes, I've done some post shot process, but I was surprised I needed to. Yes GreenJeans that does look better. It was shot on the full auto, but here is one the next day I shot on sport, using a 250mm IS Zoom. Sun was low facing me(I know bad) but looks like the same results. Also a afternoon(3pmish, sun from side back) hummingbird shot, Sport and the Zoom lens. Also washed out.

Here is a shot with my old 300D, this one was photo shopped but does have good rich color.

denbeau wrote in post #15003894
Yes, I've done some post shot process, but I was surprised I needed to. Yes GreenJeans that does look better. It was shot on the full auto, but here is one the next day I shot on sport, using a 250mm IS Zoom. Sun was low facing me(I know bad) but looks like the same results. Also a afternoon(3pmish, sun from side back) hummingbird shot, Sport and the Zoom lens. Also washed out.

All photos benefit from PP - its part of the fun of photography for me Cropping, re-aligning the horizon, colour tweaking and exposure tweaking are all part of PP work, and something you should get accustomed to doing if you want your photos to look their best besides, its fun!

The sports shot looks OK - the colours of the grass are slightly off because of what you already knew - the sun was in front of you, so its messing up the contrast a little bit. I can't tell from this web size version, but the two main players don't look to be in focus to me - it looks more like the player on the far left is in focus. The hummingbird shot isn't terribly washed out, its just not in focus. Maybe you had too low of a SS for that one?

May I ask why you purchased a DSLR if you shoot in auto mode? I'm definitely not judging or criticizing, everyone has a right to purchase whatever they want.

I just want to make sure you exhausted and reviewed all options out there. I know as consumers there are so many options that it gets frustrating so we reach for something like a DSLR and hope it automatically gives us the best image quality.

But if your intention is to keep the DSLR on auto mode, I think some of the smaller cameras out there might be better options, and actually can give you better results.

I don't know why, but the S95 I used to have consistently gave me better looking pictures when set in auto mode as compared to my XSi when in auto. And I've also gotten wonderful results from a Panasonic point and shoot I used to have (forgot the model, it was one that had at least 10X optical zoom), and a camera like that may also give you the type of reach you are looking for without the expense/ inconvenience of having to purchase additional lenses.

Just a thought.

Back in 2006 my wife and I went to Seattle and went whale watching. I had a Sony point and shoot digital at the time. The killer whales started breaching, and I didnt get one shot, because the camera had such a lag. So I vowed when I got back that would never happen again, so I bought Rebel 300D. And everything I took was great! Pretty much all auto mode. And it was fast! So I've had it 6 years, and wanted to upgrade to the t3i. Just got it last week so still working with it. Yes, I know I should get into more of what it can do. I've been lazy with that, and my old one on auto was really very good.

denbeau wrote in post #15004123
Back in 2006 my wife and I went to Seattle and went whale watching. I had a Sony point and shoot digital at the time. The killer whales started breaching, and I didnt get one shot, because the camera had such a lag. So I vowed when I got back that would never happen again, so I bought Rebel 300D. And everything I took was great! Pretty much all auto mode. And it was fast! So I've had it 6 years, and wanted to upgrade to the t3i. Just got it last week so still working with it. Yes, I know I should get into more of what it can do. I've been lazy with that, and my old one on auto was really very good.

Interesting that you liked the auto mode on the 300D. I frankly wasn't happy with it on the XSi, I basically had similar results/ frustration that you are feeling with the T3i. I have a 60D now but haven't tried the auto mode yet,maybe I should. Same sensor as the T3i, so maybe that'll allow a similar comparison to your pictures.

But again, if you are looking to keep the camera mostly on auto and aren't too invested in a DSLR system, I think it's worth giving a look to these new batch of "advanced" compacts. The new Sony RX100 is almost the same price as the T3i, so you may balk at it, but I think it's worth considering and it might fit what you want better than the T3i.

Also consider mirrorless options. I picked up an Olympus EPL-3 for $300, basically the price of a decent point and shoot. I get amazing results in almost any situation, and the pictures I get in auto mode in that camera have been consistently solid.

it would be nice if you posted exif data with your files.

if you aren't shooting RAW, you need to change your jpeg settings in camera, Maybe add some contrast and color saturation, by default, its expected they wont mimic what your 300D did.

Could I be letting in light from the view finder? I ware glasses and my face doesnt press into the view finder cup and if I had them off...I'll test that!
Dark Knight, I cannot change cameras now, as I just got this T3i last week. And to me it was a good sized investment. I'll learn how to use it....

denbeau wrote in post #15004230
Could I be letting in light from the view finder? I ware glasses and my face doesnt press into the view finder cup and if I had them off...I'll test that!
Dark Knight, I cannot change cameras now, as I just got this T3i last week. And to me it was a good sized investment. I'll learn how to use it....

No, light does not enter the camera from the viewfinder, only through the lens so you don't need to worry about your glasses!

It takes time and practice. Just keep playing with the camera, its a good camera and capable of taking amazing pictures - but you can't expect it to do so on Auto mode without any help from you. Cameras are intelligent, but colours trick them. They see "black" as a lack of light, and will therefore over expose the surrounding colours to compensate for what it thought was dark (like the forest in your first image). When they see "white" they believe it is a LOT of light, so they will underexpose. While AUTO mode means the camera will try to balance all of the settings for you to result in a properly exposed image, it could be taking away from the SS (shutter speed) in order to do so, unless you have a limiter set on how slow it can go. If it is dropping to slow shutter speeds, like 1/30th, to let in more light, then you are stuck dealing with camera shake and blur from your end. If your lens has IS this can help, but there is a limit on how far that can go. Taking it off of Auto and putting it on M allows you to dictate what balance you need. There are quite a few books out there if you're the type who learns from reading. If you learn from experience like I do, take it off auto and switch it to M, and learn by trial and error. Or look into local classes