Blue skies

This kinda goes with hand in hand with a post I made earlier...

But why is it that when I bust out my iPhone and take a quick pic of the sky (which i did about an hour ago). I get all the blues, and everything is "exposed properly" , but with my 60D the sky is blown out or too dark. Obviously an iPhone and a DSLR are vastly different, but whats that little difference that lets my phone capture everything?

All 3 of the pictures are "as-is" right from my phone and camera. They were taken within 5 minutes of each other, so the sky didn't really change. I took the ones with my camera first, and then the one with my phone further down the trail. Mind you, these weren't meant to be amazing pictures, just shooting really quick to figure things out.

From my camera
1/125th @ f/8

Between shot one and three, try exposing for the sky with your camera instead of the foliage. It will slightly bring down the exposure in the trees, but bring out blues in the sky.

Your first photo:
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: EF70-200mm f/4L USM
Image Date: 2012-10-05 06:44:44 (no TZ)
Focal Length: 70mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure Time: 0.0080 s (1/125)
ISO equiv: 800
Exposure Bias: +1.00 EV
Metering Mode: Partial
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Manual
Flash Fired: No (enforced)
Orientation: Normal
Color Space: sRGB
GPS Coordinate: undefined, undefined

Your second photo:
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: EF70-200mm f/4L USM
Image Date: 2012-10-05 06:45:42 (no TZ)
Focal Length: 73mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)
ISO equiv: 800
Exposure Bias: +1.00 EV
Metering Mode: Partial
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Manual
Flash Fired: No (enforced)
Orientation: Normal
Color Space: sRGB
GPS Coordinate: undefined, undefined

The iPhone jpg here does not have data but it is in the file on your computer. What was the correct exposure? probably somewhere close to what the phone calculated. How did you determine the proper exposure on your 60D? Wing it? What was the little meter telling you inside the viewfinder?

Well first of all, the angle and quality of light does appear to have changed quite a bit. The iphone looks to be side-lit while the other appears to have more light coming from behind or directly above. This makes the sky really light and the trees dark with few mid-tones. The histogram shows this.

On top of that, the iphone is probably using some processing that increases contrast and saturation automatically where your camera is probably using a picture style that produces a more "natural" tone.

You really need a controlled test if you want to compare but I assure you, the iphone doesn't hold a candle to a DSLR except in the most ideal light.

I'm going to have to redo this experiment tomorrow lol. I should have taken the pics in the exact same spot at the same time. The angle/direction is pretty much the same cause the path runs east to west. The light however...I forget that in Fall, 5 minutes can change the lighting drastically.

I'm wondering though, if I have my Canon on full auto and snap the same pic with my iPhone, which is going to look better color wise? Is it going to be the iPhone just cause of all the instant post-processing magic it does? Lol

I wonder where the focus point for the "partial" exposure was in the dslr pics. Where there is strong dynamic range, a partial metering can emphasise this. Your iphone would be using an evaluative exposure mode? I am surprised at how dark the second photo is, given you also have +1EV.

Also, keep in mind that although it seems backwards at times, there is actually some pretty complex processing algorithms being developed that actually tend to hit the cell phone market before SLRs see them. I think there are two reasons for this. First, the cell phone market is obviously just bigger.
Second, it's somewhat assumed that anyone who's willing to plop down the money for a DSLR is probably going to have a better idea of how to take a properly exposed photograph and aren't going to be as reliant on the camera's help. It's probably more the first reason than the second.

The point here is that your iphone may actually be doing a better job correcting the initial photograph. Even though the lighting is definitely different as pointed out, the iphone does seem to have a more even exposure over what's still probably a rather wide dynamic range. In the end, however, the much greater control and flexibility you have with a DSLR along with understanding how different lighting will affect your final photograph will eclipse even the most high tech automatic processing.

tbsguy18 wrote in post #15081856
I'm going to have to redo this experiment tomorrow lol. I should have taken the pics in the exact same spot at the same time.

Good idea - that will give us a better comparison.

I've seen great shots from phone cameras, that is when "the light is right". but it all falls apart when the light is bad!

ChunkyDA wrote in post #15081600
How did you determine the proper exposure on your 60D? Wing it? What was the little meter telling you inside the viewfinder?

that's the critical question. for me evaluative metering with the AF on the sky gets blue skies (no adjustment in EV like the above example)