powershot G5

hi im new to photography i have just got a g5 i get brilliant photos in the house night or day and outside on a sunny day is ok ,but on cloudy days
my photos are too dark,can anybody give me some advice please
i would be grateful
thanks RAY

Can you post an example with the exif data.
If you don't know how, we need to know the settings for the photo
Mode that was set e.g. P...auto...av..tv... or manual
Shutterspeed
iso speed set
and F.number set.

Thanks terry.

i took the photos in auto i dont understand what exif data means ,sorry i feel so stupid
ray

Welcome to the forum, grandad... don't worry, you'll pick up some of the jargon as you look through these postings (and read the manual, etc.)

EXIF data is information about the camera's settings that is saved along with the picture. There are image viewers that can retrieve that info for you. So does your camera if you set the display to show it during playback; your computer may do it by just right-clicking on the filename and selecting "properties" from the menu -- depends on what operating system you are using.

Without seeing a sample image, it's pretty hard to speculate as to why some are dark on cloudy days. (EXIF info isn't as important as seeing the picture itself, so check the tips about posting photos here for us to look at.) However, I'm going to make one guess: on a cloudy day, the entire sky is often uniformly gray, and your camera may be seeing all of that grayness and interpreting it as a large light-colored background. Therefore, it's trying to make the image darker than it would if the sky were a nice clear blue. One solution is to get closer to your subject, or lock the exposure while deliberately shooting lower on the subject so the meter isn't seeing all of the sky... then re-frame and take the picture. You might also turn on the flash, so that it puts some extra light directly on your subject. (Of course, if you're shooting a distant landscape, that won't be of any help.)

Eventually, you'll be able to better see what the camera is trying to do in these situations, and can start using the Av, Tv, or manual shooting modes to get a better exposure. Meanwhile, keep on shooting, and having fun.

WOULD THIS INFO BE OF ANY HELP
dimensions 2592x1944
camera make canon
model CANON POWERSHOT G5
date 2006.04.12 11.27.57
resolution 2592x1944
flash,not used
focal length,8.0mm
35mm equivelent,40mm
CCD width7.19mm
exposure time0.001s(1250)
aperture, f/5.0
metering mode,matrix
exposure,N/A
thumbnail,160x120 pixels
hope this might be of help to someone trying to give me advice
thanks a lot RAY

I can only think you are including quite a lot of sky in the picture . as the settings seem ok for a quite bright day though not sunny.

Try pointing the camera 45 degrees downward, half press the shutter, to lock the exposure, then raise it to take in the view you want then fully click the shutter.
As you will also have fixed the focus it might be a bit fuzzy but the exposure should be OK.
This will show the camera is working correctly.

Change the exposure mode to spot. and make sure it is not pointing to the sky, then try another shot. this too should be OK.

If you are ever around Saddleworth you could look me up . Send me a PM, and I will let you have details. I have a G3 and G6, the G3 controls are the same as a G5.

Terry

Even on a sunny day using ISO 50, that's probably one-stop under exposed (unless you're shooting at something bright or the sun).

It says you have matrix mode on - I'd have it looked at. My G5 was used on Auto for about four/five months when I bought it and it never got the exposure wrong (sunny, indoor, cloudy &c.). Well just once when I was shooting someone who was in the shade on a very sunny day (backlit).

I think you need to calibrate your screen - that looks like a proper English cloduy day top me.

grandadraymond wrote:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

this is another photo i took comments please

Nothing wrong with the photo, camera wise.
Could be greatly improved in photoshop.
I take it the sample was straight out of the camera.

Terry

Very strange difference in our G5 cameras.

Mine does not seem to have a "matrix" metering mode. Either that, or I haven't found how to put it in that mode. Mine has "spot", "Center Weighted Average", and "Evaluative", and they are selected by the middle button of the 3 buttons in the upper left from the viewing screen, or from a menu. I note that the EXIF data describes the mode as "Pattern" instead of "Evaluative". I wonder what program you are using to determine your camera setting parameters. I'm using PSCS2. I should point out that the EXIF information is not embedded in the image file as ASCII text - it is embedded as binary data. Therefore, each program used to display the EXIF data uses its own interpretation of that binary encoding. So one program may call it "Matrix" and another program might call it something else.

Be that as it may, the sample picture that you submitted is interesting in that it does not show any shadows at all. So, you do have the classic overcast sky, which does not give much contrast in the mid-tones. About the only way that you can improve upon such a scene is to shoot in RAW mode and then during RAW processing you can get more contrast in the mid tone region more readily that when starting with a JPG file.

If you are concerned about the software for RAW processing, go to the Pixmantec web site and download the free "RAW Shooter Essentials", which is quite good.

grandadraymond wrote:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

this is another photo i took comments please

I have raised the contrast in the midtones with curves in photoshop , straightened the horizon and sharpened it up a little. You could not go a lot further with adjustments to improve things.
The problem is mainly with the lighting.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

will you give me your opinion on this photo please terry

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Granddad Raymond, I take it that she is your grandaughter and she is just adorable!!
What a little rascal...
I would have cropped the flash in the mirror out and that way she would not be as centered in the picture as she is now. Then there is ofcourse things you could do in postprocessing such as adjust levels and maybe boost saturation to make her pop out a little more.

You have not stated if image editing of your pictures is OK, but since others have done it I take it it is alright with you.
I have cropped the picture, adjusted the levels to get the gray haze away added a little more saturation of the color and a touch of Unsharp mask.


This was made in a program called ACDsee and could have been done better in Photoshop, but i find ACDsee fast and simple and since it is limited in what you can do with it compared to Photoshop you dont get stuck overdoing your pictures.

I think that the pictures you have shown looks like what i would have got out of my G5, living in Sweden i know how it is having gray weather and it is really hard getting shots that stands out on overcast days i think, my impression of the G5 is that it LOVES COLOR so throw in some of your granddaughters colorful toys in the pictures and that could add some flavour to your pictures...

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