I am using an Xti and lately I am seeing some issues. My photos are under exposed, grainy and dull. My light meter indicates that everything is right and my photos look perfect on the screen. When I download them to my computer the are really bad. I've tried to compensate by lowering the iso and changing the f stop, but I haven't gotten the formula right. I know it's an old camera. Is my light meter just going bad? How could I compensate for that? This isn't an completely new thing. I have been noticing for a while that my camera needed more light that usual. someone suggested i try the sunny 16 rule. I did that. and this is how they came out. They really should not be this dark. any insights as to what's going on?
Thanks in advance!
~Cat
catm0387 wrote: I am using an Xti and lately I am seeing some issues. My photos are under exposed, grainy and dull. My light meter indicates that everything is right and my photos look perfect on the screen. When I download them to my computer the are really bad. I've tried to compensate by lowering the iso and changing the f stop, but I haven't gotten the formula right. I know it's an old camera. Is my light meter just going bad? How could I compensate for that? This isn't an completely new thing. I have been noticing for a while that my camera needed more light that usual. someone suggested i try the sunny 16 rule. I did that. and this is how they came out. They really should not be this dark. any insights as to what's going on?
Thanks in advance!
~Cat
ISO 100 ƒ/16 1/100 s
ISO 200 ƒ/16 1/200 s
ISO 200 ƒ/16 1/80 s
I suggested the Sunny 16 rule to check to see if the meter was off. The key to the answer would appear to be a software issue on the computer. If the images look good on the camera LCD, then most likely, it's not the camera. You have a setting somewhere in the program you are using to view these images that has a negative exposure value set or something. One other thing to look at is the Histogram on the camera. If the image were this underexposed, the histogram would be crammed up against the left side. If the histogram is evenly spaced across the width of the histogram, it's not a camera issue.
It appears that these are not taken on a bright sunny day at mid-day, where the sunny 16 rule would apply. I saved one and corrected the exposure, and it appears to be an overcast day. Thus, ISO 100, 125th at F16 would produce the results you see. If your photos are turning out too dark, you will not lower the ISO; you will increase it. Take the same photo at 125th at F16 with an ISO or 1200 and see what happens.
royphotog wrote: It appears that these are not taken on a bright sunny day at mid-day, where the sunny 16 rule would apply. I saved one and corrected the exposure, and it appears to be an overcast day. Thus, ISO 100, 125th at F16 would produce the results you see. If your photos are turning out too dark, you will not lower the ISO; you will increase it. Take the same photo at 125th at F16 with an ISO or 1200 and see what happens.
What about their statement that the images look good on the camera LCD but dark in the computer?
royphotog wrote: It appears that these are not taken on a bright sunny day at mid-day, where the sunny 16 rule would apply. I saved one and corrected the exposure, and it appears to be an overcast day. Thus, ISO 100, 125th at F16 would produce the results you see. If your photos are turning out too dark, you will not lower the ISO; you will increase it. Take the same photo at 125th at F16 with an ISO or 1200 and see what happens.
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