New to photography pics to dark canon

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ROMPWORTHY - 26 Jul 2006 17:46 GMT

I am new to photography and baught a used Canon dslr rebel eos and the
problem is that my pictures in auto mode come out so dark I have to lighten
almost all especially the one that are in a shadow outside

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Bill - 26 Jul 2006 19:25 GMT

>I am new to photography and baught a used Canon dslr rebel eos and the
>problem is that my pictures in auto mode come out so dark I have to lighten
>almost all especially the one that are in a shadow outside

Do you have anywhere you can post a few samples so we can see what you
mean by "dark"?

Without knowing the situation, conditions, and settings, it's hard to
give you any helpful answers.

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Bart van der Wolf - 27 Jul 2006 00:17 GMT

>>I am new to photography and baught a used Canon dslr rebel eos
>>and the problem is that my pictures in auto mode come out so dark
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> to
> give you any helpful answers.

Indeed, for all we know it's just your display that's set-up wrong.
What does your image's histogram look like?

Bart

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DoN. Nichols - 27 Jul 2006 01:16 GMT

According to Bill <bill@c.a>:

> >I am new to photography and baught a used Canon dslr rebel eos and the
> >problem is that my pictures in auto mode come out so dark I have to lighten
> >almost all especially the one that are in a shadow outside
>
> Do you have anywhere you can post a few samples so we can see what you
> mean by "dark"?

    Remember that posting to the newsgroup itself is a "No-No".
This is not a binary newsgroup, so it should receive only text, not
images.

    However, if you have a web site, you can post the images there,
and then post to here the URL to allow us to access them.

    Be sure to post the original images -- not something processed
through a program later, because that tends to strip off things like the
"exif" data, which we could examine to look for strange settings.

> Without knowing the situation, conditions, and settings, it's hard to
> give you any helpful answers.

    Agreed.

    First -- is there a way to reset the camera to the factory
defaults? I know that the Nikon D70 has a couple of ways to do this.
Did you get the owner's manual with it? If so, did you take time to
*read* it all?

    Second -- is it possible that your computer monitor is set
strangely resulting in the appearance of too dark? Some sites, as well
as some photo manipulation programs, come with an image which should be
displayed, and brightness and contrast adjusted until you can just make
out the brightest and the darkest steps.

    Good Luck,
        DoN.

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Peter Pi - 26 Jul 2006 22:31 GMT

> I am new to photography and baught a used Canon dslr rebel eos and the
> problem is that my pictures in auto mode come out so dark I have to lighten
> almost all especially the one that are in a shadow outside

ROMPWORTHY,

Try using the manual settings (M) on the Rebel. When using the M
settings, it is important to read your light meter that is inside your
viewfinder. A lot of things could account for 'dark' images. Your ISO
may be too low for the light, your aperature may be too small or your
shutter speed to fast. You can control all of that with the M settings.

-Pp

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Steve m... - 27 Jul 2006 00:28 GMT

I too have a D Rebel. Have since they were almost released. It takes
excellent pictures. But they are dark if you leave the settings at
standard. Especially indoor pictures with the stock lens. It works much
better with a 1.8f 50mm but that isn't great for indoors due to the length
of the lens. You need a 28mm or 18 or so for indoor shots and it must have
a good f rating around 2.0. I have had better success with shooting RAW
images and then using DPP (software from Canon to adjust the images
brightness). Basically boost your FEC (on the flash or using the hacked
f-ware) to about 1 and also boost the Exposure compensation to around 1 as
well. Use the kit lens and then practice a couple of shots. Check the
histogram on the camera after the shots and adjust some more to get it
right. I used this method regularly with .jpg shots but with RAW you can
usually just skip that step and just take the pics and adjust them later as
needed. Remember you want the exposures to be brighter more so than darker
to keep noise at bay even with RAW image shots. It just works out better
due to the workings of the DRebel.

Steve (DRebel is the best digi cam I ever bought)

>I am new to photography and baught a used Canon dslr rebel eos and the
> problem is that my pictures in auto mode come out so dark I have to
> lighten
> almost all especially the one that are in a shadow outside

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Rod Williams - 08 Aug 2006 20:18 GMT

Remember you want the exposures to be brighter more so than darker

> to keep noise at bay even with RAW image shots. It just works out better
> due to the workings of the DRebel.

You are correct about noise but I would under expose before I would take
a chance of over exposure. I have saved many pictures that were under
exposed but once the picture is over exposed detail is lost that can
never be gotten back.

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