Blown out photo: I used my 50mm f1.8 in a low light situation to take a photo of my grandson yesterday evening. I used P mode (I did experiment with other modes). The photo was taken...

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I used my 50mm f1.8 in a low light situation to take a photo of my grandson yesterday evening. I used P mode (I did experiment with other modes). The photo was taken at 2.5 secs., f1.8, iso 800. and his face came out over blown.

nakkh Loc: San Mateo, Ca

The photo didn't post for some reason...

SteveR wrote:

I used my 50mm f1.8 in a low light situation to take a photo of my grandson yesterday evening. I used P mode (I did experiment with other modes). The photo was taken at 2.5 secs., f1.8, iso 800. and his face came out over blown.

roxiemarty Loc: Florida

SteveR wrote:

I used my 50mm f1.8 in a low light situation to take a photo of my grandson yesterday evening. I used P mode (I did experiment with other modes). The photo was taken at 2.5 secs., f1.8, iso 800. and his face came out over blown.

I can't see your photo, but part of the problem is too high iso, combined with the long exposure, and very wide aperture. It all lets in way too much light! I hope this helps.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

roxiemarty wrote:

I can't see your photo, but part of the problem is too high iso, combined with the long exposure, and very wide aperture. It all lets in way too much light! I hope this helps.

I guess my question, then, is, since my camera was in P mode, why didn't it choose the correct exposure? It's a D800 and should be sophisticated enough to do that. With an iso of 800, it should not have selected an exposure time of 2.5. I could understand if my results were from manual mode.

axiesdad Loc: Monticello, Indiana

It's always good to "bracket" your photos when shooting in marginal conditions. Take at least three pictures, one with the settings you think will work, one at half the exposure and one at double.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

SteveR wrote:

I guess my question, then, is, since my camera was in P mode, why didn't it choose the correct exposure? It's a D800 and should be sophisticated enough to do that. With an iso of 800, it should not have selected an exposure time of 2.5. I could understand if my results were from manual mode.

Did you use a matrix type exposure mode? The sensors would have looked at the overall amount of darkness and tried to brighten the whole thing up.

Try using spot meter mode and see the difference.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

axiesdad wrote:

It's always good to "bracket" your photos when shooting in marginal conditions. Take at least three pictures, one with the settings you think will work, one at half the exposure and one at double.

Actually, I did take photos and adjusted the shutter speed. I either continued to get blown out photos or under exposed. I did not have time to zero in on the correct exposure. My real question in making the post is why the camera wasn't able to select the correct exposure. After all, P&S cameras and even cell phones can do it.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Searcher wrote:

Did you use a matrix type exposure mode? The sensors would have looked at the overall amount of darkness and tried to brighten the whole thing up.

Try using spot meter mode and see the difference.

That is a possibility. I will re-do the photo using spot metering and see if that does the trick. Most of the photo was light, however, with just one dark area (the sofa). That could have thrown the camera off, however.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

@ 2.5seconds even if it was exposed properly, it would have been blurry, since I know of no kid that will sit still for longer than 1/100s

Swamp Gator Loc: Coastal South Carolina

SteveR wrote:

I used my 50mm f1.8 in a low light situation to take a photo of my grandson yesterday evening. I used P mode (I did experiment with other modes). The photo was taken at 2.5 secs., f1.8, iso 800. and his face came out over blown.

2.5 secs shutter with an ISO of 800 and a lens opening of 1.8?!
Low light situation sounds like an understatement.

What would the proper exposure have been if you had set it all yourself manually?

MtnMan Loc: ID

SteveR wrote:

I used my 50mm f1.8 in a low light situation to take a photo of my grandson yesterday evening. I used P mode (I did experiment with other modes). The photo was taken at 2.5 secs., f1.8, iso 800. and his face came out over blown.

The answer almost always is operator error. Clearly that is much too long an exposure time for that f-stop and ISO.

One possibility is that you had it set to spot metering and had the spot centered on a black hole. Another is that you had exposure compensation to something like +5 EV. Maybe you had bracketing turned on and were taking one of the bracketing shots. Many possibilities.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Swamp Gator wrote:

2.5 secs shutter with an ISO of 800 and a lens opening of 1.8?!
Low light situation sounds like an understatement.
What would the proper exposure have been if you had set it all yourself manually?

That is exactly what I was about to say!
But my next statemt is if you use spot, and the blowout is correct, the areas that where correct before will be as underexposed as the light areas were blown out!!
You said you tried other modes? How did they come out?
I can hardly see how you can get it very wrong since you can chimp.
Did you try one on AUTO? It probably would have been perfect!! :lol:
Then just use those settings to chimp it to who's you want it to look.
Good luck. ;-)
SS

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

SteveR wrote:

I used my 50mm f1.8 in a low light situation to take a photo of my grandson yesterday evening. I used P mode (I did experiment with other modes). The photo was taken at 2.5 secs., f1.8, iso 800. and his face came out over blown.

I would venture to guess you were using spot metering and focused on a dark area like hair or something, that would cause a serious blow-out exposure of the face quite easily.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

MT Shooter wrote:

that would cause a serious blow-out...

with babies, lots of things can cause serious blow-outs.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Cdouthitt wrote:

@ 2.5seconds even if it was exposed properly, it would have been blurry, since I know of no kid that will sit still for longer than 1/100s

Actually, he was asleep in his mother's arms.