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Need help with exposure please!!!!!
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Jun 5, 2012 00:18:50   #
Dgusty3 Loc: Illinois
 
Here I am again...more questions. I have the canon t2i camera taking pictures at Red Rock in Las Vegas and also photos at a farm near where I live. My question is why do almost all of my photos I took in Las Vegas about 600 of them all come out a bit overexposed. I pretty much used the "landscape" mode or sometimes "auto" mode only because I wanted to make sure the photos came out good since I was with other people and didn't have the time to experiment with manual modes. I edited the photos in my "Adobe Lightroom4" software, just adjusted the exposure and or contrast in all of my photos. It was easy enough to do but why did all my photos come out slightly exposed? I am going to post the before and after photos. Please help I must be doing something wrong somewhere.

before
before...

after
after...

before
before...

after
after...

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Jun 5, 2012 00:22:42   #
Dgusty3 Loc: Illinois
 
Dgusty3 wrote:
Here I am again...more questions. I have the canon t2i camera taking pictures at Red Rock in Las Vegas and also photos at a farm near where I live. My question is why do almost all of my photos I took in Las Vegas about 600 of them all come out a bit overexposed. I pretty much used the "landscape" mode or sometimes "auto" mode only because I wanted to make sure the photos came out good since I was with other people and didn't have the time to experiment with manual modes. I edited the photos in my "Adobe Lightroom4" software, just adjusted the exposure and or contrast in all of my photos. It was easy enough to do but why did all my photos come out slightly exposed? I am going to post the before and after photos. Please help I must be doing something wrong somewhere.
Here I am again...more questions. I have the canon... (show quote)

In my post I meant to say my photos came out slightly "overexposed".

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Jun 5, 2012 00:27:48   #
Hoss Loc: Near Pittsburgh, Pa
 
Dgusty3 wrote:
Here I am again...more questions. I have the canon t2i camera taking pictures at Red Rock in Las Vegas and also photos at a farm near where I live. My question is why do almost all of my photos I took in Las Vegas about 600 of them all come out a bit overexposed. I pretty much used the "landscape" mode or sometimes "auto" mode only because I wanted to make sure the photos came out good since I was with other people and didn't have the time to experiment with manual modes. I edited the photos in my "Adobe Lightroom4" software, just adjusted the exposure and or contrast in all of my photos. It was easy enough to do but why did all my photos come out slightly exposed? I am going to post the before and after photos. Please help I must be doing something wrong somewhere.
Here I am again...more questions. I have the canon... (show quote)


Well from the looks of these two I would say you were shooting around noon and towards the sun! Not good for landscape photos. Morning sun or late after noon sun will give you what is called golden light. And it will also give shadows that can add to the photo. And shooting towards you can pick up lens flare, use your lens hood if you have one for your lens.

Mike

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Jun 5, 2012 00:37:57   #
Dgusty3 Loc: Illinois
 
Hoss wrote:
Dgusty3 wrote:
Here I am again...more questions. I have the canon t2i camera taking pictures at Red Rock in Las Vegas and also photos at a farm near where I live. My question is why do almost all of my photos I took in Las Vegas about 600 of them all come out a bit overexposed. I pretty much used the "landscape" mode or sometimes "auto" mode only because I wanted to make sure the photos came out good since I was with other people and didn't have the time to experiment with manual modes. I edited the photos in my "Adobe Lightroom4" software, just adjusted the exposure and or contrast in all of my photos. It was easy enough to do but why did all my photos come out slightly exposed? I am going to post the before and after photos. Please help I must be doing something wrong somewhere.
Here I am again...more questions. I have the canon... (show quote)


Well from the looks of these two I would say you were shooting around noon and towards the sun! Not good for landscape photos. Morning sun or late after noon sun will give you what is called golden light. And it will also give shadows that can add to the photo. And shooting towards you can pick up lens flare, use your lens hood if you have one for your lens.

Mike
quote=Dgusty3 Here I am again...more questions. I... (show quote)

Thanks Mike, yes it was in the early afternoon. We were out there for several hours. It seams like all my photos are the same "overexposed" no matter what time it was. I had to tweak every photo in "Lightroom4". I do have a lens hood and did have it on sometimes, but the photos all seem the same. Is there a setting somewhere in the menu I can maybe change the exposure?

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Jun 5, 2012 00:50:46   #
Hoss Loc: Near Pittsburgh, Pa
 
Also check to see if you have your camera set to overexpose your shots. Get out the manual and check exposure compensation. I shoot about 1/3 stop underexposed in most cases and I get good results.

What was your ISO?

I just took a look at your owners manual and you do have exposure compensation control. I think it was page 86 or close to it.

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Jun 5, 2012 01:16:17   #
Dgusty3 Loc: Illinois
 
Hoss wrote:
Also check to see if you have your camera set to overexpose your shots. Get out the manual and check exposure compensation. I shoot about 1/3 stop underexposed in most cases and I get good results.

What was your ISO?

I just took a look at your owners manual and you do have exposure compensation control. I think it was page 86 or close to it.

Mike my ISO was 100. I took most of the photos in "landscape" mode so i couldn't do any adjustments. Yes i do have the exposure compensation control. I used "landscape" mode only because i was afraid of using manual settings that i wouldn't get a good photo. It was really sunny out and i couldnt see the photo in play back mode because it was so bright out. So it was really hard to see that it was slightly overexposed.

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Jun 5, 2012 01:44:03   #
Hoss Loc: Near Pittsburgh, Pa
 
Do you know how to read a histogram?
I sent you a private message it will show up at the top of the screen in yellow.

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Jun 5, 2012 15:26:49   #
FilmFanatic Loc: Waikato, New Zealand
 
Most cameras will struggle in such contrasty light, I personally avoid those scene modes, prefer to have more control myself

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Jun 5, 2012 22:37:30   #
1eyedjack
 
Check your EV setting to see if it is "Spot","Center Weighted"
or "Full Matrix".. Try different settings on same shot and see what you get..

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Jun 6, 2012 02:51:12   #
wessyfiesta Loc: wakefield united kingdom
 
When shooting in such daylight put a screw type polarizer filter on the lens, this way you wont get burnt out skies like in your photo's, you can pick cheaper versions up on ebay.

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Jun 6, 2012 04:47:48   #
djmarti Loc: cape cod,
 
Too help with this never shoot auto for landscapes when your getting the sky in the shot. It usually overexposes it because it is basing your exposure on the foreground. In manual modes you can base your exposure on the sky. It is esier to get detail from and underesposed area than blown out hilights. also if your using lightroom shoot raw so you can get much more detail if your exposure is off a bit and your much more control to fix an exposure problem. Like hoss said use your histogram and avoid pictures where the line jumps on the top on the far right.

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Jun 6, 2012 07:01:50   #
russelray Loc: La Mesa CA
 
When I'm out in the mid-day sun (defined here in San Diego as about 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; summer hours), I lower the exposure compensation -2/3 to -2, depending on how contrasty everything is.

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Jun 6, 2012 07:17:50   #
camerabuff58 Loc: Ontario, Canada,
 
Your best times for shooting is dawn and dusk.
It appears your meter over exposed the shots due to the bright conditions you were shooting in.
What you could try next time is to take a shot, have a look at it and make adjustments with your exposure compensation button then re shoot.
Your histogram will give you a good indication if your exposure is right or not. It should have a good balance through-out with no clipping on the edges.
A rule of thumb to read your histogram! Bright is right.
In other words if your histogram is favoring the right side, your pic is probably over exposed.
Hope this helps you.

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Jun 6, 2012 09:46:56   #
MtnMan Loc: ID
 
Hoss wrote:
Also check to see if you have your camera set to overexpose your shots. Get out the manual and check exposure compensation. I shoot about 1/3 stop underexposed in most cases and I get good results.

What was your ISO?

I just took a look at your owners manual and you do have exposure compensation control. I think it was page 86 or close to it.



You should also check your metering settings. Your Landscape scene mode may take them over but if not you may be spot or center metering on a darker part of the picture. For Landscape photos (not Landscape scene mode, which I don't use)with a Nikon matrix metering frequently works best.

If you have a Nikon I recommend using P mode. It lets you use the thumbwheel to go through a range of settings that satisfy your meter. For Landscape go for f-stop of 16 or higher. If you can't get there with at least 1/60 s exposure (assuming no tripod and that you are using wide angle lens) up the ISO till you can.

That's what I'm finding anyway.

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Jun 6, 2012 09:53:02   #
rpavich Loc: West Virginia
 
Dgusty3 wrote:
Mike my ISO was 100. I took most of the photos in "landscape" mode so i couldn't do any adjustments. Yes i do have the exposure compensation control. I used "landscape" mode only because i was afraid of using manual settings that i wouldn't get a good photo. It was really sunny out and i couldnt see the photo in play back mode because it was so bright out. So it was really hard to see that it was slightly overexposed.


I'm glad you were able to dial your exposure in LR4..they look good.

The bottom line reason that they are overexposed is that your camera is stupid...it will be successful in a narrow band of conditions, any outside of that will yield less-than-optimum results.

You have to do one of three things;

1.) Learn to shoot manual and decide the settings yourself based on your good guess of why the camera is wrong.

2.) Just use -EV on all shots outside in the sun.

3.) Get a hand held light meter and never have this problem again.


My advice is to do #3 and never look back. If you buy a handheld meter (100.00 used from KEH) will never ask this question on the forum again.


But, I'm sure I'm in the minority.

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