agillot

using a D300 in manual mode , when taking a picture like a bird [ long lens ] 900mm , in the shade , the picture look fine [ properly exposed ]on the camera back , yet when i down load into picassa 3 this picture is very dark .the histogram actually confirm a underexposed shot .why does the display when viewing back look fine .i would think that the display shot would look similar then the pc .i have set the display brightness at zero . so , i have to use the histogram every time , it would have been easier to see the result at the camera and correct if necessary . i could be 2 to 3 f stop off .thank you .

Bultaco Loc: Aiken, SC

Is only the bird under exposed or the entire photo? Y might post a shot checking store original you might be some help.

agillot

the general picture is dark , the question i have is why the camera screen show a descent picture , but the result is a time way underexposed . if i use the camera in auto mode with a conventional lens , i dont have this problem .to bad nikon did not design a way to show a histogram that is easier to interpret, just to give you a exposure indication .thank you .

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

It just is not possible to judge overall brightness of an image by looking at the LCD image display. That is equally true about the same judgment looking at any monitor! In either case the only definitive answer comes from an histogram, while the display can be used only to compare areas of brightness (and hence adjust contrast and/or a gamma curve).

Your camera does provide some really great tools to judge image brightness. First there is the full screen highlights display, another display that has a single channel histogram, and another that combines a highlight image display with a 4 channel histogram.

You have to enable the desired parts of the display, which is done with the menu options describe on page 250 in the manual. On page 206 the manual describes how to select each display page.

If you don't have an online (and thus easy to search!) version of the D300 manual, you can download one at

http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/manuals/noprint/D300_noprint.pdf

agillot

thank you , will see in manual , also has a book by David D Busch on the D300 working .

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

because the LCD brightness can be manually changes you need to rely on your histogram

agillot

thank s , will from now on include histogram into the viewed pictures .

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

That actually doesn't make a lot of difference, as it is true that it can be changed, but it rarely is.

The problem is that our eyes adjust, every single time we look at something. White is white... that is true if it is as bright as the LCD can be, or 1/8th as bright as possible. Look at it now, and look at it 10 seconds later, and we just can't tell if it changed.

If two "whites" are displayed side by side we can distinguish which is brighter, within less than 1/3rd of an fstop. Hence when we look at the entire image we can decide to change the gamma curve (contrast) to make some part look brighter than some other part. But the only way to know if the brightest part is as bright as it can be is to measure it (for example with a histogram).