Too much darkness in picture: My sister get a picture of our dog. The problem of the picture is that dog is too dark. The dog was sitting under a tree. The background is the sun shine...

Quinn 4

My sister get a picture of our dog. The problem of the picture is that dog is too dark. The dog was sitting under a tree. The background is the sun shine down on lawn. The camera she use is a Fujifilm Finepix S4250. What she need to known how to get the dog in the picture to be lighter can this be done with the chip in the camera? Or does she have to put the chip in computer to change the picture if so she will have to known how that is done. Any information will be helpful. Thank you.

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

I had to look up this camera, as it doesn't show up on most of the sites I frequent. Having done so, I'm still not certain where the camera saves the images, but it does say there's an SD card slot. So, here is what I'd try:

Copy/save the image to a card in the slot. I'm guessing it will be a JPEG photo. Then, take the card out and find a way to copy it to a computer. Once on the computer, use of the many free photo editing tools and see if you can't adjust the sliders to modify the exposure/contrast/highlights/shadows/whites/blacks. Your end result may not be a perfect photo, but it will be better.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

She was probably shooting in an automatic mode of some sort; the automatic light meter latched on to the bright background and adjusted the exposure from there. If I were in her position, I would get close to the dog, get the exposure setting just from the dog, back away, set the appropriate exposure setting and take the photo -- but that's just how I would do it. If she has a telephoto zoom, she could also use that the fill the frame with the dog and determine the exposure that way.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Quinn 4 wrote:

My sister get a picture of our dog. The problem of the picture is that dog is too dark. The dog was sitting under a tree. The background is the sun shine down on lawn. The camera she use is a Fujifilm Finepix S4250. What she need to known how to get the dog in the picture to be lighter can this be done with the chip in the camera? Or does she have to put the chip in computer to change the picture if so she will have to known how that is done. Any information will be helpful. Thank you.

That's a challenging situation for any camera. The typical solution is to overexpose the scene so that the dark area will be light enough. If she can't re-shoot it, than processing is her only option. Make the scene brighter, and the dog should appear.

If you can post the picture here and click on "(store original)," people here can work on it.

roxiemarty Loc: Florida

I would also use fill flash in that situation, as it will brighten up the foreground, the dog, and he will then show up better. Flash is very useful, even in the daylight.

rwww80a Loc: Hampton, NH

She needs to learn about exposure and to exposure for the subject. Sounds like others above indicated the photo/camera exposure for the bright background not the dark colored pooch.

BebuLamar

The picture is already taken. It's best to transfer it to a computer and lighten it up using a photo editor program. If she want to take the picture again use the exposure compensation and dial in about +1 to +1-2/3.

gerdog

roxiemarty wrote:

I would also use fill flash in that situation, as it will brighten up the foreground, the dog, and he will then show up better. Flash is very useful, even in the daylight.

Indeed, I used fill flash years ago with Photoshop Elements on old scanned photos that looked unusable, and magically the images appeared! Made me go back through old boxes of photos to see how many others could be rescued.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Either enable her flash, probably the best solution or adjust exposure by a stop or two, I am sure that camera has the ability to make an EV (Exposure Value)adjustment, she will want to go to the + side.