ceallachain Loc: Cape May, NJ

I’ve always shot in Auto across the board. Been playing around with a recently purchased G12. I took some pictures using Auto and then decided to look at the Disp of those pictures to determine what the camera thought should be the ISO and F-Stop. Then went into Manual mode and set those settings. The results were quite surprising. No Manual mode picture matched up with what I took in Auto mode. Why not?

Auto mode


Manual mode setting same as Auto 800/f5


3rd same as 2

haroldross Loc: Walthill, Nebraska

All three pictures appear washed out. What do you have the light metering set to, spot, evaluative, center-weighted, multi-zone (different cameras have various names for these)? It looks like the first one is metering off a different point than the last two.

normsImages Loc: Alabama for now

You didn’t mention shutter speed did you set it the same as that auto set it?

ceallachain Loc: Cape May, NJ

Light Metering? What's that? The sun as you can probably see was behind me. There's a circular +/- meter on top left of G12 camera from 0 to +2 on one side 0 to -2 on the other. I think it does some light /darkening but I haven't really been able to see any difference when turning it. And, of course, I did NOT use a flash.

ceallachain Loc: Cape May, NJ

Shutter speed and ISO, same thing, Yes/No?

haroldross Loc: Walthill, Nebraska

On page 100 of the manual it discusses the metering methods and how to set them on the camera. The manual can be seen here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/lit_files/8001.pdf

normsImages Loc: Alabama for now

No, ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor and Shutter speed is how long the shutter is open to expose the sensor. Go to http://digital-photography-school.com and read about shutter speed, aperture and ISO. This way you can learn the effect each have on a picture.

CResQ Loc: Cobble Hill, BC

I am far from being any kind of expert however to answer your question; you had said that you set the same aperture and ISO but I would say that your shutter speed was set too long which very obviously let in too much light. I am sure that the experts here will soon kindly correct me and give you the answer you are looking for if I am incorrect. Cheers

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Even in "Auto" you should have gottin a better exposure than what you got.

travlnman46 Loc: Yakima WA

Hi ceallachain: Let me start by welcoming you to the forum. Wow!! Nothing like jumping in with both feet ..lol.. Great questions too. There is a big difference between ISO and shutter speed, they are actually two parts of a triangle called the exposure triangle, that affect the results of any photo you take the third part is the apeture. Here is a great website to help you better understand just how changing the setting on one will affect the final over all results. I could go on and on in a long winded explaination but I won't. This is a good place to start. http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-exposure.htm Again welcome to the forum and feel free to ask questions, that's how we all learn.

chapjohn Loc: Tigard, Oregon

Hi ceallachain: You may want to check out Bryan Peterson's website and book "Understanding Exposure."

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

The first picture seems overexposed. Do you have any other Auto pics to show us? As for the other two, it could be that when you put it into Manual mode and made your settings, something you didn't count on made them too bright. Next time you post some images, click on the box to the right of Browse that says ("store original)."

kejoed Loc: Wales UK

Hello Welcome Good to see like me you want to learn from UHG members always informative answers,best site for it :thumbup: I asked a similar Q and this answer i had explained it for me
With many cameras, if not most, when you select 'auto' your camera chooses a medium shutter speed and a medium aperture that work well together to get you a fairly good average picture regardless of where you focus within the range your camera is capable of focusing within. Normally, you will not get a clearly focused image from you to infinity with these medium settings.

When you choose 'landscape,' you camera will close your aperture down to maintain maximum depth of field, or clarity from near to far, to infinity, and will then set your shutter speed to work with that aperture setting so everything from you to infinity is in good clear focus. Depending on your ISO setting, unless you have very good light you may find that your shutter speed is so slow, that you will need to use a tripod to get a good clear image from near to far.

Likewise, when you choose portrait mode your camera will open up the aperture to allow for a shallow depth of field to blur the background while your subject is in sharp focus which will normally cause your shutter speed to be faster.

So, auto, landscape, and portrait settings, as you can see, are programmed to do different things so it is only natural that the camera will select a different shutter speed and aperture while capturing an image from the same spot in the same light, depending on what part of that scene you ask it to emphasize and capture for you. If this is too simplistic, please pardon me. If not, I hope it helps.

Squint Loc: Stockton, CA

This sounds like your exposure compensation dial. It DOES make a difference! Did you have that dial set on something other than 0 when you took the first photo - like +1, for example? Leave it on 0 until you know what you're doing with it.

cabby dave Loc: UK

May I add that most cameras will also have different metering modes too. In auto mode the camera will attempt to annalise the whole scene and adjust the aperture, shutter speed and ISO which is fine if there is little detail in the image. Spot metering on the other hand will meter the light from a specific point (usually the focus point). The focus point itself in auto mode will normally be the closest object to the camera which might not be the point you want. That's we we are encouraged to get out of auto mode as soon as we can master the various available settings and get into more challenging shooting modes. Once you have got the hang of these basics I'm sure you will find the learning curve will become very steep.Enjoy the ride.