anniegra

Hi
Just some questions from others that may know....
I am shooting with my new Canon 6D.....I shot some pictures last night at my Granddaughters Crowning ceremony at her church. The church was very bright inside from both the lights and the sun shining thru its many windows so I did not put an external flash on the camera. I bumped up the ISO to about 1000 and messed around with the settings including changing the white balance to Tungsten......till the pictures I was shooting looked really good in camera. When I downloaded them to my computer they look super dark and I have had this issue everytime I shoot inside. I have what I THOUGHT was a pretty good computer screen,...its a Samsung and cost over 500 dollars a couple years ago. Also when I print even after editing the pictures are printing really dark. What do I need to do to KNOW that what I am looking at on screen is what the pictures actually look like??? And that when I print them they will come out correctly. I have purchased a new desktop but have not set it up yet. If I have to I will get another screen as well. I don't mind editing the pictures but really don't want to HAVE to edit every one of them every time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Advice please????
Thanks so much
Judy

Boris77

This sounds like a variation of what happens to me photographing theater stage rehearsals. I shoot in Manual because the lighting is spotty but pretty consistent, and my judgement often is better than the meter. There is no outside light.
I check the back view on the first few shots to see if my guesstimation looks good, and adjust until it is OK. I repeat this process when there is a significant light change, until I am confident that I have a range of exposures that will work. I use AWB because I am happy with whatever color they choose to use.

This works well until I overthink the exposure, and decide I CAN up the shutter speed to avoid blurs. Most of the time this shows a picture that looks OK on the camera back (but not as bright as my first set up).
90% of the time these "looks OK" shots turn out dark! When they turn up the stage lights and I forget to change the exposure I often find that the brighter lights are needed for a normal looking picture.

Point is that your basic miscalculation is in the camera. The camera screen does not always show you how wrong you are, especially under poor or challenging lighting.
You need to test your camera via actual use with some kind of "notes" so that you learn to recognize good choices, which may include the use of the exposure indicators built in to the camera.
Boris

khorinek

Make sure the screen on your camera isn't turned up too high. It's been a while since I've used a 6D but I think you can adjust the camera screen. Don't turn the brightness up too high or you can be seeing bright photos that are underexposed. I generally set my brightness to 5 or 6 on my 5D IV and EOS RP's. Also, check the meter in the viewfinder as you are shooting, that will let you know if you are close on exposure.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

Do not rely on the camera LCD. Use your histogram.

JasonC Loc: Houston, Texas

Yes, that's great advice!

geezer76 Loc: Prineville, Oregon

anniegra, I had a similar problem (I shoot with Nikon D810) when printing my images with my PIXMA Pro 10 Canon printer and all I needed to do was to turn down my computer screen brightness about 20 - 25 percent and now my prints are exactly what I see on my computer. My computer(s) are iMac's in 27" and 21".

I hope this works for you, as until I found the problem it was driving my crazy.

Roger

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

Roger's experience is very typical for the complaint - why are my prints too dark? This is because the computer screen is too bright and when editing people reduce the exposure too get a good looking print on screen and the actual print is too dark.

Here is guidance for that: http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi049/essay.html

If I am reading correctly OP anniegra says her downloaded images are too dark and they print dark. This sounds to me like underexposed images from the camera.

jayluber Loc: Phoenix, AZ

Did you check the histogram right after you took shot? WHat did that indicate? Can't trust the camera pic for anything other than composition. Adjust to the right???

Did you adjust exposure in post?

Are you shooting RAW or JPG?

It was very bright in the church and you boosted ISO to 1000????

What brightness do you have your monitor set at? I set mine at 50% brightness. You may have to use "screen" blend mode in PS to simulate increasing monitor brightness.

I guess you learned that the pic on the back of the camera is not what you get when you get home. I've learned that the hard way as well.

I use a 6D also.

I have to lighten up my photos when I print on metal - not so much for paper pics.
Hope this helps.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Hi Judy,

You've got several different things going on here, so let's take them one at a time.


First.... EXPOSURE.

It sounds as if your images are severely under-exposed. From your description "the pictures I was shooting looked really good in camera" it seems that you are trying to judge and adjust exposure settings based upon image playback on your camera. The problem is that the little screen in your camera is uncalibrated, has variable levels of brightness (either manual or auto) and is strongly influenced by ambient light conditions. For example, play back an image and see how it appears when you are indoors in a dimly lit space... Then go out in the sun and view the same image to see how it appears. Radically different! But the only thing that changed was the ambient light conditions where the screen was being viewed.

Basically, the little image playback on the camera's LCD cannot be relied upon to judge exposure accuracy.

But, there's another tool in the playback that can be used.... The HISTOGRAM. (If you aren't seeing the histogram during, press the "Info" button on your camera until you do.) This is a chart showing the distribution of tonalities within the image. It can tell you if your image is under-exposed, over-exposed or "just right". There are numerous online tutorials about using a histogram, which I encourage you to check out, read and view. Once you learn to use the histogram, you'll be able to get very close to accurate exposures pretty easily.

Another possibly useful tool in image playback is "blinkies". This is where the camera informs you of possible areas of over-exposure in your images when you play them back, by "blinking" that part of the image. Personally I don't use these for several reasons. For one, if you are shooting something that's pure white or has a strong highlight, the camera is always going to tell you it's over-exposed, even though it's actually not. It's very rare for a properly exposed image to not have any blinkies are all. If exposure is set to eliminate all blinkies, it will almost always result in under-exposure. Plus blinkies are sort of distracting, when I try to use the playback image to check composition or zoom in to check focus or similar. Plus, I get all the exposure info I need from the histogram (which also can warn me about possible under-exposure.... while blinkies don't). If you want to try "blinkies", it's set in the camera's menu. Look for "Highlight alert" under the Playback menu tab (don't know about 6D, but on my Canon it's the blue tab), go into that to enable it.

You also talk about "bumping up the ISO to 1000"... and that's one thing you need to be concerned about. However, you make no mention of the other important exposure settings of the camera: Shutter speed and lens aperture size. All three settings must be taken into consideration, for exposure to be correct. Maybe you know this already, but if not I'd highly recommend getting a copy of Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure", reading it and learning it! Until you've done so and have a good, thorough understanding of what goes into making a "correct" exposure, you might want to stick with one or another of the various "auto exposure" settings your camera offers. It has a "super AUTO" mode, which automates far more than just exposure and limits a lot of things that can be done with the camera... overriding autofocus settings, determining the file type and more. I don't recommend "AUTO" unless you want what is basically a "point n shoot" mode.

Your camera also several Auto Exposure (AE) modes that can be helpful. They include Av (aperture priority AE), Tv (shutter priority AE) and Program AE modes. I don't know how it's implemented on 6D, but on recent cameras there's also Manual + Auto ISO, which is actually another AE mode. There's also "ETTL" flash, which provides AE even when the camera is set to Manual mode. All these modes automate exposure for you, but they leave other camera settings (focus setup, frame rate, white balance, etc.) up to you.

In case you aren't familiar with them, a quick overview of the different AE modes your camera offers (Av, Tv and P are selected using the mode dial on the left hand shoulder of the camera).

- With "Av" mode, you set the ISO and select a lens aperture (control over depth of field effects).... the camera meters the scene and chooses what it thinks is a correct shutter speed.

- In "Tv" mode, you set the ISO and choose a shutter speed (perhaps to freeze or deliberately blur movement).... while the camera meters and chooses an aperture.

- Program mode only requires you set the ISO, then leaves it to the camera to choose both shutter speed and aperture (this is "programmed" to take various factors into account, such as the lens being used). Personally I don't use P a lot. It automates some things I'd still prefer to control myself. But it does have it's uses. For example, if I'm shooting in one type of lighting, but need to take a few shots in radically different lighting, don't have time to think about it and don't really care about depth of field or need to freeze/blur movement, I may just switch to P. A reason I might do this is because I can return to the setup I was using before, quickly and simply by turning one dial back to the other exposure mode.

- Manual + Auto ISO (if possible on 6D) lets you choose both shutter speed and lens aperture, leaving it to the camera to choose an ISO. IMPORTANT, IMO for this to work well requires some means for the user to set a max ISO that can be selected by the camera, as well as allow Exposure Compensation (E.C.) to be used to fine tune exposure. I don't know it 6D has Auto ISO or, if it does, these other features that I feel are necessary. I know my original 7D did not have a means of capping Auto ISO or allow E.C., so it really wasn't usable. The 7D Mark II I'm shooting with now do allow have both these features, so I now use Manual + Auto ISO fairly often. It puts me "in charge" of both shutter speed and lens aperture. (To select this mode, the dial on the left hand shoulder of the camera is set to M and then the ISO is set to "A" using the button on the right hand should and turning the dial. Same as you used to "set ISO 1000", except you dial it all the way down to the lowest possible setting, which is "auto".)

- Flash AE is another matter that I won't go into detail about here, since it doesn't seem to be relevant.

With any AE mode you choose, if you see the aperture, shutter speed or ISO flashing in the viewfinder data readout, the camera is telling you that what you've set is outside the range it can auto adjust and that you need to make some further adjustments.

To summarize:

1. Use any of the AE modes you wish or feel is appropriate for the shooting situation... certainly Av, Tv or P... and maybe M+Auto ISO.

2. Set your camera's meter to "Evaluative" mode (other metering "patterns" are possible, but tend to be more specialized).

3. Set Exposure Compensation to 0.

In most situations, this will insure a reasonably high number of accurately exposed images. To confirm that you are getting good exposures, playback the image and check it's histogram.

I mention Exposure Compensation (E.C.) above, which is another exposure related "tool" on your camera. It's used to "tweak" or fine tune exposure in the various AE modes. I'd just recommend you check that it's set to 0 for now. (After reading Peterson's "Understanding Exposure", you may want to learn to use E.C.)

Accidentally setting E.C. incorrectly is something that causes a lot of exposure problems. It's set using dials and buttons on the rear of the camera, which are easy to bump while shooting or carrying the camera. Maybe you already know, there's a "Lock" switch on the rear of Canon cameras, to prevent accidentally changing E.C. Once you've checked that it's at 0, set that Lock to prevent accidental changes. (Note: The Lock doesn't prevent you from using the dial for other purposes, such as menu navigation.)

EDIT: I don't recommend using Auto ISO in conjunction with the other AE modes... Only with "M". The reason is that Auto ISO combined with any of the other AE modes makes for sort of "double automation"... a lot of wild card possibilities.... with little benefit that I can see. Also, I just checked online and see that on 6D it's possible to set a limited range in Auto ISO, which is good. However, I have not been able to confirm whether or not E.C. can be used with Auto ISO.


WHITE BALANCE (WB) doesn't directly effect exposure, but is another thing to think about. It effects the color rendition of your images. You mention that the light in the church was a mix of sunlight and some sort of artificial light. That's tricky to deal with. The best way is to set a Custom WB, but that takes time and may need to be reset often when there's mixed lighting. Auto WB is the next best thing. Setting Tungsten WB might have been a mistake.... because 1. it's incorrect for sunlight, which is part of the mix, and 2. we don't know what type of lighting was in use in the church. Tungsten lighting is common in homes, but not in many other spaces. They often use lower cost types of lighting. Even if it's tungsten, there's no set standard and a wide variety of color temps: "warm white", "cool white", 2800K, 3000K, 3200K, 3400K, etc. The camera's Tungsten WB is preset to just one of those.... probably 3000K, if I had to guess.

This is actually true of all the WB presets. They represent just an "educated guess" of what might be expected situations where there's often a great deal of variation.

Personally I only use either Auto WB or Custom WB. But I also always shoot "RAW" files. It's another "trick" to deal with variable WB is to set your camera to shoot RAW (CR2) files, because those types of files can have their WB freely changed in post-processing. There's not as much latitude to correct WB issues with JPEGs. Of course, the problem is, RAW files require post-processing, using software designed for that purpose.... RAW files aren't "ready to use"... CR2 can't be directly viewed or used, the way JPEG files can. Shooting RAW + JPEG may be a helpful alternative, so you have both types of files... except that it will fill up memory cards and hard drives a lot faster.


COMPUTER MONITOR CALIBRATION... is another topic you need to consider. Usually, computer monitors are waaayyy too bright when new and fresh out of the box, causing your images to look over-exposed and you to adjust them too dark. After you've worked on it a little or a lot, the image ends up looking fine on your screen, but prints or online display look dark. The color rendition also can be off, since many monitors are far from "perfect". It's more subtle than the brightness issue, but causes you to incorrectly adjust the colors too.

You can "calibrate" a monitor "by eye"... making test prints and comparing them side by side with your screen. However, they'll never look exactly the same because prints are reflective, while your monitor is backlit and transmissive. A monitor can never show as pure black or pure white as a print can, either.... There's less dynamic range with a computer monitor.

Trying to calibrate one "by eye" can be expensive due to wasted paper and ink. It also can be pretty frustrating!

I'd encourage you to consider getting a calibration device, such as an X-Rite Huey or a Datacolor Spyder. Those are first used to help you set a reasonable brightness on your monitor, then they run a series of color tests that are used to make a "profile" that's applied to the monitor so it will as correct as possible color too. There are fancy ones that cost a lot more, but a basic monitor calibration device can do the job fine for most uses, and costs between $100 and $150.

A calibration device will actually pay for itself in savings of ink and paper, over time. That's because monitors change brightness and color rendition over time, as they age. For example, when I first got my current monitor it required a brightness setting of "20"....whatever that means. I'm not sure if it's a percentage or whatever, but it really doesn't matter. It was much lower than the default setting when new. Now, after using the monitor for around 7 years, I have to set the brightness to around "50". That's how much it's changed over the years.

I re-calibrate once a month. Some people do it more often. Others do it a little less frequently. But to properly evaluate and adjust your images accurately, the monitor needs to be calibrated periodically, due to aging. (Note: There are some "self calibrating" monitors... But most I'm aware of are a lot more expensive than yours. They generally sell for thousands of dollars... Not hundreds like you say you paid.)

It's hard to say with 100% certainty what's happening with your images. I strongly suspect it's under-exposure in the camera, due to ill-advised reliance on the camera's built in LCD screen (which cannot be calibrated or trusted for accuracy). Use the histogram instead.

After you do that and make accurate in-camera exposures, they will probably look too bright - over-exposed - on your computer monitor, until you calibrate it.

If you continue to have problems, please upload an image here on UHH for us to look at with our calibrated monitors. A JPEG is fine. Just be sure to "save original" and keep the image's EXIF data intact, for best feedback from us.

Hope this helps!

jayluber Loc: Phoenix, AZ

Wow. Alan. Great response. Well done.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

Set your ISO to auto, the 6D can handle it. ISO 1000 sounds way too low to me.

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

Reading your question and then reading the first half page of responses reminds me of a Chinese fire drill! Everyone is guessing at the answer to your problem. Post some pictures with the box at the bottom of the screen that says store original check marked. That allows people on this site to look at your images full screen and also to see the exif data from your camera. In other words we can see what settings your camera was set at when you took the photos. That would help a lot trying to give you an answer as to what your problem is.

anniegra

Wow thank you all for the amazing responses and suggestions. I am pretty sure that the correct response to me was underexposed which is totally my fault. I'm really bummed out but in photoshop am trying to fix them. The camera was my retirement present to myself last fall. I've not yet learned enough about it, but at least now being retired I have plenty of time finally to really learn. I've been on the computer all this morning reading about histograms and plan on doing a lot more. Tomorrow I will finish reading all the suggestions and will also post one of the pictures. Thank you all

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

The 6D is a great low light camera. Don't be afraid to crank the ISO way high if needed. You will still get useable images.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

Program mode, Auto ISO and Evaluative Metering is a good starting point while you learn.