Annoyed! - Exposure is under exposed!!!

[UUilliam]

In my camera's LCD my images seem PERFECTLY exposed
I then put them onto my laptop and view on my External monitor, and they are extremly underexposed!

I then tested my camera by setting ISO to 400 and aperture to f5.6 I think
then I took pictures of the same thing, Lowering my shutter speed each time, Every one of them was underexposed (but identical somehow...) on my camera's LCD screen...

Here Is one of the images I had taken.

I shot Raw + Jpeg (first time, I usually shoot full RAW) when this occurred, The only reason I use RAW+ Jpeg is cause my college computer software cannot read my Canon 450D RAW codec file
Even though Camera RAW 4.5 is Freeware and works with Photoshop CS3 they cannot download it as it is only Free to Home users...

so Jpeg is my next option but I prefer to keep a raw incase my WHITE BALANCE is off, I dont use it to fix my exposure much, I prefer that to be correct in camera.

Further inspection shows the JPEGs are over eposed.. the raw is underexposed and some of the jpeg is off on the hwite balance and focus... :S
Ill convert the RAW to jpeg...

Camera Exposure:

Photoshopped exposure (ignore the dull sky)

GRR this is annoying me now!!!
The images look even worse on the web now!
they were shot in sRGB!
I never had this problem before!!!!!!!

 

[robertwsimpson]

your camera converts the file for display, so what you see isn't always what you got. Change your display to include the histogram, and you'll have a more accurate representation of exposure.

 

[Big Mike]

Yup, the only way you be evaluating exposure with the camera's screen, is by looking at the histogram.

Understanding Histograms

 

[GeneralBenson]

My guess is that since your sole basis for the exposure of a shot is looking at the screen, and not looking at the meter when you take a shot, that you're shooting in some kind of automatic or priority mode. If so, then I think you need to learn more about how a camera meters and learn how to predict and compensate for the troubles of auto/priority modes. In the case ofthe photo, you're camera did exactly what it should have, which is try to make things medium gray, and more importantly, not blow out that sky. In a scene like that, or snow, everything will be underexposed and grey, and you need to dial in positive compensation to bring it back to white. And like everyone said, learn how to read and understand your histogram.

 

[LeftyRodriguez]

Also, is your monitor calibrated?

 

[UUilliam]

My guess is that since your sole basis for the exposure of a shot is looking at the screen, and not looking at the meter when you take a shot, that you're shooting in some kind of automatic or priority mode. If so, then I think you need to learn more about how a camera meters and learn how to predict and compensate for the troubles of auto/priority modes. In the case ofthe photo, you're camera did exactly what it should have, which is try to make things medium gray, and more importantly, not blow out that sky. In a scene like that, or snow, everything will be underexposed and grey, and you need to dial in positive compensation to bring it back to white. And like everyone said, learn how to read and understand your histogram.

I was on aperture priority I set my F/ to 5.8 (following understanding exposure for a little while) and moved my EV until it was "correct" as stated to do so in understanding exposure
Then I viewed in camera, Looked perfect, sharp etc...
then viewing on the monitor i was like WTF NO WAIII

the sky was naturally grey tbh
was a **** day tbh... I cant wait to get nice sky... there is a Scottish flag I pass on the way to college.. just waiting for the right day (nice blue vibrant sky with a few faded clouds like I had about 2 weeks ago... but the flag was tangled!!!!!!)

 

[UUilliam]

Also, is your monitor calibrated?

in a word?
No

However, It does seem to match the college computer monitors and my laptop screen (with the exception of sharpness) and seems to show the same as most home users, which is ultimately my audience.

I just dont have the money to pay for a Collabrating hardware.

 

[Derrel]

I opened your original image in Photoshop,and it looks like the exposure given was about 1.3 to 1.5 stops underexposed for the highlight values.

I would take the original image and re-load it onto a memory card and pop it back into your 450D,and then call up the histogram and visually observe how the right hand side of the histogram is far from the right hand side; the key is "expose to the right".

What the LCD images looks like on the camera back is often deceptive. I would wager that your brightness setting on the camera's LCD is far too high. With the original image loaded into the 450D, call up the image on both your computer, and your camera's LCD, and note the difference. If the images looks good on the *camera* in the field, but is disappointingly dull and dark when it hits your PC, well then, your Camera's LCD brightness needs to be turned down. This is a common situation; many people crank their camera's LCD brightness UP, so they can see the image better outdoors, but that overly bright LCD image will mislead if you use it to judge exposure. The histogram is the best tool to evaluate exposure in the field.

Does the 450D have a highlight warning feature, often called "the blinkies"? If so, turn that feature on, and keep adding exposure until the blinkies start flashing in some small areas that are the absolute brightest, and it is at that point you will be doing what is called "exposing to the right", which is where the right hand side of the histogram will start butting up against the far right hand side of the histogram scale.

 

[UUilliam]

Does the 450D have a highlight warning feature, often called "the blinkies"? If so, turn that feature on, and keep adding exposure until the blinkies start flashing in some small areas that are the absolute brightest, and it is at that point you will be doing what is called "exposing to the right", which is where the right hand side of the histogram will start butting up against the far right hand side of the histogram scale.

Believe it or not...
it does

I have tried syncing the brightness on camera to the pc
Camera is darker than pc but Id rather it like that tbh (well I would Rather the CORRECT brightness but meh what ever...)

 

[musicaleCA]

Don't bother with trying to get the brightness of your camera's LCD similar to you PC screen. Instead, you should change it to viewing conditions in the field. When it's dark, make the LCD darker, and vice-versa. This will make the preview of the image closer to what it should look like (if you leave the LCD bright in a dark setting, you can easily think that, by looking at the preview and not the histo, your shots are properly exposed when they're really underexposed by as much as -2 to -3 EV). The 7D adjusts LCD brightness based on ambient light, which I'm quite thankful for.

The bottom line, is that you need to use your histogram, preferably the RGB histogram, enabled via the third menu (blue one). For the above scene, using Av with an exposure comp of around -1/3 or -2/3 should suffice given the metering used by the 450D.

 

[Garbz]

Also, is your monitor calibrated?

Probably not very relevant in this case but you raise an interesting point.




This is a forum full of talk about calibration, half the members have calibrated units, many have top quality IPS screens, we quite regularly talk about how bad laptop and other TN film screens are for post processing work and yet here we have a case of trusting the judgement on a $20 piece of crap.

I would say more but it's already been said. Consider yourself lucky that you can see your screen half the time. On the D200 in sunny conditions I can barely make out the histogram. But don't ever trust what you see on that tiny cheap crap LCD.

 

[RyanLilly]

Also just because you adjust the exposure compensation until the meter says its correct, does not mean that it actually is correct. You need to get used to how your meter responds in each mode that you use and its behavior in certain lighting conditions. Using the histogram and the "blinkies" can help a lot in adverse lighting, so you can get the exposure right even though the meter has it wrong. There are some situations where its just easier to switch to manual, ignore the meter and go by the histogram and highlights.

 

[loratliff]

Monitor calibration is not the biggest deal here. I have a monitor that isn't calibrated and it certainly doesn't affect my ability to take well-exposed photos. :er:

Do you all not know what the meter is trying to read for? Obviously not because no one has hit on a crucial point - the first shot IS properly exposed, technically speaking. The meter calculates exposure based upon 18% grey - the sky in the first shot is about that. For that shot, you would've wanted to overexpose about 1.5 stops.

Oh, and never trust the camera LCD.