Always too bright....

[mjd525]

It seems that I tend to take pictures that are always on the brigter (overexposed) end. I try to be aware of properly setting the white balance, and may make an exposure adjustments +/-. I generally take rowing race pictures and most times in sunny or partly sunny days. I almsot always take in A-mode, and have the ISO set to auto. Any other suggestions from the pros out there?
Much appreciated.

 

[UKHero64]

Don't use auto ISO. What metering mode are you using?

Nik

 

[Overread]

Part of learning to use a DSLR is learning to understand the meter and how certain situations will "fool" the meter. In bright and sunny conditions most DSLR meters tend to overexpose a bit, or at least don't always expose well for the highlights which are larger and more dominant in such lighting - as such setting the camera to underexpose by up to a stop by default using the exposure compensation control is advisable.

Also learn to use and review your histogram when shooting. It gives you a very easy to read breakdown of the light in a photo and as such one or two shots can show you if you're getting over or under exposure and for underexposure show you clearly by how many stops you are underexposing. A such you can use it to quickly get a measure of how the exposures are going and then adjust accordingly.

 

[mjd525]

Nik,
I'll be honest with you; am unsure what "metering mode" I am using. Will read up and work on that ASAP, as I am shooting this weekend's crew races. Thank you.

 

[.SimO.]

I had a similar issue when I started. Thought I had everything dialed in and then bam, way too bright or dark. Once I started practicing lighting adjustments to my focal point, things got better.

Say it was a sunny day, I would adjust, focus on the subject and BAM, over exposed. Well the settings were for something that was lit up while the actual subject I was focused on, had shadows and the camera compensated. I have now moved onto just using Manual and that has been the best learning tool from me.

 

[Vautrin]

A couple comments:

Shoot in RAW with monochrome mode. You can convert to color later, but it's MUCH easier to see exposure in a B&W photo on your cameras LCD

Many cameras have a "clipping" info, so you can see what's been clipped. Clipping is when the exposure is wrong and an area is too dark (or light) to be captured on film. You can use this as a basis for your +/- exposure adjustment

Ditto on learning about the histogram.

Learn about "impossible to shoot" situations. Are you shooting into the sun? No technique will save your pictures from being "too bright" if that's the case. You need to learn to use the light around you, and what light will look best.

Experiment with your equipment when you don't ABSOLUTELY need the photos. Then you'll know quite dependably what it'll do when you need it.

 

[cynicaster]

No need for Auto ISO if your pictures are consistently too bright. Set it at the lowest setting and leave it alone. That's where you want it anyway.

Learn how to use partial metering, spot metering, and exposure lock functions.

If you're always shooting boats and water, and especially if you are having an overexposure problem, you might find a circular polarizing filter useful.

 

[pgriz]

If you're shooting in bright sunshine, the sunny-16 rule applies. Set your metering mode to manual, iso to 100, shutter to 1/100, and aperture to f/16. Should work fine. If shutter speed is too low, up it to 1/500, and drop your aperture to f/6.3 and again you should be fine.

 

[AlexanderB]

I'm second to that you need to understand the metering mode you are using. If it is spot metering the camera will likely ignore the entire scene lighting and will make decisions only using subject lighting.

 

[The_Traveler]

Without more information and typical pictures, it is really difficult for anyone to say either where you might be going astray or where you should go in your technique.

Just as a batter takes batting practice before the game, practice in the same circumstance before you have to get the racing pictures.

These issues are important (in no particular order):

• facing into the sun or away?
• sunny and glare or not?
• stopping action?
• requirement for larger depth of field or not?
• equipment used?
• water exposed well but boats dark or boats well exposed and water too bright?
• raw or jpg?
• can editing recover adequate images?
• metering mode
• shooting mode (aperture preferred, shutter preferred, manual)?

 

[mjd525]

Nik,
Believe it was set to Centered.

 

[chuckdee]

It seems that I tend to take pictures that are always on the brigter (overexposed) end. I try to be aware of properly setting the white balance, and may make an exposure adjustments +/-. I generally take rowing race pictures and most times in sunny or partly sunny days. I almsot always take in A-mode, and have the ISO set to auto. Any other suggestions from the pros out there?
Much appreciated.

Get out of A mode and into the M mode.



____________________
Chuck Dee - AKA Chris
"My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain." - Helmut Newton

 

[Joves]

What camera are you using? I did not see any listed in your profile. If you are using a Nikon in Aperture Priority then in bright lighting it will always over expose. As said ditch the Auto ISO, that is Satan Mode in this case, well in every case in my opinion. If you wish to remain in Aperture then you can use Exposure Compensation, in the case of the photos being over exposed you want to go into the negative. You just do some test shots and adjust it down till you get proper exposure. Not my preferred method but that is why that function is there. For shooting movement I would go with Shutter Priority and set it to what you need to freeze the action you are covering, this means you may need to bump the ISO to get a good Aperture. Also remember if you have a Nikon, and you want to go into Manual later that the Exposure Compensation will throw the meter off by what ever you set it to, so reset it to zero, or you will be reading the meter wrong.

 

[hirejn]

Your camera works fine. It's your metering that needs improvement. Overexposure in this case probably means you're pointing the camera at something dark. But "overexposure" even by two stops is a subjective term so it would help to see some of the pictures you think are problematic, without edits. If you could post or link to one or two, please do. I could then help you a bit with metering and exposure.

There's not much use for auto ISO. Ideally you would shoot at the lowest ISO possible (meaning not just the lowest setting, but the lowest that enables you to get the shutter speed or aperture you want) and then change either the shutter speed or aperture. For action, you're probably thinking about freezing motion, so you want to fix the shutter speed at say 1/500 in S or T exposure mode and let the aperture fall where it may. This is subjective but personally I'm not an ISO fiddler, and most pros aren't. I set to the lowest possible ISO and stay there. The metering mode itself is matrix, center or spot, and neither of those matter as much as how you use them, and they're completely irrelevant if you use a light meter, which I recommend.

Shooting RAW, by the way, is not a fix for this. A bad exposure will be just as bad in RAW is it is JPEG, and white balance has nothing to do with exposures being blown out. I recommend RAW, but avoid shooting with the goal of repair. Suffice it to say correct exposure is the best starting point. This will take time to learn. You may also email me from my website.