Rebel/XTi and light metering

[Reinderd]

I need urgent advise!! I just bought a Canon EOS400D (XTi) and maybe I don't understand it properly, but most of my pictures are UNDEREXPOSED!! On the LCD at the back of the camera they look 100%, but as soon as I download them . . . whalah . . . . totally underexposed!! Please help!!

[Andrask]

It would help if you could post an image with the settings you used.

Also some details of the computer system and monitor screen you use would help clarify your issue.

[Elldee]

I have the same promlems too. any advise would be indeed very helpful to me..... being a newbie to this site and to photography

Elldee

[Hellbelly]

OMG, underexposure threads are everywhere! I've had mine for a week. Taken 1000 pics and have not had a problem yet. Just play around with the thing and learn. Thats my suggestion anyway.

HB.

[cannis]

Shoot on TV mode at 1/200. ISO is automatically calculated and faster shutter speed takes care of any motion blur. Should have good exposure. If not check your monitors brightness

[soulbelly]

hey all,

new here. really dig this place. i've had the same problem from time to time with my new xti, but i attribute it to my being new to dslr. i go back and forth between "p" and "tv" modes, but haven't found what's right for me yet.

[ponder]

My advice to all of you is to start shooting in manual mode as soon as possible. Automatic mode will not teach you as much as manual mode will. Once in manual mode you need to bracket your shots by which I mean shoot at what your light meter tells you and then underexpose by 1/2 an f stop and maybe at 1/3 of an f stop. An example would be as follows: If your light meter says to shoot the scene at F8, then shoot the shot at F8, one a F7.1 and one at F10. By bracketing you will both learn what your camera can do and what you need to do to expose your images properly.

By starting to shoot in manual mode and focusing in manual mode you take the bull by the horns and learn the most about your camera instead of flying on autopilot where the camera is doing the thinking for you.

Since some of you say that you're new to photography, here is a good link for learning about aperture and how to adjust your light meter settings.

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...r/aperture.htm

I shoot with a Canon 20D and I bracket most of the time, so that I always get a properly exposed image.

Also, reading the manual and trying a couple of things each week will really give you a lot of good pointers and guide you. If you have any more questions, keep posting them here and you will learn a lot from many of the other photographers on this site.

Ponder

[soulbelly]

Originally posted by ponder
My advice to all of you is to start shooting in manual mode as soon as possible. Automatic mode will not teach you as much as manual mode will. Once in manual mode you need to bracket your shots by which I mean shoot at what your light meter tells you and then underexpose by 1/2 an f stop and maybe at 1/3 of an f stop. An example would be as follows: If your light meter says to shoot the scene at F8, then shoot the shot at F8, one a F7.1 and one at F10. By bracketing you will both learn what your camera can do and what you need to do to expose your images properly.

thanks for the help! so when you refer to the light meter on the xti, do you mean that i should adjust the exposure until the aperture number stops blinking, and use that as my base for bracketing? i guess my confusion in this regard arises from the fact that the aperture number stays solid through a few exposure numbers before it begins to blink again.

does that make sense?

(i'm sorry if this question has been asked ad infinitum, but i was unable to really find an answer when i searched.)

or are you simply saying that i should just use the camera's auto exposure bracketing function?

[ponder]

No, when I said to shoot using the bracket method, I meant that you should shoot in manual mode only and then bracket manually too. I set my Canon 20D in manual mode and set the lens to MF or manual focus too. I almost never shoot in automatic. Manual mode is more challenging, but it will make you a better photographer as the camera will become an extension of your eye as time goes on.

It sounds like you have the camera set to aperture priority, which means that once you set the aperture, you would need to bracket using the shutter speed. I'm not familiar with the Canon XTi since I shoot with a Canon Powershot G3 and a 20D.

Ponder

[freddyco]

I bought an XTi recently, same issues. I exchanged my first XTi body for another, but same problem.

So it appears to be a "bug" with the evaluative metering setting. Change your metering to "center weighted average" metering and the problem with be mostly solved.

The other setting that needs tweaking is the "Standard" picture type. Standard has way too much contrast by default. So you should reduce contrast by 1, 2, or 3 steps, depending on your taste and the particular scene.

Changing metering mode will increase exposure, image brightness, and reducing contrast will reduce the blackness that seems to dominate images shot with XTi.

Overa all I am now getting good results, since avoiding the "Evaluative" metering mode.

The automatic mode is 95% useless. It can only be used for basic indoor shots with flash. Even then, it tends to underexpose and over-contrast.

I shoot Av mode 90% of the time. \change to shutter priority the rest of the time.

[kasw3670]

Originally posted by ponder
My advice to all of you is to start shooting in manual mode as soon as possible. Automatic mode will not teach you as much as manual mode will. Once in manual mode you need to bracket your shots by which I mean shoot at what your light meter tells you and then underexpose by 1/2 an f stop and maybe at 1/3 of an f stop. An example would be as follows: If your light meter says to shoot the scene at F8, then shoot the shot at F8, one a F7.1 and one at F10. By bracketing you will both learn what your camera can do and what you need to do to expose your images properly.

By starting to shoot in manual mode and focusing in manual mode you take the bull by the horns and learn the most about your camera instead of flying on autopilot where the camera is doing the thinking for you.

Since some of you say that you're new to photography, here is a good link for learning about aperture and how to adjust your light meter settings.

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...r/aperture.htm

I shoot with a Canon 20D and I bracket most of the time, so that I always get a properly exposed image.

Also, reading the manual and trying a couple of things each week will really give you a lot of good pointers and guide you. If you have any more questions, keep posting them here and you will learn a lot from many of the other photographers on this site.

Ponder

thanks for the tips here, and the link to the site you included. i am very new to this game with my 400d, but i think what yu say here will help me a great deal. ps. fanastic shots in your gallery. love them.