5D underexposing photos

[Tsangstudios]

Hi Guys just curious if any of you are encoutering this problem.

On the 5D lcd the photos seem properly exposed, but the moment you open it in the PC it is quite often under?

[jdredd]

its not really a problem with the camera. i find that as well with my 30D. pictures tend to look fine on LCD, but come up a bit underexposed in the PC.

if you want, you can adjust your LCD brightness down by one setting. for me, i tend to look more at my histogram anyway than trust the LCD now. also, after a while, you will get a feel for what a properly exposed shot looks like on the LCD.

[sk.images]

Are you shooting RAW and how much under?

[saperboy]

Then again it might be that your PC monitor needs calibrating/adjustment.

[Tsangstudios]

Thanks for feedback. Yah reallying pretty much on the hist now too. Actually its at least one stop under on an average. Another thing strange is that I still get slight under exposure when I spot meter on the face even. Nothing to do with my monitor, its decently calibrated cause when I send for printing I always ask the shop not to touch up. Oh well quite leah cheach to ahve constantly lock the exposure and recompose shoot and still brighten up after. Sometimes feel ling going back to film.

[+evenstar]

your LCD brightness is too high i reckon

[sk.images]

Originally Posted by Tsangstudios Thanks for feedback. Yah reallying pretty much on the hist now too. Actually its at least one stop under on an average. Another thing strange is that I still get slight under exposure when I spot meter on the face even. Nothing to do with my monitor, its decently calibrated cause when I send for printing I always ask the shop not to touch up. Oh well quite leah cheach to ahve constantly lock the exposure and recompose shoot and still brighten up after. Sometimes feel ling going back to film.

Most peoples face are lighter then 18% grey and will cause the camera to under expose.

Also, if you shoot RAW, then what you see in the LCD is a corrected jpg thumbnail embedded in the RAW data in order to provide the preview as quickly as it does.

Do a test, using an 18% grey card, lock the exposure then replace the card with a person and see how you go.

[Tsangstudios]

Originally Posted by +evenstar your LCD brightness is too high i reckon

Its at the middle. Anyway even lowering the lcd brightness does not give fairly acurrate results. Its the difference in details. On Lcd you can see much more details but on the pc or hitogram you can see the picture is under.

[shinken]

Yep, LCD cannot be relied on to check exposure and colours. It's either over or under, depending on which body. I haven't encountered any one Canon DSLR that can be relied on. Perhaps the newer bodies can be used to check for sharpness, but definitely not colours and exposure. If I'm not wrong, many 5Ds LCDs doesn't represent purple accurately too. The only bodies I haven't tried are the 1D2-series.

[Tsangstudios]

Originally Posted by shinken Yep, LCD cannot be relied on to check exposure and colours. It's either over or under, depending on which body. I haven't encountered any one Canon DSLR that can be relied on. Perhaps the newer bodies can be used to check for sharpness, but definitely not colours and exposure. If I'm not wrong, many 5Ds LCDs doesn't represent purple accurately too. The only bodies I haven't tried are the 1D2-series.

Actaullay my 10d which I bought when it first launched gives quite an accurate feedback without hist information . Quite sad they cant even give something close for the kind of money paid. Anyway quite used to it just curious if others out there ahve the same problem.

[shinken]

Originally Posted by Tsangstudios Actaullay my 10d which I bought when it first launched gives quite an accurate feedback without hist information . Quite sad they cant even give something close for the kind of money paid. Anyway quite used to it just curious if others out there ahve the same problem.

Could be issue of QC then. My copy of 10D always show blown highlights when flash is used, but when histogram is ok. 5D, so expensive, still like dat, disappointing ya

[Tsangstudios]

Originally Posted by shinken Could be issue of QC then. My copy of 10D always show blown highlights when flash is used, but when histogram is ok. 5D, so expensive, still like dat, disappointing ya

so hows life? recovering from a mega flu after super siong back to back jobs in may and june :P just 3 more to go. hope to get them done before the hungry ghost fest is over for a real break. Maybe finanlly can find some time to post on cs heh heh..

[shinken]

heh heh, OT, got back from Bali wedding, photos were disappointing tho (sigh), now working on bookings for post-hungry ghost months from the leftovers

[sehsuan]

Try this

http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1504

[jsbn]

I'm quite surprised that even u as an experienced shooter use the LCD preview to check for exposure which shldn't be the case.

Thought its all common knowledge that LCD preview is never a good indicator for exposure checking?

[F5user]

Originally Posted by jsbn I'm quite surprised that even u as an experienced shooter use the LCD preview to check for exposure which shldn't be the case. Thought its all common knowledge that LCD preview is never a good indicator for exposure checking?

agree...

use the histogram la...

when all else fails, send the camera in for checking.

On a related note, my 5d overexposed almost 80% of the time, blowing out almost everything when i first bought it. Threw it back at the bums at Harbour front twice, and they finally managed to rectify the problem, being a bad "circuit board" or something... donno la.. now it works fine for me....

perhaps you should bring it down to get it checked?

but yeah.. i do agree for the $ one pays, canon's QC does SOMETIME, suck...

[Tsangstudios]

Quote: I'm quite surprised that even u as an experienced shooter use the LCD preview to check for exposure which shldn't be the case. Thought its all common knowledge that LCD preview is never a good indicator for exposure checking?

Do read the earlier thread I do use the histogram. Its just that if point and shoots can give fairly accurate lcd feedback I dont see why shouldnt the 5D. Yes I do use lcd for quick feedback as well as hists. I dont see anything wrong with that, as long as I can deleiver the best postos possible with the available technolgy at hand why not, if not why jump to digital??? Its just pure load of crap if you are experince user cannot Lcd???? the why canon give a 2.5 in lcd for or feedback?? just return hist info lah. Then as an experiece phtoographer I am also sure your clients sometimes want to see quick feedback on your lcd are you going to say no to them? It just that when I correctly expsose the pict it look overexposed on my lcd and its put me in a awkward position to explan to the cust everthing is fine..

[F5user]

Well... you asked us for our opinions, and we gave them to you..

yes, we understood that you did refer to your histogram... but if that's really the case, wouldn't you have detected the underexposure via the hists?

Anyway, agreeably, preview screens are one of the many reasons we got into digi photography. I myself chimp all the time, till my batts run dry. But hey, if it appears "under" on your preview, wouldn't you agree that the cam isn't really doing its job right?

As one of the replies above stated, there are lots of factors including monitor calibration/contrast & brightness management on the camera/LCD. IMHO, it's your camera that's acting up. As you appear to be working with it, send it in... make use of the wonderful technical support you paid for when u shelled out 4- 5k for the "best technology at hand."

[digit]

I have the same feeling of nuisance when I transited to DSLR. However, I think underexposure is a good thing. At least you have the control of how much highlight clipping you want to avoid. My camera underexposes by about 2/3 stop. I just dial in to compensate accordingly.

By the way I use LCD solely to check for composition, as it gives over-optimistic impression on exposure. The histogram is more accurate.

I think a live histogram in the viewfinder might be attractive. Cam manufacturer can make an exposure range bar by the side of the viewfinder to see if your exposure range falls outside the capability of the sensor.

[ivanyc]

I have the same experience with the 5D. It seems to underexpose the shots compared to 10D/20D. Previously I did not have much issue with guesstimating the exposure with 10D/20D screen. But I had to increase the exposure by .5 stop or more for the 5D.

Before being lamb-blasted for not checking histograms, I stand in the same position as Tsang. If you are doing slow and steady photography checking histograms are a must but in the fast and furious world of wedding photography, the expressions are sometimes more important than exposure. Furthermore, placing the histogram with the preview makes it hard to assess whether you captured the moment or a properly exposed shot.

All said and done, I think we need to overexpose 5D by at least 0,5 stop