Point and Shoot Overexposure

[Markbnj]

Hi guys. I'm using a Canon A650IS that my family got me for father's day, and as it stands I really love the camera, and have been making some good strides in learning how to use it well.

I shoot outdoors almost exclusively, and typically my subjects are old buildings and roads, and other such scenes that combine relatively dark foliage or structures against bright sky. I often find that the camera overexposes the bright parts of these images, so for example if I have a white clapboard house against a bright sky, and I use program mode with evaluative metering and focus on the side of the building, the part up near the bright sky will be overexposed and lose the detail of the individual boards.

I have tried spot metering a little and plan to play with it more, and I understand fill flash but these shots are usually long enough that flash has little effect. I'm not sure whether I should be spot metering on the brighter or darker parts of the image. I have also used exposure compensation and gotten some good results.

I guess in general I am just looking for info on what tools to use to compensate in conditions like these, and how to use them.

Thanks!

 

[996GT2]

I would suggest trying the manual exposure mode ("M" on the dial) to manually set the exposure by adjusting the shutter speed and aperture. I often had to do that on my Panasonic FZ8 because the auto mode would correctly expose the background but underexpose the subject of the image.

When you're using manual mode, remember that the shutter speed and aperture ("f" number) control how much light gets to the sensor. A faster shutter lets in less light, while a slower shutter lets in more light. However, shutter speeds slower than 1/15 second should not be used without a tripod, even when the camera has IS.

The f number controls how much light gathering area the aperture has. The larger the number, the smaller the area that lets light into the sensor.

The ISO can also be adjusted. ISO is a measure of sensitivity; the higher the number, the more sensitive to light your camera is. For bright days, ISO 100 or 200 provides the least amount of image noise on most point and shoot cameras. However, if you have to shoot indoors without a flash, you might have to use ISO 400 or 800 to be able to use a sufficiently fast shutter speed (so as not to blur the image)...this will come at the expense of added noise in your images.

You should be able to get correct exposures by using this mode...you just need to play around with it until you get the hang of manually adjusting exposure.

 

[ElFenix]

exposure comp and experience.

dunno if that model has a live histogram or not, but a live histogram is helpful. if it doesn't have it, you use the hacked firmware (chdk) to expose all sorts of options, like live histogram and raw support.

 

[Markbnj]

Thanks, guys. It does have a histogram on image review, though I haven't made much use of it yet.

Also, I am familiar with the basic relationship between f-stop, shutter speed, and film/ccd sensitivity. I was just hoping there was a way to get better results in these types of scenes using program mode. I can set up shots and get very nice results, but I usually encounter these conditions when moving through an area where I want to be able to take a lot of shots from many angles. P&S is just faster.

 

[996GT2]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Thanks, guys. It does have a histogram on image review, though I haven't made much use of it yet.

Also, I am familiar with the basic relationship between f-stop, shutter speed, and film/ccd sensitivity. I was just hoping there was a way to get better results in these types of scenes using program mode. I can set up shots and get very nice results, but I usually encounter these conditions when moving through an area where I want to be able to take a lot of shots from many angles. P&S is just faster.

You can also do that while in manual mode. Since you're taking shots of the same area, the lighting won't drastically change and you can basically use the same settings at each angle, maybe slightly adjusting the shutter speed up or down to suit the slight change in location. I did that for a while on my camera, and eventually got to the point where I preferred using manual mode over Program Auto-Exposure mode.