Pixtus - Photography Forum, Photographers, Photo Tips

Tammie · **Not quite right white -** 05-23-2006, 03:33 PM

Not quite right white- Say that 3 times really fast! I take photo's (yes I really do) that have just a horrible white on peoples faces.....What am I doing wrong? This never happened with my film camera. If I had a bad picture it was because I took a bad picture,...With my digital I honestly never know what the heck is going to happen.
Dangit! Does my camera have it in for me?

Any info will be appreciated.
Thanks!
Tammie

thebeginning · 05-23-2006, 03:36 PM

Sounds like they are just badly overexposed...would you mind posting some example photos? that would help a great deal.

Tammie · 05-23-2006, 04:26 PM

Oh crap I forgot to ...Sorry

Reuel · 05-23-2006, 05:06 PM

The washed-out white area on the boy's cheek is due to overexposure: that area was too bright for the camera to record given the exposure chosen. The camera's meter may have been fooled by the large background area that was in shadow and the dark clothing. Film has a wider tolerance for exposure.

You can tell that this is happening by looking at the histogram of the photo (I'm assuming Canon cameras do this; Nikon D70 does). If there's a spike on the right end of the histogram, then some pixels were overexposed. The D70 also has a "highlight" mode that will show overexposed areas.

There are lots of ways to fix this while taking pictures, but all involve knowing what's happening and having the time to do something. You can change to spot metering and meter off the bright side of the boy's face, and increase the exposure by 1 or 2 EV. You could meter off a grey card held in the same light.

I don't think there's much you can do to fix the picture now unless you're an artist. At that point the photo becomes a painting.

Tammie · 05-23-2006, 05:09 PM

My camera flashes at me all the time....How do I turn this off? I don't like it.

Roadrnr · 05-23-2006, 05:23 PM

If your camera is flashing at you then it's internal metering system is telling you that you are either overexposed or underexposing the photo. You would want to change your shutter speed or apature accordingly to properly meter the subject.

The other option is to shoot in manual mode and set your shutter speed and apature by hand, if say you were using a spot meter or something to that effect

petert · 05-23-2006, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tammie

My camera flashes at me all the time....How do I turn this off? I don't like it.

What kind of camera do you shoot with? If it's a D70, D70s, or D50, I think you're out of luck... but you can always just "turn the page" to another location like the histogram mentioned...

JohnRushing · 05-23-2006, 05:52 PM

What camera are you using? Sometimes the only thing you can do when the sun is to bright is use a skrim or dufuser to reduce it's brightness but that usually requires another set of hands to hold them. Shooting in manual mode will help. Try taking a shot and checking your histogram then adjust your aperture to compensate. Another way is to use a spot meter like the Sekonic L558 but thats a lot of money when you can get it right just by playing with the manual settings. You can do a lot with the photos in photoshop if you have that.