Trees

[Cliffs]

Original



After applying a lightness of -20 under hue/saturation in PS CS2



After applying -100 brightness under brightness/contrast in PS CS2


I like the darker shot (3rd one)...

My question would be, what am I doing wrong with the original that it is coming out so light.
And of course, what might I do different with PS program, learning that also.


Camera: Canon EOS Digital RebelXS
Lens: EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Exposure: 1/4000s at f5.6
Exposure mode: Auto
Aperture: Aperture priority
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Flash: Off
Date taken: 15 April 2009

[wulf]

It appears that you are overexposing the original. The camera is probably over compensating for dark areas it sees. Have a read in your manual on metering modes or jump into the joys of manual mode and take responsibility for exposure yourself.

Wulf

[littleny]

trees can be tricky (for me anyway)
im leaning towards the 2nd one only because in the 3rd shot those blacks appear to be clipped or too black.

[DSImages]

I agree with wulf on this one. Seems as if your camera is over exposing the image on the original. You can try manually exposing the shot before you take it, but i would recommend setting you exposure compensation (E.C.) in your camera to -0.3 or -0.7 and see if you get your desired results in most of your shots.

I know that my camera (in my eyes) seems to over expose as well. Therefore I set my exposure compensation to -0.7 for most everything. especially when shooting in raw. Now most of my night shots and product work I will set the E.C. back to 0.0.

Once you get the hang of manually exposing our images you will barely need to use E.C.

Anyone can correct me if Im wrong.

Thanks

I noticed your ISO setting in the exif is 1600 as well. You might want to bring that back down to 100 - 200. I shoot without auto Iso on.

[areeffbee]

Oh yeah, that's a good one. Way more eye appealing.