Why so grey??

[Kris-10]

Hello All,
This is my first post and I need help. It seems to me that all my pictures are coming out grey. I am guessing this has to do with contrast but what I don't understand is why. The first attached picture is SOOC and the second is corrected with an "autocorrect" button in a picture managing program (not Photoshop sadly). I just wanted to see what it would do and it made my original seem so overall grey even for a color picture. Now maybe this is just my screen because at my home computer it doesnt seem this bad, it's still there but not as bad. So is it just me? Is this normal? Am I going to have to edit every picture I take to balance it or am I just using the wrong metering method or something like that? Have I outed myself enough as a Noob yet?! Thanks for any feedback.

Yep outed myself, just realized I plced this in the Macro-Critique instead of Cityscape or something, sorry about that :-)

[sybren]

Welcome to the forum!

Please post the EXIF (as per the forum rules), it gives us some useful information. Be sure to include the white balance setting you used ;-)

[Kris-10]

Oops :-)
Camera: Canon Powershot SX20 IS
F-Number: f/8
Exposure Time: 1/125 Second
Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average
Exposure Compensation: 0 Step
White-Balance: Auto
Flash: Did not fire

[sybren]

Originally Posted by Kris-10

Oops :-)
Camera: Canon Powershot SX20 IS
F-Number: f/8
Exposure Time: 1/125 Second
Metering Mode: Center Weighted Average
Exposure Compensation: 0 Step
White-Balance: Auto

There you go. I'm still missing the exposure mode (P, Av, Tv or M) so I'm going to assume it's on P.

Auto white-balance (AWB) tends to make things more bland, greyish. Setting it to an appropriate white-balance setting will give you more colour.

Under-exposing by about 1/3 of a stop may also give you more colour. I've shot a few sunsets the other day (not online yet) that I took with 2/3-stop under-exposure. They had much more colour than with the default setting.

And finally, often digital photos need a little pick-me-up to really pop, so it may not be your settings after all.

[Kris-10]

Mode: Tv
ISO: 80

I was kind of just messing around to see what I could get in my downtown area but I have noticed this on alot of my pictures. I don't think I have changed the white-balance much so I will definatly look into that. I have photoshop at home but my husband knows how to use it more than I, I guess I feel like I should set it right and get the picture to come out great and not have to edit it but that might be me being nieve in my expectations of what I and the camera can do lol!

[Kommplexcitie]

Is the monitor that you edited on calibrated? I ask because you said they look different on your two different computers. I looked at them both, and while the first one (SOOC) seems a little flat, it does look like the auto-adjust you used popped the contrast up. It doesn't look overly grayish on my monitor.

-K

[LeeR]

One of the things you have to keep in mind is the fact that when you are shooting JPEG your camera is making a lot of decisions for you. Most of the time, and for most people, this is fine. The programs are highly developed and usually do a fabulous job. If your camera offered a RAW mode, that would be one way to deal with this, but I don't see that your camera has that option. Yesterday I posted a tutorial on how to do a "Levels" adjustment where you make several of the adjustments common to RAW but in JPEG mode. Your software won't do levels, you say. Then get a copy of GIMP. It's free and a respectable alternative for PS. Also, at the end of the tutorial I posted a link to one of Scott Kelby's books. I highly recommend you look that over as it has loads of great information in it.

[Kris-10]

I'm not sure if it's calibrated but it's have it set to: Color - Highest (32 bit), 1280x1024 pixels, and in advanced settings it says DPI Setting - Normal size (96 DPI). I'm not sure what it should be set on technically. Thanks for all the help :-)