13 Responses to “Example of Over Exposure and Under Exposure”

1. wendy
   November 28th, 2007 @ 10:11 pm

   Hi,
   Most of the photos I have taken resonantly have been over exposed even set on auto setting.

   What should I do?

   I have a Nikon 40DX

   Thanks

2. Garry
   November 29th, 2007 @ 9:28 am

   If most of your images are coming out over exposed then there could be a number of reasons why this is happening.
   Are they landscape shots with lots of sky in, or are they more varied pictures with all sorts of lighting conditions in them?
   Have you tried any other setting, other than auto? Do they still come out too light?
   The thing to do is to take some test shots under the same conditions, first of all use the auto mode and then try either aperture priority or shutter priority to give you more control. Take the same shot at various shutter speeds or apertures and see if your images are still over exposed.
   If you have one of the pictures I can see, either on a web site or just email it to me (as long as the file size isn’t too large) – garry@photography-basics.com then maybe I can get a better idea as to why they might be over exposed.

3. Ian
   March 31st, 2008 @ 12:03 am

   What’s the best solution in taking pictures of both light and dark people?

   Many of my shots, tends to show dark people too dark. Is there anything that I can do to correct this?

   I have a Nikon D80 with a SB800 flash.

4. Garry
   March 31st, 2008 @ 8:47 am

   taking pictures which have both dark and light subjects in the same shot is always going to be difficult whatever type of picture it is. Here a few ideas which might help.
   If the dark areas are always too dark then you can try using the exposure compensation and increase it by a stop or two. This is usually done with a +/- button which lets you increment the exposure settings in small amounts. So a slight over exposure will help with the dark areas.
   Try and expose for a mid tone, by this I mean when you point the camera, aim it at a mid tone, so not a shadow or highlight and press the shutter half way down, then move the camera to compose the full shot (while making sure everything is still in focus). This makes the camera set any exposure values for the mid tone and should give you a more even exposure.
   Shoot in RAW format as this gives you the most latitude for adjustments in the computer afterwards. So you can reduce shadows and highlights in photoshop (or similar software) giving you detail in both the shadow areas and highlight areas.

5. Ian
   March 31st, 2008 @ 11:07 pm

   Thanks Gary for all the info. I guess I will have to practice these shots until I can get it right.

6. Jess
   August 16th, 2008 @ 9:27 am

   Alot of photos i have taken are all under expose i’ve tried changing the aperture but that dosn’t seem to work. Please help i have an
   Nikon COOLPIX p5000

7. Garry
   August 17th, 2008 @ 2:57 pm

   Hi Jess, do you have any links to any of the pictures. It’s very hard to suggest what the problem could be without seeing a few examples.

8. Raymond
   September 7th, 2008 @ 4:14 am

   Hi Garry,

   I am also having prob with my Olympus FE 200 cam. I always get over exposed picutres shot under sunlight. The problem is, my camera is fully automatic so I have little control over apperture and other things. What can I do?

9. j0n^_^
   January 31st, 2009 @ 6:31 pm

   hi,

   im kindly a newbie in photography
   and i really like to know more about
   shutter speed and how to use it
   in daylight ^^

   im using Cybershot w300
   I’ll wait for your reply ^_^

10. Garry
    January 31st, 2009 @ 11:15 pm

    Hi, I do have information about shutter speed and how it can be used for different conditions. If you have bright conditions then you can use a wide range of shutter speeds for different effects, but as the light level drops then the shutter speed becomes more of an issue if you want sharp pictures.

11. Shutter Speed « Bargain Memory Cards
    February 20th, 2009 @ 10:09 pm

    [...] You can see an example of under and over exposed images here. [...]

12. vanessa
    March 3rd, 2009 @ 11:32 am

    I decided to pull out my film camera Nikon F80 for a recent beach engagement party. Most of my shots of the couple on the beach came dull , grainy and too dark. The lighting seemed fine it was overcast late afternoon. I used a 400 speed film and camera was on auto. How can I get those beautiful crisp shots I saw thru my lense? Is it that I need a flash or different speed film or both?

13. Garry
    March 14th, 2009 @ 10:28 am

    Hi Vanessa. This is a tricky one as there could be a whole host of factors that would make a picture look a bit dull. As your camera is on auto, it’s making the decisions for you, and I expect it was compromising too much on exposing the entire image correctly. Were there bright areas and dark areas of the scene? If so then the camera might have struggled to get the bright bits right and the dark bits right. It’s not the cameras fault though in that case, it’s just trying to do what it thinks is right. Moving into aperture priority and maybe changing the exposure setting on your camera to help you get the important area of the shot right could help. But as I said, there are a lot of things it could be.

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