topic Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help? in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

joshjlowlowy — Mon, 02 May 2016 23:42:00 GMT

I'm shooting with a Rebel T5 and have recently had my photos turn out very dark. This is a new problem. I have my ISO set to 6400, and am using a low aperture with long shutter speeds to compensate for this error. Is my camera malfunctioning/broken, or is there something I can do/fix myself?

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

Peter — Mon, 02 May 2016 23:57:59 GMT

Please upload a sample with exif still embedded in the picture.

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 03 May 2016 00:30:57 GMT

Do you have exposure compensation set? Try resetting all camera settings in the menu.

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

joshjlowlowy — Tue, 03 May 2016 00:32:12 GMT

I'm attempting to shoot in Manual mode which only allows me to widen or shorten the compensation range, but not actually set it myself. Is there a way around that?

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

ScottyP — Tue, 03 May 2016 01:04:51 GMT

Why are you shooting in Manual? What are you shooting?

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

ScottyP — Tue, 03 May 2016 01:07:35 GMT

And to apply the equivalent of exposure compensation, just set an overexposure of however many stops you feel you want. It is manual so you can do what you want.

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

joshjlowlowy — Tue, 03 May 2016 01:10:11 GMT

I'm shooting rock climbing, but am trying to favor getting "the shot" over good exposure. Ideally, I want to shoot at ~1/500 or faster to minimize motion blur and reaction delay.

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 03 May 2016 01:36:13 GMT

Try using Tv and Auto ISO. What lighting conditions are you shooting in?

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

ScottyP — Tue, 03 May 2016 02:04:35 GMT

If "getting the shot" is the goal, stay away from Manual. Manual is fiddley and a lot slower.

Use Tv mode, and set your shutter speed for 1/500th. If the f/stop is blinking at the lowest f/number the lens can do, you don't have enough light, so increase the ISO until it isn't blinking anymore.

If you have the luxury of plenty of daylight to get the fast minimum shutter, and you want to create either a lot or a little depth of field in focus, use AV mode and pick a narrow aperture for lots of DOF, or the reverse for shallow DOF.

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

cicopo — Tue, 03 May 2016 02:33:13 GMT

Firstly EVERY consumer grade camera has limits to what it can capture and the Rebel series is the lowest in the Canon line so a body upgrade should be considered in this situation, but then that maybe outside your budget. You haven't said what lens & that may also not be up to the task. My recommendation won't solve the problem but it will isolate what needs upgrading to a degree. Use Av mode, no exposure compensation, set it to force the lens to shoot at it's wideest aperture and set the ISO to AUTO for a few shots, then set it to the highest ISO the camera offers for a few shots, & then the next lowest full stop lower (IE 6400, 3200, 1600) & see what the camera used as the shutter speed. If the shutter speeds are TOO SLOW in all of them you need better gear. .

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

joshjlowlowy — Tue, 03 May 2016 05:50:18 GMT

Awesome! I'll try those. Thanks for the help guys!

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

kvbarkley — Tue, 03 May 2016 15:57:09 GMT

Take a picture of a sunny outdoor scene in P-Mode with the ISO set to 100. Post it here with the EXIF data intact and we can use the "sunny 16" rule to tell you whether your camera and lens are exposing in the right ballpark.

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

Waddizzle — Tue, 03 May 2016 16:02:14 GMT

@kvbarkley wrote:
Take a picture of a sunny outdoor scene in P-Mode with the ISO set to 100. Post it here with the EXIF data intact and we can use the "sunny 16" rule to tell you whether your camera and lens are exposing in the right ballpark.

What if it's raining? My current forecast is for rain and overcast skies for the next several days. Instead of ISO set to 100, can I use a light bulb set to 100 Watts, and take a picture of a box of corn flakes. I could use the "flaky eights" rule to check it!

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

kvbarkley — Tue, 03 May 2016 17:03:41 GMT

That is another option, did you reply to my thread about standard exposures in the general section?

Though 100 W tungsten bulbs are getting hard to come by!

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

ScottyP — Wed, 04 May 2016 02:54:03 GMT

I suspect the camera would do fine in outdoor sunlight in green box auto. Also in P mode or AV or Tv. The problem is the user trying to shoot in full manual rather than AV or Tv, without perhaps the full mastery and attention to exposure that would require. It is difficult to imagine why Manual mode would be the way to go for shooting rock climbing.

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

ScottyP — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 02:55:03 GMT

This is daylight climbing, not nighttime climbing, right? Any camera and lens should be able to pull that off unless he is maybe on the shady side of the mountain or something. The problem is probably in trying to use full Manual. It would probably expose ok in green box Auto. Or of course Tv or AV.

Re: My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

ebiggs1 — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 03:10:01 GMT

"It is difficult to imagine why Manual mode would be the way to go ..."

i wonder how we ever managed to get a picture? I suspect the OP is not observing the light meter in his view finder. In manual mode the camera will not care if it is correct or not. If that is the case I must agree with ScottyP, why use manual mode if you don't fully understand it? The camera won't help you.