Bleached out pictures

[BeckyD]

On my Canon Rebel T3i when I take outside pictures in bright sunlight they are all bleached out, most of them to the point of being a white picture. Please let me know what is going on with my camera. Thank you.

[ScottyP]

Hi.

Anyone can make a blown-out, white image.  It is only a matter of overexposing by about 3 or 4 stops.  

What shooting mode are you using?  A person could overexpose in any number of ways.  

Outside in bright sun, you need to cut the amount of sun in some way.  You need a faster (short opening duration) shutter.  And/or you need a low ISO setting (ISO 100).  And/or you may need to use a small aperture (lens opening size) (a high f/number) like f/11 or higher. 

The camera will compensate more in Auto mode than it can in AV (Aperture priority) or TV (shutter priority) modes.  It cannot compensate at all in full Manual.  

[BeckyD]

The camera was set on auto. It is where i leave it most of the time.

[Waddizzle]

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@BeckyD wrote:
The camera was set on auto. It is where i leave it most of the time.

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Try changing to "P" mode, and then try adjusting the metering mode.  To look at a smaller area of the image.  This can happen occasionally when you have high contrast subjects that you are trying to photograph.  You focus on a bright area, while the camera meters the light in a dark area of the image.

Try changing the metering mode, and setting the number of focus points to just the one, in the center.  See if that helps.

[ebiggs1]

"Please let me know what is going on with my camera."

Whenever something is going screwy, Clear all settings in the menu and reset the camera to factory defaults.  This will confirm you have not set something by accident or on purpose and forget it.

Second you need to start to eliminate things.  Make sure you have a good fully charged battery.  A new SD card formatted by the T3i, not a computer. And another lens to try.  If you don't have one maybe you can borrow one for a test.

Do all this first and then report back.