Canon EOS M50 Mark II landscape photography (too dark)

[baxterdog]

While on a recent trip to visit the Canadian Rockies, I took many photos of landscape settings with my relatively new Canon EOS M50. After looking at the pictures many of the photos with partial sunlight and partial shadows, the photos with the partial shadows were too dark to be useful. I am using the automatic setting (A+) but wondering if there is another setting I should be using. In comparing similar photos taken with an iPhone 14, the phone pictures were much brighter and the content of the shadows was more visible. Thanks.

[rs-eos]

When in Auto mode, the camera will make all decisions for you.  And effectively wants to expose the image to middle gray to whatever region of the image was used to make expsoure decisions.

Do you know what the exposure settings were? Evaluative? Spot?

Can you post one or two examples?

[baxterdog]

As you are probably aware, I cannot give you any more info that I know how to find. But attached are two photos of a similar setting. The lighter one is with the iPhone and the darker one is the Canon.Taken with, I believe, Apple iPhone 14.Taken with Canon.

[deebatman316 · Accepted solution]

The mountains and the sky have a lot of white areas. The camera will underexpose in this situation because your camera "sees" middle gray. If it "sees" white it will always underexpose the picture because it tries to avoid overexposing. Also your camera was set to P (Program) Mode according to the camera metadata. Also did you try to shoot through a window. The top picture has a reflection in it like a phone was used.

[baxterdog]

Yes, the top photo was taken through the hotel window while the Canon photo (darker one) was not. Should I be using P (Program Mode) if I want the camera to auto focus, etc.?

[rs-eos]

Focusing is independent upon the mode you're in.  If your lens is set to perform auto focus, it will do so.

Your iPhone is most likely taking a few images internally and merging them together so as to have a decent exposure everywhere in the photo.   Your Canon produced an underexposed image.  You'll want to start using modes that would allow you do perform "exposure compensation".  For this particular scene, I would have added an adjustment of around +1.

Av (aperture priority) would be good for this scene as you can choose the aperture (just how much or how little of the scene you want to be in focus).

Still though, for such scenes with bright skies and very dark areas, your camera won't be capable of taking a single image and having everything in the scene provide ample details.   For this particular scene, the mountain was most likely your subject, so you'd expose for that.   The forested area would still be in darker shadows.

You can also look in your user manual to look into HDR images.  Though you'd need to be stationary for that (tripod).  The iPhone has the edge here where there's a massive amount of computing power, so multiple images can be taken very rapidly.  This has limitations of course should your scene require slower shutter speeds.  Then the iPhone would produce poor results if not also stationary.

[deebatman316]

The camera will Autofocus in any mode as long as the lens AF/MF switch is set to AF. DO NOT confuse Manual (M) Mode on the top mode dial with Manual Focus (MF) switch on the lens. These are 2 completely different things and ARE NOT related. Full Automatic (A+, Green Square, Creative Auto) vs P (Program) Mode unlocks certain features that can't be used in Full Automatic. The exposure in P (Program) is set Automatically so pictures can't be ruined. Features in P (Program) Mode are Exposure Compensation (EC), Program Shift, Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC), AF Mode, AF Point Selection, File Formats & Drive Mode. These CAN'T be set in Full Automatic mode.

[baxterdog]

Yes, the top photo was taken through the hotel window while the Canon photo (darker one) was not. Should I be using P (Program Mode) if I want the camera to auto focus, etc.?

[stevet1]

It looks like these two pictures were taken at different times of the day. The amount of sky is different, the foreground is different, the mists in the valley are different.

The second picture looks like it was done in black and white, either in-camera, or converted in post. My camera will not take Monochrome in the Auto or A+ mode.

Steve Thomas