EOS Rebel T3i dark in manual mode

[Trissw09]

Hello,

I have a Canon T3i Rebel and for some reason, my photos are dark when I am in this mode. I have tried everything possible feature to try to make the photos brighter, but nothing works. I even tried the flash and it only added a bit of lighting. The strange thing is that this mode worked perfectly before, but for some reason it doesn’t work now. I really hope this camera is not broken. 
thank you!

[Trissw09]

Here are the two photos for the experiment:

The first one which is bright was taken with auto mode, with ISO: 400; Aperture: F5.3; Shutter Speed: 1/60.

The second photo is in manual mode taken with shutter speed: 1/4000; Aperture: F22; ISO: 6400.

I hope this helps because it's kinda crazy how the photo taken in auto mode with ISO 400 is decently bright, while the photo taken in ISO 6400 is almost black. *Note: both of these were taken with flash. *

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jbb9sZF5FuRrwsoA4cNS2da4qMOS_OuZ/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K7jalSDq9REsX8e2LuSO_V4nEl8cuiff/view?usp=sharing

[deebatman316]

First of all the aperture is way too small and shutter speed is really fast. This will cause dark pictures because the exposure isn’t long enough. Use the same settings for Auto Mode in Manual Mode. The picture should be correctly exposed. Also the built in flash isn’t very powerful.

[rs-eos · Accepted solution]

You'll want to understand the exposure triangle. Assuming that the Auto mode image was properly exposed, let's see what an equivalent exposure would be:

Let's get ISO to be 6400. That's an increase of 4 stops. Let's compensate with 4 stops of shutter, so that would be around 1/1000 second.  But in your Manual mode settings, you were at 1/4000 (another 2 stops) and aperture around 4 stops. That 6 stops under of where you'd need to be.

This is just one scenario.  Basically, if you let in more light with any of the three settings (aperture, shutter, ISO), you need to compensate by decreasing the amount of light with one of the other two.

If all this sounds foreign, explore the exposure triangle. You'll need to master that in order to be able to work with Manual mode.

[LeeP]

Why was shooting at 1/4000 @ f22 the goal? 

Did the camera indicate that was the correct exposure?

ISO 6400 @ 1/4000 @ f22 is a wild combo.

[deebatman316]

I’m thinking the same thing too. The only time I’ve used a shutter speed that fast was when I was trying to freeze a waterfall. 1/2000th is plenty fast for that situation. Also I’m questioning on why the OP was using F/22. That’s a really small aperture and requires a lot of light. So much light that the built in flash isn’t any where powerful enough. I think my 550EX may be just powerful enough for those settings. If not then you would need a large strobe instead of a speedlite.

[Trissw09]

I just put the camera in 1/800 shutter speed; Aperture: F18; ISO: 800. Still dark

[deebatman316]

Why are you using F/18 that is a very small aperture for dim lighting. Open up the aperture more to around F/5.6 instead.

[LeeP]

I wondered whether the OP knew that in manual they use the exposure meter to guide the settings. It's been years since I used my T3i. I passed it and an XSi to a friend who wanted to learn his way into photography. 1/4000th and f22 feel like starting points the camera defaulted to when shifting into manual. I'm still perplexed and curious to know the reasoning.

[LeeP]

Are you using the exposure meter to derive those settings?

[Trissw09]

okay, and what shutter speed? I used the exposure meter but its not changing anything.