T3i overexposure

[Photo2011]

I have a Canon Rebel EOS T3i. 

One of my favorite times of day to shoot photos is at dusk, because this camera performs beautifully on auto settings. HOWEVER, shooting during normal daylight hours is never successful. Since the day I got the camera, photos always looks overexposed.-Especially the sky in landscape photos.

Really frustrated and don't know if it is the camera itself or the lens. It came with canon zoom lens ef-s 18-55mm. I bought the camera brand new years ago, so this post is loooooong overdue. I'm tired of coming home from vacations only to discover that all of the photos I took are washed out.

[Photo2011]

Thank you; I forgot to put in my original post that I had reset everything to factory settings. - Still (and aways has been) a problem. I'll post some images.

[kvbarkley]

The sky is often over-exposed in a normal daylight image because there is not enough dynamic range to get the whole range of brightness levels. If you want the sky exposed correctly, turn your compensation down a bit and expect to lose shadow detail.

[Tintype_18]

Refer to the manual. I still do after 6 years.

[stevet1]

Photo2011,

Remember the three legs of your exposure triangle: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

If either one or more of those three legs is too far out of whack, you might wind up with an overexposed picture: either your aperture is opened too wide and it's letting in too much light, or your shutter speed is too slow and the camera is exposed to that light for too long, or your  ISO is too high.

Instead of complete Auto, could I suggest putting your camera in the P (or Program) Mode for a while?

Your camera will select the aperture and shutter speed for you, but you can still adjust your ISO up or down for a brighter or darker picture.

Do you know how to put your camera in Live View? This will allow you to see your scene on the LCD screen on the back, and you can see in real time the effects of adjusting your ISO will have before you take your picture. Make sure your Exp Sim (or Exposure Simulation) is enabled.

One other thing: I always thought my pictures looked a little too washed out when I used Auto White Balance. I changed it to the Daylight White Balance settings during sunny Daylight hours, and I think my pictures look a lot better.

Steve Thomas

[Photo2011]

Thank you. - I will experiment with your suggestions!

[normadel]

Do you not review your photos at all while shooting, to see how they look?  Waiting until you come home from vacation to see what you've taken seems odd. A big benefit of digital is you can see what you are doing in real time.

[Photo2011]

I do review them, but it doesn't always show on a small screen vs when I get home and pull them all up on my computer.

[stevet1]

Photo2011,

You are struggling with a phenomenon that confronts every photographer. It's called High Dynamic Range. That means that there is a vast difference between the brightest parts of your picture, and the darkest part. Your camera struggles to balance everything out, but a lot of times, it comes up short. Many times it winds up overexposing the bright part in order to come with a half- way decent darker part. That's why your pictures at dusk come out OK. There is not a lot of variation between the lightest part and the darker part, but your pictures in the middle of the day have a greater range of lightness and darkness.

If you were shooting in different Modes, there are some steps you could take that might help mitigate or overcome the problem, but since you are shooting in Auto, the best suggestion I could offer is to frame your composition so that you have less sky in your pictures. 

Help your camera out by not presenting it with a situation that it struggles to overcome.

Steve Thomas

[Photo2011]

Thank you. - It's super frustrating as this is the only camera I've ever owned where this has been a problem. I can take the same shots with my cell phone and they look beautiful...(just obviously lower res among other things.)

[Tronhard]

Moving from a cell phone to a dedicated camera is a learning curve that can be quite steep and confusing.  Such cameras offer vastly more control over images, and the potential of sharper, better exposed and higher resolution images, but the photographer is then required to take more part in the control of focus and exposure.

You need to learn how cameras measure light (exposure) and how the automatic features of the camera can be fooled by challenging lighting conditions, such as when there is a lot of contrast, or subjects are back-lit.  Inherently, we are able to see a far greater range of light intensities than any camera because we process the images in our brains.  Cell phones manage this by computational algorithms that play with the pixel intensities to achieve a pleasing result.  That technology is not applied to dedicated cameras to anything like the same extent - which explains your dilemma.

This is where the user must take over and override the camera's choices.  That is done by manipulating the 'holy trinity' of exposure control: Shutter speed, ISO and aperture.  Multiple combinations of these three will achieve the correct exposure, but each has a dramatic effect on the resulting image, which is where the learning curve comes in.

What I suggest you do is view the following videos:

The first is by National Geographic photographer Chris Bray.  He offers a simple, relaxed introduction to the principles involved in photography using a dedicated camera.

The next thing is to get to know the controls specifically for your T3i - the more comfortable you are with the controls the less they will get in your way and you can customize them to make shooting according to your needs easier.  This is the first in a series of three videos.

This will require work, diligence and patience, but it will reward you handsomely when you master the principles and controls. Just be patient and take lots of images, and look at them critically to see what you need to improve.  Also, take time to enjoy what you achieve!

Once you have got all that under your belt you will be able to get sunsets like these:
EOS M5, EF-M 18-55@35mm, f/11 1/80sec, ISO-200