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]

[Photo2011]

[Photo2011]

[Photo2011]

Thank you. - I will experiment with your suggestions!

[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

[jrhoffman75]

Can you post the actual file from the camera SD card for this image?

[Photo2011]

Images need to be smaller than 5000k.

[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

[stevet1]

Photo2011,

As I understand it, cell phones these days apply some measure of HDR to their camera. There's software in there that helps to balance out that High Dynamic Range 5hat I talked about earlier.

Your T3i doesn't have that.

One thing you might try is using the Landscape Mode on your Mode dial.

Another option when confronted with a mixture of light and dark might be to choose the Monochtome setting in your Picture Styles, and Shoot in black and white.

There were a couple of pictures that you provided that would make excellent B&W photos, like the third one.

Steve Thomas