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.

[Tronhard]

Hi and welcome to the forum:

It would be helpful if you can provide a couple of example images so we can see the nature of the issue with more clarity.  Can you confirm which mode(s) you are using please?  Have you in any way customized the metering mode from Evaluative?

[jrhoffman75]

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@Photo2011 wrote:

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.

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Look in your camera manual and follow instructions to reset camera to factory settings. Set camera to Auto mode, take some daytime images and post them as recommended by Trevor. Post actual files from camera. 

[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

[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.

[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.

[Photo2011]

Sorry for the delay. They had to be resize for me to be able to post. I'll try to upload 4 different photos. You will see that in a couple of them the sky looks completely white.