pictures come out dark on bright sunny day?

[glennb]

Thanks arthurking, I seem to be getting a consistent picture on all metering settings and A P S M modes and RGB luminance around 131 on my antique white USA walls.
looking at some pics I took after each other and one being brighter than the other, it looks to me the shutter speed is not being adjusted enough to allow more light in.(using aperture priority) I have one dark pic with a shutter speed at 1/4000(fastest setting)why so fast :/
I have only one spot metering pic of the pelican which is also on the darker side but think I will have to do some experimenting to see if spot metering helps. Was looking at pics of my dog which were taken on a sunny day and he also looks a bit on the darker side but not as bad as these pics.
thanks again for your help

[arthurking83]

The first thing that came to mind, was a possible inaccuracy of the diaphragm operation of the lens.
Whilst it's not the most common issue to read/hear about, it's also not completely impossible either.

But this issue will arise(usually) with the lens stopped down a little ... that is not wide open. But from what I can see in (at least) some of your images is that you have kept the aperture wide open in some(possibly many) of your images, and as the camera doesn't actually operate the lenses diaphragm if the lens is set to wide open, this is less likely to be the issue.

So the issue is really more of: the camera's metering is just seeing more light that is really there.

Some things that can cause this is inappropriate metering usage .. apologies for the next comment .. but basically your technique is wrong. This is not a derogatory comment on your abilities .. I can tell you I suffer from the same issue myself many times(current new lens is getting hard to get used too for me here too at the moment) .. so it's more of a comment for you to 'test a bit more' and don't become disheartened.

For me, my most favoured metering mode is spot metering. Many of my lenses, I have a very good understanding of how they meter and expose a scene. But a while back(and just for fun) I began using the most basic of my lens collection .. a 18-105VR .. just for the hell of it. One thing that came out of this prolonged usage was that it underexposed any scene a lot more darkly than my usually preferred lenses(either the 17-50/2.8 or 28-75/2.8 Tamrons).
And so over time, I got used to this knowledge, and where I'd usually set the camera (with my Tammy's connected) at about -0.3 to -0.7Ev underexposure(just my taste) .. I initially set the 18-105VR at the same exposure level, and images came out wayyyy too dark. So eventually my response with the 18-105 mounted was to leave metering at neutral.

Now I have the total opposite issue with my Tammy 24-70VC, where it over exposes the scene(relative to my taste) and that's with -0.3 to -0.7Ev compensation set too. It's just responds differently to how my other main lens does .. and I keep forgetting this point. That just comes down to experience(eventually) and the knowledge of it. Actually the 24-70 doesn't actually over expose, the exposures are really about spot on .. but it's brighter than my natural preference(of slight underexposure to create natural colour richness).

Another question that should have been asked: do you use your lens hood? If not, then change this fact and use it.
Lens hoods can make a difference in the way the metering sees. Complex lenses such as the 55-300(with many lens elements) can capture extraneous light rays and where the metering sees extra light, it reacts accordingly.
That is, the camera is not a particularly intelligent device .. it just sees light with no understanding of what that light is... ie. is it a pelican, or is it an elephant .. or a iron smelter .. or a pizza .. it simply doesn't know.
it just sees light levels, and somewhere in a database, a series of colours are compared to what is currently seen by the metering system and it recommends a particular exposure for you to use.
if stray light is getting onto the front lens element(because the lens hood if mounted in the parked position .. not mounted the right way out!) .. this can confuse the metering to thing there's more light that it should see.
There is a high probability of this happening in contra light(as you have with many of your images shown.

I mention this in passing, as this may not be the cause for such dark images .. simply because there is barely any visible trace of lens flare in your images.
The two basically go hand in hand .. a bit of lens flare will usually also equate to slightly darker images. But this is not a definitive statement .. it may .. it may not.

The reason I mention this is that there is a very slight trace of what looks like lens flare in #2 second set of images(lower left corner).

While the darkness of the images is most likely due to having used the wrong metering mode under the wrong set of shooting conditions(as already implied by others), I'm not 100% convinced that this is the sole reason.
The second image in set number two again .. I'd have thought that the centre weighted mode(usually a 12mm circle being metered from in the centre of the frame) looks to be entirely covered only by the pelican's beak and eye area .. and as such is not really seeing the highlights in the image. Of course I don't really know this for sure, as I wasn't there and I don't have any idea on how this lens performs .. so is more of a guess on my part.
And I suspect something for you to watch for if you're out again the next time.

[fillum]

Glenn, are you shooting these in raw or jpg? Did the images on the camera's lcd screen look dark as well or are they ok?

I don't think it's a metering issue - I only looked up a few of the settings but they seemed reasonable for a bright sunny day...



Cheers.

[glennb]

Thanks guys, Im sure your right about it being being the user. used a hood for the 35mm and can't remember with the 54-300 , I usually do. Will like to get out there again in the same conditions and have a play around.

Phil I shot in raw and the LCD on cam was same as PC, there definitally is inconsistency in the pics you can see more on my flicker page. Water marked ones have been edited.

[ameerat42]

LCD brightness? Still think processing? Clutching at straws?
Am.