Photos look dull to me......adobe 111sRGB???

[old dog]

hi......after taking over 400 pics yesterday, I`m finding nearly all looking dull or underexposed. It was an overcast day and I was using adobe 111sRGB, no exposure compensation and -.7, shooting in aperture mode, both matrix and centre weighted metering. Here`s a couple of examples.....SOOC. Any ideas as to whats off.....

[William]

hi......after taking over 400 pics yesterday, I`m finding nearly all looking dull or underexposed. It was an overcast day and I was using adobe 111sRGB, no exposure compensation and -.7, shooting in aperture mode, both matrix and centre weighted metering. Here`s a couple of examples.....SOOC. Any ideas as to whats off.....

It was an overcast day and I was using adobe 111sRGB,

Not sure what this is !! If you mean sRGB , They look a little under exposed

[William]

Quick fix with Shadow/ Highlites , Made a difference I reckon , Love the POV and comp on these

[kiwi]

I agree, co,lours look like they ought to, but underexposed, I also ramp up the saturation on dull days, vivid even

But you do say "no exposure compensation and -.7, shooting in aperture mode, both matrix and centre weighted metering"

no exposure comp , but -.7 which is exp comp ? what is it ?

[MajickStudio]

Hi Old Dog,
with this type of photography I find that spot metering is best ~ or even better, if your camera allows exposure bracketing, set the exposure to -/+ 1 ~ this method takes 3 differently exposed shot (which can then be merged ~ BTW ... these photo's are fixable with a small amount of Camera RAW or similar processing, shouldn't take long to do for someone who knows the software :-)

[old dog]

thanks William. Yes, in the menu list you can choose 1a...(sRGB) OR 11...(adobe RGB) OR 111a... 111a(sRGB) of which I used the last one. I also forgot to say I used auto white balance and obviously shot in jpeg fine.

[kiwi]

Id stick with sRGB
Id not use auto - use cloudy if it's cloudy
I wouldnt use exp bracketing for so many shots in flat conditions, it's not as though you should need to worry about wildly fluctuatting light or highlights

what's with the -.7 though ?

[ving]

what's with the -.7 though ?

good question... graeme?

its under exposed and i have no idea why. the only hint is what kiwi has quoted.

[gcflora]

good question... graeme?

its under exposed and i have no idea why. the only hint is what kiwi has quoted.

It's probably under-exposed because the camera metered for the sky and set the exposure so the sky was 18% grey... as it would...

[ving]

It's probably under-exposed because the camera metered for the sky and set the exposure so the sky was 18% grey... as it would...

even the sky looks under exposed sire... center weight would have fixed that anyhow. I think there is more to it.

[old dog]

sorry guys.....I meant that I`d used exp comp on some and not on others.

So thanks William.....I`ve tried the shadow, highlights but seem to get a bit too much noise. Must keep trying at it though.

thanks Renee.....I thought when I looked at the shots that maybe I was metering too much on the sky and it being grey....mistake. Spot metering would have been better now I think about it.

[MajickStudio]

Ur welcome, there is another thing U could use to get around the over exposed sky ~ polarising filters work wonders outdoors .... U've got some Fabulous shots BTW .... WOW !

[old dog]

thanks MS......I deliberately didn`t take filters as result of a great thread a couple of days ago about the non use of filters, so I thought I`d do the show without filters and the other thing, I could shoot at higher shutter speeds.

[kiwi]

The other thing I notice is your iso of 100.....I think you'd be much more comfortable changing the default to 400 for this sort of thing, or at least 200.

[old dog]

thanks Darren.....with the D80, I suppose I`m more comfortable shooting as low an iso as possible so that if I crop (as you would have to at a show like this) you`d get a better result, noise wise. I suppose 200 would have been ok anyway. I`ve learnt some more anyway.

[RaoulIsidro]

I removed the bluish cast on the runway and grass by playing around with WB and colour balance.

[old dog]

that certainly look different Raoul.....thanks for having a go to improve it. I`ve learnt quite a bit from this thread.