Canon XTI 400d with Tamron 17-55 lens

[sinitry23]

When I am using manual mode and adjusting the exposure using the metering in my carmera how come the pictures come out under exposed? I set the ISO, shutter speed and aperture until I get the mettering to the middle and all of my indoor shoots look very under exposed. Is this normal with this camera? Should I expose my shot to 1 stop higher for all indoor shots?

[AdamW]

If you could post some examples it would be easier to determine the cause of your problem. Also, what setting do you have for your metering?

[Rooz]

When I am using manual mode and adjusting the exposure using the metering in my carmera how come the pictures come out under exposed? I set the ISO, shutter speed and aperture until I get the mettering to the middle and all of my indoor shoots look very under exposed. Is this normal with this camera? Should I expose my shot to 1 stop higher for all indoor shots?

without seeing any images my guess would be that you have a brightly lit door or window behind your subjects.

[RichNY]

Looking forward to seeing an image and learning what metering mode you are using.

One thing to remember is that all you did is turn the dials to set the aperture and shutter speed to what the camera's metering suggested. If your shots are coming out underexposed (dark) then the meter was fooled by the scene. This would typically happen if there is a lot of light color in your picture.

When the meter interprets all the light color it assumes that there is a lot of light falling on the subject and recommends a shorter shutter speed or aperture than is really needed for proper exposure. It is your job to see that your image has excessive light or dark in it, recognize that the meter is going to suggest the wrong exposure, and use Exposure Correction for it. In your case because you would recognize that the picture would be underexposed you would add +EC. If the image were very dark (for example you were taking a portrait of a black sheep) you would need to add -EC or your sheep would come out too light (you'd have a grey sheep).

Another example was when I was shooting snowy scenes in Switzerland- because the images had lots of white in them I had to add 1 to 1 1/2 stops of +EC to what the camera metered or the beautiful white snow would be underexposed as dull grey snow.

[sinitry23]

Thank for your replies guys!

It must of been the settings I had. I haven't used my SLR camera in awhile and when I took it out to take a quick snap shot of my dog it seems that the picture was under exposed. I had it on "center-weighted average metering" and behind me was a bright window. I took another sample shot today using "evaluative metering" and adjusting my aperture and shutter speed until the metering was center and the exposure came out better. What do you guys think of the second picture? The only edit I've done to both pictures is converting to Jpeg and resizing for the web

[sinitry23]

Too bad the XTi does not have spot metering. Which metering should I use?

1. Evaluative metering
2. Partial metering
3. Center-weighted average metering

Those three are my option for metering on the XTi 400d. Which one comes close to spot metering?

[AdamW]

Another reason the picture of your dog is underexposed is because it's a white dog. The camera was metering for that white and attempting to expose properly. This is the same problem people often have photographing snow. The camera tries to prevent "blowing" that white, thus underexposing the entire thing. For subjects that are all or mostly white, you'll need to deliberately overexpose a bit.

I'll go have a cup of coffee and give someone else a chance to explain this more clearly.

[AdamW]

Too bad the XTi does not have spot metering. Which metering should I use?

1. Evaluative metering
2. Partial metering
3. Center-weighted average metering

Those three are my option for metering on the XTi 400d. Which one comes close to spot metering?

Partial metering can be thought of as a fat spot. It's 9% instead of the standard 3-4% for spot. The difference is quite small.

[pagnamenta]

AdamW did a great job explaining. If I was in this situation, I would have used partial metering and set the exposure comp. for +2/3 or so. If you're doing this this in manual mode, then get your settings so that the needle is to the right of the middle.

Basically the camera used a faster shutter speed so that you exposed the dog correctly. Because the dog is sort of white, the camera needed a higher shutter speed. If you dog was black, the camera would have used a longer shutter speed to "properly expose."

Your second image looks okay on my computer. It seems you were exposing for the middle ground, not the speaker. If you want more detail in your speaker, meter for it, you'll get a longer shutter speed, but the background will be too bright.

[24Peter]

Where is your EV compensation set? Look in the eyepiece viewfinder when you half-press the shutter button. Where does the little arrow fall on the scale along the bottom? If it's less than zero you have the camera set to underexpose (its easy to knock this setting off by accident).

Also I remember when the XTi first came out and when I did this shoot with one http://imageevent.com/24peter/lisamichelle the camera routinely underexposed shots on it's own. Does anyone know if Canon did a firmware fix for this?