How do I get brilliant color without over-exposing?

Question

I'm new to the SLR world and have been having so much fun with my new Cannon Rebel Xti. I'm feeling comfortable with the manual settings now, but am still having trouble with getting the colors the way I want them. Either I'm over-exposed and bright colors wash out, or I'm under-exposed and color looks dreary. I have the amazing book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson that has helped tons, but I'm wondering if there's a better book that might help me with my dilemma. Is my shutter speed wrong? ISO setting? Aperture? All of the above? Any tips or references will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

in the camera you have the ability to push or pull your exposure. when you pull or push you get more shadows or highlights, thus allowing you to get more color and details in the photograph. SEtting the apeture for a 22 f/stop and allowing the shutter speed to be appropreat for the lighting, set the ISO for the appropreate weather conditions you cant get awesome detail, sharp and infocus shots, awesome shadows and highlights. Brackett each shot, to the negative,. right on, and to the positive. In photoshop you can enhance with over exposure to accent color dramtically.

Answer 2

I know when I first started out I didn't know how to read my light meter ... it definately helped when I figured that out! :) Just in case that's the problem, the needle or little lights or whatever have to be RIGHT in the middle of the light meter, not above or below. :) :) :)

Make sure your ISO setting is right - if it's wrong your prints can look yellowish and the colors all kind of blend together ... I usually use 200, 400, or 800 speed film, depending on the lighting conditions. I haven't gotten the chance to use anything else yet, but I like 400 the best.

Be careful of bright light, even if it is perfectly or near perfectly exposed the lighting in and of itself can change or wash out the colors. Same thing with dark situations. My flash is broken, so I never use it, and I don't miss it. Using a flash in dark conditions can really destroy the colors in a picture.

If none of this works and you're still having problems, your light meter is saying you don't have enough light for a picture at all, or you expose it exactlty like it tells you but your pictures are coming out wrong, check your batteries, then get your light meter checked out. There could be something wrong with it (like there is with mine ...)

Answer 3

Adobe Photoshop or Elements will help. Shooting digital is different from shooting negatives, and similar to slides. You can slightly underexpose and bring up levels in PS. Overexposing causes blown highlights, areas where no information was captured. Shoot, and check the histogram or the "winky-blinkys" to detect blown highlights. If needed, back off a bit. You can use the exposure compensation for this.

In digital and slides, you shoot for the highlights and let the shadows fall where they may. In negative film, you can shoot for shadows instead. Negative film has more latitude than slide film, or digital, and hence will tolerate overexposure. In fact, many wedding film photographers routinely rate 400 speed film at 360 or even slower to boost the saturation in the final print.

I use Nikon, but the Rebel may have some saturation adjustment in the camera menu. If so, you can try giving the saturation a boost and see if that helps.

Most dSLR users plan to do some post processing in one or another image working program. That's just the way it is!

Good luck and enjoy your camera!