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#1
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
I just bought a Nikon D80 DSLR. I have taken 35mm photos for years using my
1979 vintage Nikon FE. I decided it was time to go digital so I bought the D80. I've mainly been taking photos for right now with the camera making most of the settings. I hate to say it, but I am not at all pleased with the flash photos this camera is taking. Every flash photo I've taken, and I've played around with different metering settings, different white balance settings, etc., has been dark and appears to be underexposed. This is the case even in the fully green auto mode when the camera makes all the settings. The photos actually look good in the camera display, but when they are uploaded to a computer, they really look dark. Is this the best I can expect from this $1200 camera, or what? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks for any help. |
#2
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
wrote in message ... I just bought a Nikon D80 DSLR. I have taken 35mm photos for years using my 1979 vintage Nikon FE. I decided it was time to go digital so I bought the D80. I've mainly been taking photos for right now with the camera making most of the settings. I hate to say it, but I am not at all pleased with the flash photos this camera is taking. Every flash photo I've taken, and I've played around with different metering settings, different white balance settings, etc., has been dark and appears to be underexposed. This is the case even in the fully green auto mode when the camera makes all the settings. The photos actually look good in the camera display, but when they are uploaded to a computer, they really look dark. Is this the best I can expect from this $1200 camera, or what? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks for any help. Which flash are you using? Which lens are you using? If you are using the built in flash, it is very easy to get dark pictures. If you are using the SB600 with a dome diffuser, then all should be well even with a slow lens like the 18-70 zoom. I have found that my D70 does tend to under expose by about a stop. You should avoid judging exposure with the LCD. Instead look at the histogram. If the histogram shows underexposure, then you as the photographer have to do something. Jim |
#3
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
High end digital is a different animal than film.
For best results you should be willing to learn to make tweaks to the image, preferably using raw. If you prefer P&S ("you press the shutter, we do the rest" paradigm) there is no reason to lug around a chunky dSLR and lens. In general, with digital, slight underexposure is preferable as digital capture has essentially zero overexposure latitude but can preserve detail with reasonable noise for about 1.5 stops underexposure. I assure you the D80 is a magnificent camera once you learn how to use it with basic image processing. If your jpegs, and you should learn to use this camera with raw capture if you want to see what it really can do, are coming off the camera underexposed then there is something amiss in your work flow. While I do not use jpeg one of the D80's selling points is the strength and variability of its jpeg options. With NX you can incorporate some of these options into your raw work flow. If you are shooting raw and your image look a bit dark on first opening in the raw converter that may simply be a matter of creating your own basic profile. |
#4
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
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#5
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
On Jan 1, 9:29 pm, wrote:
I just bought a Nikon D80 DSLR. I have taken 35mm photos for years using my 1979 vintage Nikon FE. I decided it was time to go digital so I bought the D80. I've mainly been taking photos for right now with the camera making most of the settings. I hate to say it, but I am not at all pleased with the flash photos this camera is taking. Every flash photo I've taken, and I've played around with different metering settings, different white balance settings, etc., has been dark and appears to be underexposed. This is the case even in the fully green auto mode when the camera makes all the settings. The photos actually look good in the camera display, but when they are uploaded to a computer, they really look dark. Is this the best I can expect from this $1200 camera, or what? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks for any help. I have a Nikon 8400 I bought several years ago. I adjust the settings so the picture looks good or bright on the LCD on the camera. After the I take a picture I will zoom in 10x on the LCD to review the picture and every detail including eyes look stunning. But on the computer it looks and prints way too dark, even the computer at the camera store shows dark pictures. Especially with the external flash SB600 or with both the SB 600 & Metz 45 both in TTL or any mode the pictures are too dark. I had at least 3 years to try every setting including slow shutter, every megapixel, raw, every saturation, film speed, exposure compensation and metering mode. I thought since it was a Nikon it had to be a good camera. A bright vivid accurate picture with detail cannot be made. With software the pictures can be made printable, but nothing to be proud of, more like ashamed of. I recently bought Panasonic Lumix 10x pocket camera, to take far away shots without flash and unexpected shots that come up. The Panasonic prints straight out of the camera bright, vivid and accurate even at 280 mm, no software touch ups at all. I still need a camera to take great flash photos, but 3 years of my life has passed with so, so photos. My recommendation is to take the "Nikon" camera back to the store or send it in for warranty as fast as you can, don't get stuck with it. |
#6
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
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#7
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
On Jan 1, 9:29 pm, wrote:
I just bought a Nikon D80 DSLR. I have taken 35mm photos for years using my 1979 vintage Nikon FE. I decided it was time to go digital so I bought the D80. I've mainly been taking photos for right now with the camera making most of the settings. I hate to say it, but I am not at all pleased with the flash photos this camera is taking. Every flash photo I've taken, and I've played around with different metering settings, different white balance settings, etc., has been dark and appears to be underexposed. This is the case even in the fully green auto mode when the camera makes all the settings. The photos actually look good in the camera display, but when they are uploaded to a computer, they really look dark. Is this the best I can expect from this $1200 camera, or what? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks for any help. Two things, as one other poster said if you are going to use the D80 on full auto, why did you buy it? But use what you have learned about photography to master the camera. With my D200 the most auto I get is auto aperture, I mostly use it on manual, shooting RAW. Digital is just another film with its own characteristics, under exposure saves you from blowing highlights, but can bite you with excess noise, so there is a spot where you can save highlights and have good noise characteristics, you just have to find it. Then when shooting higher ISO (above 800) you want to loose some hightlights to surpress the noise. expose to the right on the histogram. Learning to use a histogram can be a big thing in digital photography, your camera can display one with every shot. About flash, most on camera flashes are fairly low powered, not suitable for subjects over 12 ft away, sometimes not even that. Have a big room and you loose more light. If you need more punch you have to go to one of the external flash units. I still use my old Metz 45CT1 with my D200, works quite well. The Nikon SB 800 or 600 seem to be good units, I still have a preference for Metz, but mine has worked so well for so long that I'm not familiar with current models. Tom |
#8
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
The first thing that you need to do is calibrate your monitor so you can
be*sure that what you're seeing on it is accurate. If your monitor is way out of calibration, that may be why your photos are looking too dark when viewed on your computer but look OK on the camera's LCD screen. Until you calibrate your monitor, you can't really make an accurate assessment of your camera's exposure, IMO. John |
#9
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
John D. wrote:
The first thing that you need to do is calibrate your monitor so you can be sure that what you're seeing on it is accurate. If your monitor is way out of calibration, that may be why your photos are looking too dark when viewed on your computer but look OK on the camera's LCD screen. Until you calibrate your monitor, you can't really make an accurate assessment of your camera's exposure, IMO. John Agreed. I find this page helpful: http://www.jasc.com/support/kb/articles/monitor.asp I use as a quick check it for setting the gain and offset (or contrast and "brightness" in monitor-speak), and wrote my own program for display testing: http://www.david-taylor.myby.co.uk/s...html#GreyScale which shows how near the full-black and full-white you can see small brightness differences. Cheers, David |
#10
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Nikon D80 Dark or Underexposed Photos
For indoor social flash photography (gatherings, partys, ....) I set the
camera to "P", ISO 400 and the SB600 to +0.7 stops output. The results are bright, fairly wide dynamic range shots straight out the camera. Happy New Year |
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