20D Grey Highlights At ISO 1600

Hi. I have just been viewing some photos I shot indoors, but have noticed
that the highlights seem to be grey! Anyone else experienced this?

The photos were shot on a 20D. All the shots at ISO 800 and lower seem OK.

"Giulia" wrote in message
...
Hi. I have just been viewing some photos I shot indoors, but have noticed
that the highlights seem to be grey! Anyone else experienced this?

The photos were shot on a 20D. All the shots at ISO 800 and lower seem
OK.



The contrast range of 20D at the running man idiot setting of 3200 ISO is
about 60% of the range at 100 ISO. I can only presume the range at 800 ISO
is somewhere less than 80% . Add this to shooting JPG and you'll lose the
highlights and the shadow detail and get exactly what you have.

Douglas

"Giulia" wrote in message
...
Hi. I have just been viewing some photos I shot indoors, but have noticed
that the highlights seem to be grey! Anyone else experienced this?

The photos were shot on a 20D. All the shots at ISO 800 and lower seem
OK.



The contrast range of 20D at the running man idiot setting of 3200 ISO is
about 60% of the range at 100 ISO. I can only presume the range at 800 ISO
is somewhere less than 80% . Add this to shooting JPG and you'll lose the
highlights and the shadow detail and get exactly what you have.

Douglas

You have underexposed. Use photoshop, go to levels, and adjust the grey so
that it becomes white. You will lose some tonality doing this, so next time
you should correctly expose the photo when you take it by using the partial
metering on the white, and increasing exposure by 1 or 2 stops.

Duncan.

"Giulia" wrote in message
...
Hi. I have just been viewing some photos I shot indoors, but have noticed
that the highlights seem to be grey! Anyone else experienced this?

The photos were shot on a 20D. All the shots at ISO 800 and lower seem
OK.

Thank you Duncan (and Douglas) for your posts.

You are right. I increased the exposure by 0.2 and the grey highlights
disappeared.

Unfortunately, in this situation I was shooting in low light, with a long
focal length and a fast moving subject (my nephew!), so increasing exposure
by 1 or 2 stops would have caused motion blur.

Thank you for your advise, it is greatly appreciated.

Please excuse my ignorance, but it there a way to detect this when shooting?
The histogram looked OK (although little detail at the high end). Also, the
photo looked fine on LCD, it was only when viewed on computer that it was
visible. Maybe spot metering (although 20D doesn't really have spot
metering)?




"Duncan J Murray"

wrote in message ...
You have underexposed. Use photoshop, go to levels, and adjust the grey
so
that it becomes white. You will lose some tonality doing this, so next
time
you should correctly expose the photo when you take it by using the
partial
metering on the white, and increasing exposure by 1 or 2 stops.

Duncan.



"Giulia" wrote in message
...
Hi. I have just been viewing some photos I shot indoors, but have
noticed
that the highlights seem to be grey! Anyone else experienced this?

The photos were shot on a 20D. All the shots at ISO 800 and lower seem
OK.

"Giulia" wrote in message
...
Thank you Duncan (and Douglas) for your posts.

You are right. I increased the exposure by 0.2 and the grey highlights
disappeared.

Unfortunately, in this situation I was shooting in low light, with a long
focal length and a fast moving subject (my nephew!), so increasing
exposure
by 1 or 2 stops would have caused motion blur.

Thank you for your advise, it is greatly appreciated.

Please excuse my ignorance, but it there a way to detect this when
shooting?
The histogram looked OK (although little detail at the high end). Also,
the
photo looked fine on LCD, it was only when viewed on computer that it was
visible. Maybe spot metering (although 20D doesn't really have spot
metering)?
---------------
Spot metering... Hmmm. Canon's metering on a 20D is a little strange for
many people. The way it focuses (out of the box) is odd too. Those little
squares in the viewfinder are all active for focus and exposure at Canon's
default settings and this is detrimental to good photography.

How it works (focus wise) is which ever square finds the closest part of the
subject becomes the active square so your pictures may or may not be focused
properly. It will however always focus on the closest object it detects.
Focus on a face with f2.8 and the nose will be in focus but the eyes out of
focus.

With exposure, all the squares are read and averaged so that the whole
picture is exposed at a reading which will result in incorrect exposure with
all but flash. Personally I've never found any use for this ridicilous
method of metering. I set the metering to the single centre point and use
the toggle to change it if this doesn't pickup what it is I'm metering on.

My experience is that although many people here report the 20D as a fine
camera, the two I bought were not actually as convienient to use and produce
as well exposed and focused results as my earlier 10D did and (shock horror)
as sharp a shot as my trusty old SD9 Sigma does!

Douglas

Douglas wrote:
"Giulia" wrote in message
...

Thank you Duncan (and Douglas) for your posts.

You are right. I increased the exposure by 0.2 and the grey highlights
disappeared.

Unfortunately, in this situation I was shooting in low light, with a long
focal length and a fast moving subject (my nephew!), so increasing
exposure
by 1 or 2 stops would have caused motion blur.

Thank you for your advise, it is greatly appreciated.

Please excuse my ignorance, but it there a way to detect this when
shooting?
The histogram looked OK (although little detail at the high end). Also,
the
photo looked fine on LCD, it was only when viewed on computer that it was
visible. Maybe spot metering (although 20D doesn't really have spot
metering)?
---------------

Spot metering... Hmmm. Canon's metering on a 20D is a little strange for
many people. The way it focuses (out of the box) is odd too. Those little
squares in the viewfinder are all active for focus and exposure at Canon's
default settings and this is detrimental to good photography.

How it works (focus wise) is which ever square finds the closest part of the
subject becomes the active square so your pictures may or may not be focused
properly. It will however always focus on the closest object it detects.
Focus on a face with f2.8 and the nose will be in focus but the eyes out of
focus.

With exposure, all the squares are read and averaged so that the whole
picture is exposed at a reading which will result in incorrect exposure with
all but flash. Personally I've never found any use for this ridicilous
method of metering. I set the metering to the single centre point and use
the toggle to change it if this doesn't pickup what it is I'm metering on.

My experience is that although many people here report the 20D as a fine
camera, the two I bought were not actually as convienient to use and produce
as well exposed and focused results as my earlier 10D did and (shock horror)
as sharp a shot as my trusty old SD9 Sigma does!

Douglas


Thought that the 20D does have the spot metering???
As for the AF, it is always set to the center AF point on my 300D.
I never use the remaining AF points.

Please excuse my ignorance, but it there a way to detect this when
shooting?
The histogram looked OK (although little detail at the high end). Also,
the
photo looked fine on LCD, it was only when viewed on computer that it was
visible. Maybe spot metering (although 20D doesn't really have spot
metering)?

We're all ignorant!

From what I have heard, the LCD screen is good for checking sharpness, but
it is often not calibrated correctly for looking at colour/tone.

The 20D has partial metering, which will be fine for this. Basically, and
this is the hardest part of photograph (in my opinion), you need to meter
from a particular area (preferably all the same tone), and then 'select' how
that area will turn out on the image by adjusting the exposure up or down.
For highlights (things that are meant to be white) you need to increase
exposure. For slide film, it's just over 1 stop (i.e. double the time of
exposure), for digital, I think it's about the same.

You could try out some experiments using your partial metering and
bracketing over a 6 stop range, in half stops, using partial metering. That
way you'll find out just about where different compensation values will lie
on the tone curve.

If you don't get any of the above, do say.

Duncan.

Hi,
Questions specific to the 20D and what its sensor can do don't belong
in this group.
Thanks!

Matt Clara wrote:
Hi,
Questions specific to the 20D and what its sensor can do don't
belong
in this group.
Thanks!

What group is that?