Have you been disappointed by the photos taken at your last day at the beach? That is one of the risks of using your camera in full automatic mode. The bright light of the sun reflecting off the sand gives the camera’s meter a false reading for more light than there really is, so your beach shots, and the people in them, come out dark and muddy.
And if you were shooting a very dark subject, as I often do with my black labs, the image may come out too bright and washed out. Again, this is caused by a false reading because of the dark subject.
The way to fix that is by using your exposure compensation settings. At the beach, to compensate for the camera’s tendency to underexpose the scene, you should increase it by a half stop or so. For a dark scene, like my labs, you should decrease it by that same amount. Don’t know where your exposure compensation (also known as EV) dial is? Check your manual.
I was ready to prepare my own tutorial, but once again I have found that the PhotoTuts site has offered a great tutorial on exposure compensation, demonstrated by the surprising challenges of photos at the beach. Check it out here–and take a close look at how the histogram can provide you valuable information.
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