Pictures on the LCD screen look way brighter than they really are

<p>Hello,<br>

I am having an issue where images on the LCD screen of my 7D look way brighter than they really are, meaning when I go to process the RAW file in light room.</p>

<p>Last night I was shooting at a fair while people I was with were on rides, and the pictures looked really amazing on the LCD screen, but then when I went to process them this morning, many of them were really dark.</p>

<p>Does the LCD screen apply some sort of processing to them before showing? It really messes me up because I am still learning how to shoot in low light situations so I was depending on the screen to adjust settings as I went. I was able to adjust the exposure and fill light in light room without losing too much image quality but it was still unnerving to see how different the images looked.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>You should turn on the histogram on the camera and use that, it is more accurate then viewing the screen for exposure</p>

<p>The rear LCD is not really intended to be a reliable indicator of the brightness (or the colors) of the actual capture. Making this even more the case, you may have noticed that on many more recent cameras the LCD brightness changes in response to the ambient light. </p>

<p>You mentioned photographing at the fair at night - and this makes the reliance on the LCD even more problematic. First, the scene brightness is auto-adjusting to compensate for the darkness, and most likely decreasing the overall screen brightness. (The camera will increase the brightness in very bright surroundings.) Second, When you look at the screen image of night photographs you will think that they look much like what you actually see when you look directly at the subject - in other words, fairly dark. But that is almost certainly not what you want in your exposures. You will likely end up underexposing, perhaps grossly, and end up having to boost the brightness of the underexposed images in post. Making this even worse, you are probably shooting at higher ISO values, which lead to more noise... and this noise becomes even more obvious when you "lighten" the image in post.</p>

<p>(I learned this the hard way on my first DSLR. I was doing night photography under the full moon at the Racetrack in the back-country of Death Valley. I looked at the LCD and thought that what I saw was a fair representation of the actual scene. When I later worked with the raw files I discovered that they were grossly underexposed, and some could not be recovered with sufficient quality.)</p>

<p>As David pointed out, the histogram display gives you a much better idea of the exposure levels, though it is important to learn how to "read" that as well, and probably to use it in conjunction with the blinking highlight display.</p>

<p>Dan</p>

<p>Google this. There a a great deal on the web about it. The LCD is showing a jpg thumbnail, using whatever picture style you have set. There are neutral settings that will make it closer, but the bottom line is that you simply can't get an accurate view of exposure from the image on it. First, set the picture style to get the most accurate histogram. Here is one posting about this: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/right-hista.shtml. Then use the histogram, not the appearance of the image.</p>

<p>@ Dan Mitchell</p>

<p>"You will likely end up underexposing, perhaps grossly, and end up having to boost the brightness of the underexposed images in post. Making this even worse, you are probably shooting at higher ISO values, which lead to more noise... and this noise becomes even more obvious when you "lighten" the image in post."</p>

<p>This is exactly what happened, but most of them weren't so bad that brightening in light room and using luminance to fix the noise couldn't mostly fix them.</p>

<p>It looks like I will have to learn to read histograms correctly..</p>

<p>The LCD has a little light in the back which brightens up the image. Just imagine putting a small flash light on the back of a slide, or actually putting a slide on a light table, this is exactly what the LCD does. I agree with previous posters that it is better to look at the histogram if you have the time. I have had several bad experiences(mostly in low light) where I thought the picture was alright by looking at the LCD, only to find out it was way underexposed and fixing it in PP would only aggravate the situation. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>better to look at the histogram if you have the time</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I think it takes less time. you know instantly whether your exposure is where you want it, rather than having to try to figure it out from a small graphic.</p>

<p>When you have one particularly intense color, particularly red, it is better to set the camera to show the histograms for all three color channels. This is because it is very easy to blow out one channel (in my experience, usually red) even when the overall histogram looks just dandy.</p>

 

<p>I have my screen set at the mark just below the highest light available on the LCD. It appears to me to be closest to real light. I noticed also that my new camera has better resolution than my past so the photos look so dang good it takes your breath away. Then you go home open them to real size and they aren't as fabulous. So lcd resotution may be the difference, and also the picture you see in the screen is the jpg rendition, so it will look alot sharper and better than your raw photos. I chose the screen/histogram combo for my 8 second review. A quick glance at the histogram and the photo tells me if its ok.</p>

<p>In a dark environment the pictures on the LCD appear to be brighter because they eye and brain adjust to the ambient light and the screen does not. You should be aware of this and use the histogram. You can also adjust the brightness of the screen for conditions but I'm not sure how practical this is in real world - I would certainly forget to reset it.</p>

<p>Andrew, have you considered turning down the LCD brightness on the 7D?</p>

<p>2 things, both of which have probably been addressed above.</p>

<p>1) Your LCD brightness can fool you into thinking you have proper exposure. I usually set mine to the middle setting, not all the way bright.</p>

<p>2) LR strips RAW files of all color settings put onto the image by the camera processor, hence the "RAW" file. If you want to maintain your camera's color profiles, open the files in Canon DPP. There isn't as much flexibility as LR, but they will look the same as what you see on the LCD. Once you learn how to manipulate the settings in LR you will be able to make the RAW files look BETTER than what you see on the LCD.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the suggestions....<br>

I read a bunch on histograms and when I went out shooting this morning, relied solely on that for exposure and it worked perfectly when comparing inside of light room!</p>