Inconsistent Exposure with K200D

Hi All

I'm rather frustrated with the eractic expose of my K200D, they are either heavily underexposed or overexposed with me constantly in Photoshop to correct them. The only time it seems to give consistent results is when I use a manual lens with manual exposure. I did change the brightness and contrast to +1 in the function menu, but if anything it appears to be worse. Has anybody any ideas as to the cause or maybe camera settings which can be changed to improve things.

Most problems of this kind are due to the user not fully understanding the way the camera meters the light.

What metering setting do you normally use? Spot, multi-segment or centre-weighted?

G

Accidentally being set to spot metering can cause problems if the user doesn't understand the techniques needed. This is why the original Spotmatic came to market without its spot meter and with averageing metering instead,

Better to dial in EV compensation than extra brightness/contrast, which will just affect the processing of the file rather than the actual exposure.

I find a rather general tendency to slightly underexpose on my K200D. I program in +0.5 EV and on critical shots, check the histogram carefully. If you do this often, you get a good idea of how your cameras metering responds and when to make adjustments.

I prefer the histogram as far to the right as possible, without clipping. A small amount of burned highlights is recoverable in RAW converter software, but correcting underexposure will increase noise substantially.

Hi

I do confess this maybe be down to me as I do have the metering set to spot and I must admit I was unaware this would require a different technique. Sorry I'm a bit green with digital camera settings and techniques at the moment, hence joining the forum to help improve my understanding. Which setting would be advisable for general photography with a wide variety of subjects?

I would suggest use Matrix metering to start with and perhaps Centre weighted when you are more familiar with what the camera is doing.

Hi John

Thanks for the advice, looking forward to the weekend with renewed enthusiasm, now I've seen the error of my ways

Regards

Spot metering means that the camera is measuring the light from a small spot in the middle of the picture.

If you are photographing two dogs, one black and one white, then you will get massively different results depending upon whether you are pointing the camera at one dog or the other, or a point in between.

As JR says, use matrix (multi-segment) metering until you feel more adventurous.

G

Hi George

Thanks for the explanation, that would account for my widely different exposures. When photographing static objects the exposure would normally be fine but when photographing motosport at my local circuit (Mallory Park)this in when the problems arose. Multi-segment it is then, should'nt be long before my work is on the cover of Motosport

Thanks again for the help and info.

In my example, you'd only need one dog if it were a Dalmation!

I mentioned here before, long ago, a thread on another forum where somebody announced that his meter was faulty,and the camera was going back to Pentax. He posted some pictures to prove his point.

An examination of the EXIF data showed he was using spot metering. He was photographing a boy in a white shirt and dark trousers jumping repeatedly out of a tree in a forest glade illuminated in parts by shafts of bright sunlight. What was not illuminated was inky black.

You can imagine how the pictures came out.

G

If the weather is consistent why not use manual?
Just make some test shot till you get the exposure right and you don't need to adjust after that if the weather stays the same and the exposure is very consistent.

About the metering, the meter tries to get a grey exposure so to say so it makes black into grey and white into grey as well, if you have both it will balance them out.
If the meter first meters the dark asphalt with one photo and the bright motorbike with the next one you get a different exposure value with both shots. Matrix meters the whole frame, you could also use the other metering which meters also the whole frame but on the old way... forgot the name of that metering
It meters the whole frame but use 100% of the middle and weakens off to the edge of the frame.

"Centre weighted" Stefan.

Thank you John that's the one

But really Neil use manual on the track and get the shutterspeed right to pan your shots properly.
When you have the exposure right but the shutterspeed is to long or to short, press the exposure lock button (forgot the name again :blush
It will lock the exposure so if you change the shutterspeed it will change the F-number properly to maintain the exposure, very handy