topic Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images in Cyber-shot compact cameras

DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

kellygriffin — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 18:43:37 GMT

Hello,

I have a Cyber-shot DSC-HX60, and all of my images come out very dark, no mater what the light conditions are. I have tried to figure out what the issue might be, and trouble shot using the manual, but nothing I try works. I am having to edit all of my images manually to ligten them. Does anyone have any idea how to solve this problem,

Thanks

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

IamNic — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 19:27:33 GMT

Hello @kellygriffin,

which mode do you shoot in and what are your current settings (e.g. exposure, ISO...)

- Nic

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

kellygriffin — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 14:37:30 GMT

Hello Nic @IamNic,

Many thanks for you response. I am not great with the technical side of photography, but think I have the mode "Intelligent Auto", with the exposure set at 0, and the ISO is set at "ISO AUTO".

Do you have any ideas on what I should do? Is a change of settings required. For your information, I photograph inanimate objects, normally on a white or black background, in natural light.

Regards

Kelly

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

IamNic — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 16:28:54 GMT

Hi @kellygriffin,

the three dots inside the bracket were meant as "other".

It would be very helpful, if you would add your other settings (aperture, exposure time) as well.

- Nic

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

kellygriffin — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 16:40:50 GMT

@IamNic,

I am sorry to be a complete idiot, but where do I look to find these settings? Every other camera I have had was pretty simple to set up, then just point and shoot, so this is all new to me.

Thanks

Kelly

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

IamNic — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 20:07:14 GMT

Hi @kellygriffin,

normally "Disp" shows the settings the camera is currently using.

- Nic

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

kellygriffin — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 12:03:30 GMT

@IamNic

Hello,

This is an image of my current display screen, can you suggest any settings that may need changing, that would help the images to come out lighter?

Many thanks,

Kelly

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

IamNic — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 20:42:15 GMT

Hi there @kellygriffin,

sorry for the late response.

Unless the lighting around the object you are trying to photograph is very bad, I would be surprised, if the image cam out too dark with these settings.

Your aperture is opened wide enough (F3.5), you expose the image long enough (1/6th of a second) and the ISO is also set to a medium high value, which ensures your image doesn't get digital grain yet.

Would you mind to upload a few images to your next reply, which in your opinion cam out too dark?

Also I would like to know where you view the images (on the cameras display/tablet/PC/MAC), since at least for the camera and a tablet/smartphone it could be, that the screen brightness is set too low.

- Nic

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

kellygriffin — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 10:20:32 GMT

Hello @IamNic

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, as I was away from home for a few days.

I am viewing my images on a PC monitor, and other images that I view online are not dark, so it isn't the brightness settings.

Please find imges, to first one has been edited to lighten, the second is the original image as taken. As you can see it comes out very dark, and I need it to be closer to the edited version. Do you have any suggestions?

Regards

Kelly

Same Image taken, but lightened using a editing tool.Original image taken with current settings

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

kellygriffin — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 10:23:59 GMT

@IamNic

This is an image of the same item taken with my old camera (which old works intermittently, hense buying the DSC-HX60) and as you can see this is much lighter with no need for editing.

This is an image of the same item, taken with my old camera.

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

IamNic — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 14:29:53 GMT

Hi @kellygriffin,

to be honest - I should have asked you to upload sample images in my first post.

I totally forgot, that the EXIF data stored in the images could help me identify the issue better then letting you take photos of your cameras display.

What I could read from the EXIF data is the following:

Resolution:

The new Sony camera shoots images at 5 times the resolution. (Sony 20.16MPx - Canon 4.02MPx)

That means the light entering the lens gets read out by fewer sensor pixels on the Sony, which results in a lower light intensity for each individual sensor pixel.

Aperture:

The aperture on the Canon is opened a little bit more. (Canon F/2.8 - Sony F/3.5)

That means that more light enters the camera on the Canon, than on the Sony.

ISO:

The ISO on the Canon camera is set to four times as high as on the Sony camera. (Canon 400 - Sony 100)

That means the image on the Canon camera gets boosted four times more digitally than the image on the Sony camera.

Exposure time:

That one has me puzzled.

The Canon lists 1/800th of a second as exposure time, the Sony lists 1/30th of a second as exposure time.

Meaning the Sony camera exposes nearly 32 times as long as the Canon camera and still the images look darker?

Normally the at the listed settings the Canon would give you a darker image.

I made some test shots with the same settings on my a57 camera, just to illustrate what I mean (all settings match except the aperture, since I can't match it with the lens I use).

Canon equivalent:

Canon PowerShot G11 equivalentSony equivalent:

Sony DSC-HX60 equivalentI hope I didn't make any mistake while thinking about it, yet to me it doesn't make sense, why the DSC-HX60s image comes out much darker.

The effect of having a higher pixel count sensor wouldn't cause that much of a difference, neither would opening the aperture a little bit more.

The last thing which comes to mind are the lighting conditions.

If you use natural light (sunlight) which comes trough a window and the Canons image was shot in perfect conditions, while the Sonys image was shot during dawn or dusk, it could be the explanation.

For my sample images I used the same exact lighting settings on my two studio lights.

Maybe someone from the German community ( @ReneBeukert. or @r_a_n_i ) could take a look at this (I don't know who the photographers on the UK community are unfortunately).

I am more of a videographer and don't know that much about photography.

It would be overly embarassing, if something of the things I told you is wrong due to my lack of photography background knowledge.

- Nic

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

kellygriffin — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 11:37:21 GMT

Thanks for your help @IamNic ,

The photos were taken at different times so I understand that different natrual light can make a difference, but the dark images appear to happen at all times, even when images are taken on a bright and sunny day, I still have to edit. One thing I have noticed is that images taken with a black background don't seem to have this problem, but when taken on white they do?

Otherwise I will just have to continue as I am, and have to spend the extra time editing the lighting afterwards.

Regards

Kelly

Betreff: DSC-HX60 - Dark Images

IamNic — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 23:26:18 GMT

Hi there @kellygriffin,

it could be, that the camera measures the average brightness of the whole sensor area, which causes image infront of a dark background to come out lighter than with the white background.

Sadly I don't know if your camera has this setting and how it is called in english.

You would need to set it to "center" or something similar to evaluate brightness only on the subject in the center of the frame.

- Nic