I am new to the Sony. Shooting with AE on, photos in sunlight come out dark and need to be photoshopped to lighten. Indoor flash and macro just great, although flash is a little bright. The outdoor thing concerns me... clear blue sky, sunny, noon. Pictures look like dusk before they are lightened via computer. I think I am missing something. Can anyone help me? I shoot in P, with everything at default. What would happen if I used polarizing filter as I have wanted to do to bring out more color...? I wouldn't be able to see anything...
joecichjr@earthlink.net (if you have any responses - THANKS!)
I think what you're experiencing is the limited dynamic range of digital cameras - the sky is a lot brighter than the landscape in your outdoor shots. The camera can correctly expose the bright sky OR the background, not both.
In such situations you will need a graduated neutral density filter, or use a tripod and shoot two different exposures - one for the sky and one for the landscape, then combine them in Photoshop.
:)atwl
edit: Posting some samples together with EXIF data would help us give better suggestions/comments.
Yeah, post some examples with the exposure information. Make sure that your exposure compensation is set to 0, too...if you're shooting at -2 then your shots will naturally be two stops underexposed. Turn it to the green point-and-shoot mode and take some shots with it and see if that changes anything.
