Contrast Issue? Advice please?

[ywouldi]

Bought a Casio Exlim Z500 a few days ago, it was bought mainly for photos at night in pubs, clubs etc at which it is performing exactly how I wanted. In the day however the photos are just too dark. Using Picassa from google and adjusting the fill light level brings the photos to a much better level. Basically I cannot be bothered with modifying the photos each time unless it's a particuarly good one. What setting in the camera would change the fill light level? Is it contrast as I have the contrast at +1 currently?

Heres an example:

From camera:

Modified by increasing the fill light level to half way in Picassa


TIA

Ben

[scalper]

It looks like you were shooting into the sun and that the camera's meter was fouled by the extremely bright reflection on the water.
A bit of exposure compensation and/or fill flash would have given you a correctly exposed shot

[GetCarter]

Agreed... that is a very tricky exposure for any camera. Most compact digitals (I assume that's what it is) pay most attention to the centre of the frame - which in your photo is VERY bright - thus the dark bits get underexposed.

As mentioned, Fill in flash would fix it

>> Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 27th April 21:21

[LongQ]

My youngest has an Exilim Z57 which, from memory, is about one model down from the Z500.

It has a lot of different pre-sets for various types of photo subject matter and lighting conditions, especially 'surf and snow' where light can be very tricky to deal with. If the sample shot is typical of the sort of daylight things you have tried with it you may need to adjust the settings.

Exposures at night time in pubs and clubs will tend to be less prone to evident problems providing there is not excessive red-eye or skin tone compromise. The results will generally be dependent on the flash's ability and tonal range will be compromised (by comparison with daylight) as a consequence. However this is mostly hidden in the shadows.

Have a look at the options on the presets and try a few that may relate to the subject matter and lighting conditions you are shooting in to see if the results can be improved. I would be surprised if you needed to set a higher contrast in the camera for regular use so it may also be worth setting that back to 0 to see it provides the improvement you want.

On my screen you un-adjusted example looks about right for the nature of the subject and shot. On the adjusted one the highlights on the water are very blown.

[ywouldi]

I probably used a bad example photo but all outdoors ones turn out just that little bit dark so as I lose the feel of the days light. The adjusted shot certainly captures the intensity of the daylight, but yeah, I see what you mean about blown highlights.

Ben

[LongQ]

As it happens I just bought a Z600 today for Mrs. LongQ - ignoring the excellent suggestions in a recent thread!

Reason was simple. The screen is the sort of size she wanted and the price was right at Jessops this weekend so, all in all, it seemed like a starter bargain too good to miss at £150. Especially with a claim for excellent battery life and an anti-shake facility. It's also very light and so readily handbagable.

Now, I may be able to get my mitts on it for a few shots in the next few days, tho' I don't want to be accused of buying it for myself so I will have to find and excuse. I'll see if I can find some sun - today would have been good - and try to emulate the outdoor shots and see what results I get.