SL2 - My pics keep getting blown out despite settings not overexposed

[Kitch D]

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Hi there, 

I have an SL2 and I typically shoot on S. If I reset my camera the shot seems to be OK, however, over time my pics keep getting blown out and I can see this happening in the display or view finder as I am taking the shot. It's so strange, it's like I've set the exposure far too high when I haven't. Also when a sky is in the pic the sky is totally blown out and grey at times too. I've only recently upgraded to this Leica and previously shot on a canon, however, this issue never happened on a canon so it's quite strange. I would love some help as I can't keep resetting my camera to fix this issue. Thanks in advance. 

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[jaapv]

This is rather weird. Try setting the camera to A, disable auto-ISO  and keep watching the Histogram  in the viewfinder. Then by switching back to your preferred settings one by one you can figure out which setting is causing this. 

[frame-it]

17 minutes ago, jaapv said:

This is rather weird. Try setting the camera to A, disable auto-ISO  and keep watching the Histogram  in the viewfinder.

"auto-ISO" ....in my opinion the worst feature in modern cameras.

[jaapv]

By far - ISO is not even a primary exposure setting. Those are aperture and shutter speed.

[RBB]

37 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Try setting the camera to A, disable auto-ISO  and keep watching the Histogram

Work fine by me, never have a problem with blown out highlights. Yes the SL2 is an little sensitive voor the highlight, it resolve the shadows better.

[Richardgb]

Although not an SL2 user, for a short while I had a similar but opposite problem with my Lumix S1, which is, ahem, at the very least close relative.

It turned out that the metering system was set to 'Multi metering' whereas my preferred (and more traditional) method is 'Centre-weighted'. The result was that the metering was paying far too much attention to the highlights (e.g. the sky), by perhaps a stop or two. While the image could be recovered - and quite nicely - the ex-camera RAW result was rather disappointing.

How the metering came to be set in this mode is a mystery, but most likely user error when adjusting something else. Once reset to centre-weighted everything appeared much better.

So, perhaps you could compare the metering settings from your Canon to those of the SL2, see if there's any difference, and if necessary adjust the latter to match. (Incidentally, photographers develop their own style of metering, often sub-consciously tilting the meter / camera up or down based on their judgement of what's important in the scene. Given that you may be holding the SL2 slightly differently from the Canon, this could be another, but probably minore, factor in the mix).

Edited August 6, 2023 by Richardgb

[1Haufen]

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There is a setting in the metering method of exposure that mainly protects the highlights. The setting is called: "highlight weighted exposure"

In the operating instructions it is written:

"This method takes the entire picture field into account. However, the exposure value is adjusted to the parts of the motif that are brighter than average. This helps to avoid overexposure of the bright parts of the motif without having to meter them directly. This metering method is particularly suitable for subjects that are significantly more illuminated than the rest of the picture (e.g. people in headlights) or are more reflective than average (e.g. white clothing)."

This adjusts the exposure to the highlights, which usually results in underexposure of the normal/dark areas, but these can (usually) be recovered very good. The disadvantage, however, is that the darkened areas in the viewfinder are so dark that framing becomes very difficult.

[OleBe]

vor 21 Stunden schrieb Kitch D:

Hi there, 

I have an SL2 and I typically shoot on S. If I reset my camera the shot seems to be OK, however, over time my pics keep getting blown out and I can see this happening in the display or view finder as I am taking the shot. It's so strange, it's like I've set the exposure far too high when I haven't. Also when a sky is in the pic the sky is totally blown out and grey at times too. I've only recently upgraded to this Leica and previously shot on a canon, however, this issue never happened on a canon so it's quite strange. I would love some help as I can't keep resetting my camera to fix this issue. Thanks in advance. 

ISO 50? 

[Photoworks]

On 8/6/2023 at 8:35 AM, Kitch D said:

Hi there, 

I have an SL2 and I typically shoot on S. If I reset my camera the shot seems to be OK, however, over time my pics keep getting blown out and I can see this happening in the display or view finder as I am taking the shot. It's so strange, it's like I've set the exposure far too high when I haven't. Also when a sky is in the pic the sky is totally blown out and grey at times too. I've only recently upgraded to this Leica and previously shot on a canon, however, this issue never happened on a canon so it's quite strange. I would love some help as I can't keep resetting my camera to fix this issue. Thanks in advance. 

you are providing the other part of exposure. what are the F-stop and ISO at?

Many times you set the shutter speed at 1/125 and the lens at f2 and the iso to 400, it is normal that your exposure will just to overexposure.

But since you can see it on the viewfinder you can see that something needs to be adjusted.

the math is the same on every camera.

[jaapv]

Does EXIF reflect this problem? 

[KenTanaka]

On 8/6/2023 at 7:35 AM, Kitch D said:

Hi there, 

I have an SL2 and I typically shoot on S. If I reset my camera the shot seems to be OK, however, over time my pics keep getting blown out and I can see this happening in the display or view finder as I am taking the shot. It's so strange, it's like I've set the exposure far too high when I haven't. Also when a sky is in the pic the sky is totally blown out and grey at times too. I've only recently upgraded to this Leica and previously shot on a canon, however, this issue never happened on a canon so it's quite strange. I would love some help as I can't keep resetting my camera to fix this issue. Thanks in advance. 

FWIW, based on your problem description I would experiment with your metering method setting.  In my experience with my SL2 the metering is a bit primitive and can easily be fooled by wide brightness contrasts in a frame.  Center-weighting obviously could exacerbate this problem.  But I’ve even seen the SL2 be fooled in the standard (for me) matrix metering.  This is where you learn a camera’s idiosyncrasies (they all have them) and then learn to work with them.  I wouldn’t be so quick to disable auto ISO.  Rather, set narrower limits and see how that works.  (The SL2 is a bit noisy so I’ve set my upper to 6400.). That exposure comp dial is my bestie friend on the SL2 for scenes with a wide luminance range.  Experimentation is fun!

[hdmesa]

On 8/7/2023 at 3:46 AM, OleBe said:

ISO 50? 

This. Don't use ISO 50.

If someone is using the correct base 100 ISO and up, I don't see how they could blow the highlights unless exposure preview is turned off. We all have to learn to evaluate the image in the EVF and know the right look to retain the highlights. Use Highlight-weighted metering and bracket the exposure. Inspect the series of exposures in Lightroom/Capture One and see which exposure setting versus what was seen in the EVF is giving the best result.

Gotta learn to use our gear.

As an aside, I find the averaged histogram next to useless. Without an RGB histogram (shows three histograms, one for each R/G/B color channel), the histogram may look fine but one or more channels can still be blown. 

[Photoworks]

On 8/6/2023 at 8:35 AM, Kitch D said:

I would love some help as I can't keep resetting my camera to fix this issue. Thanks in advance. 

Well, the people that start the post could eventually reply! Or what is this exercise for?

[hdmesa]

21 hours ago, Photoworks said:

Well, the people that start the post could eventually reply! Or what is this exercise for?

I have a feeling it was just a first post drive-by trolling. But it's good to have the responses here for Google search results.

[Kristofferpaulsen]

On 8/12/2023 at 8:34 AM, hdmesa said:

I have a feeling it was just a first post drive-by trolling. But it's good to have the responses here for Google search results.

haha. Yep. No prev posts.. and you'd think that when someone was going to drop the money on an SL2 they'd understand what a light meter is. 

 

Having said that, for anyone looking at this thread because they've got an actual problem they want to solve, I, an experienced user, recently had this problem because I'd been shooting in the studio the previous day, and had "exposure preview" turned off, and then the next morning went and shot at sunrise on a construction site, and in my bleary eyed state forgot to check exp preview was turned back on. The result was the first few images had totally toasted highlights beyond recovery. Always gotta watch that exp preview setting.

[Sandokan]

If the original poster reads this - you say they appear blown, but are they actually blown when you transfer to a computer and look at the histograms?

[epand56]

Kitch D, you could also consider the Highlight-Weighted exposure metering method (page 135 of the instructions manual). It should prevent the overexposure of the bright subjects. I've used it and I'm quite satisfied with it. The dark areas in the pictures are more easily adjustable in post production than the bright ones. I saved a set with it. Do not know if this method is also available on the SL2. I'm using an SL2-s.

Edited August 17, 2023 by epand56

[profus]

On 8/6/2023 at 3:09 PM, frame-it said:

"auto-ISO" ....in my opinion the worst feature in modern cameras.

Excuse my ignorance - but why? I have my camera on M but with Auto-ISO and it works perfectly for me.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica L-Mount

[algrove]

On 8/7/2023 at 5:46 AM, OleBe said:

ISO 50? 

The lowest setting should be ISO 100.

[algrove]

On 8/10/2023 at 9:07 PM, Photoworks said:

Well, the people that start the post could eventually reply! Or what is this exercise for?

When no reply I assume a troll.

 

Went back to see original post and it the first one for this person.

We are being hoodwinked and pretty soon I will stop trying to help newbies.

Edited April 4, 2024 by algrove