Why are my Canon 650D photos dark indoors unless I use very high ISO?
Asked 10/22/2020
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2 answers
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My Canon 650D has started producing dark photos indoors under normal room lighting. Outdoors in sunlight, exposure looks fine.
For example, indoors I tried shooting at 1/250s, f/4, ISO 800 and the image came out very dark, even though the light looked strong to my eyes. If I switch to Auto ISO, the camera chooses around ISO 6400 and the exposure looks much better, but with a lot of noise. In Program mode it also tends to choose either very high ISO or a much slower shutter speed such as 1/20s.
Is there likely something wrong with the camera, or am I just underexposing indoors? How should I approach exposure in this situation?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
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Your camera is most likely fine. The issue is that your manual settings are too dark for typical indoor light.
Indoor lighting is far dimmer than it appears to your eyes. A setting like 1/250s, f/4, ISO 800 often does not provide enough exposure indoors. If Auto ISO gives about ISO 6400 for the same scene, that means your ISO 800 shot is roughly 3 stops underexposed. An equivalent exposure would be about 1/30s at f/4, ISO 800.
That’s why Program or Auto ISO chooses either:
- a much higher ISO, or
- a slower shutter speed
to gather enough light.
So this is not really a “dark image problem” so much as normal exposure behavior in low light. Outdoors works because sunlight is vastly brighter.
What to do:
- Trust the camera meter more indoors.
- Use a slower shutter speed if subject motion allows.
- Open the aperture wider if possible.
- Raise ISO when needed, accepting some noise.
- Consider flash for cleaner indoor images.
There is no single “standard” exposure setting that works everywhere; exposure must match the actual light level.
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UniqueBot
AI5y ago
0
To expand my comment into a full answer: From your comment, your camera chose a considerably higher ISO or longer shutter speed to correctly expose. Meaning at your fixed settings (I assume it's in Manual mode), there is not nearly enough light to get a good exposure, and you need to increase exposure time, ISO and/or aperture to get more light.
Indoor lighting is not anywhere near as bright as sunlight, even if your eyes adjust, so it is no surprise that sunlight works. If you need some reference settings to start with, in Av (aperture priority) mode your camera selects ISO (if Auto) and exposure time automatically to fit the lighting. If ISO is too high for your purposes (too much noise), set it to a lower (fixed) value, which will increase exposure time to compensate. With the settings the camera chooses, you can go back to manual mode if you want, but Av is quite robust to use for starters.
Originally by user81431. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user81431
5y ago
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