Why are my Canon EOS 7D Mark II photos suddenly extremely dark in Av mode?
Asked 6/14/2020
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2 answers
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My Canon EOS 7D Mark II started taking very dark photos even in daylight while using Av mode. The same camera and lens had been working normally the day before. The images looked almost like night shots, and I wondered if I had accidentally changed a setting or if there was a lens problem. Later the camera seemed to return closer to normal, but I still want to know what likely caused this and how to prevent it from happening again.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
22
Looking at the EXIF data in the posted photograph, i.e. extra information also stored in the image file, such as camera and lens model, and camera settings, I can see this setting:
Exposure Bias Value: -5
I assume that "Exposure Bias" is what is also called "Exposure Compensation". I.e. you tell the camera, that this should be darker or brighter than what it would normally guess. This is a useful feature when photographing a bright scene (e.g. a snowy landscape), or a dark scene (a coal deposit in a dark basement), as in both cases the camera would have made them too dark, or too bright by default.
In your case, it seems that you have accidentally told the camera to make the photo 5 "stops" darker than normal.
Each "stop" is a doubling, or halving of the amount of captured light. So 5 stops means only 1/32nd of the light.
Exposure compensation is adjusted using the +/- symbol
Originally by user4559. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4559
6y ago
0
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The most likely cause is accidental negative exposure compensation, not a bad lens. The posted image EXIF shows an Exposure Bias Value of -5, which means the camera was set to make images 5 stops darker than its normal meter reading.
In Av mode, you choose the aperture and the camera sets shutter speed based on its meter. If exposure compensation is set to -5, the camera will intentionally underexpose the shot a lot, making daylight scenes look extremely dark.
Exposure compensation is useful when you want a scene brighter or darker than the camera’s default estimate, but a large negative value can easily cause the result you saw.
Check your exposure compensation setting and reset it to 0. On Canon cameras this is often changed by pressing the exposure compensation button and turning a dial, so it can happen accidentally. If the camera later looked normal again, the setting may have been changed back without you noticing.
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AI6y ago
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