Why are photos darker than what I see when shooting?

Lady Grinning Soul

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I find that the photos I take with the N4, when viewed on the N4, are darker than what I see when I'm shooting.

I don't understand why that would be. Screenshots aren't dimmer than the display they are a screenshot of. Whey would a photo, as a captured shot of the current display, be any different?

This is with all the settings set to default.

Illumination appreciated. :)
 

D Android

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That's what adaptive display does. If you change the screen mode setting to basic the picture will look more natural and not quite as vivid.
 

Lady Grinning Soul

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Thank you for the reply but there's something I'm still not getting.

I understand that different displays have different display color and brightness characteristics, as do different camera modes.

What I don't understand is why, for any given mode, the displayed photos are always darker than what the very same display showed just 2 seconds earlier.

If the camera can see a given image with given color/brightness values, and the display shows it according to its own specs, and the jpg is a record of what the camera sees, then why wouldn't the displayed photo look the same as the live input?

This isn't related to jpg compression, is it? (I'm assuming not.)

There's something I'm missing here.
 

Lady Grinning Soul

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Hey, thanks again.

That's not it.

Looking at it more closely, here's what's happening. After the N4 has focused, the image brightens as the shot is taken, boosting the apparent brightness. Subjectively, that brightness boost differs from the live input about the same as the brightness loss in the displayed photo. Like the boost on shoot is suppressing the exposure of what's getting recorded to disk. Something like that.

Is this a setting?

Sorry if I'm being dense. I'd like to understand what I'm seeing.
 

mountainbikermark

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When you open the camera the screen goes to full bright . Unless you change the screen to full bright when you view them they will look darker.
What do they look like on other medium? Are they too dark for you there as well?

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Lady Grinning Soul

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When you open the camera the screen goes to full bright . Unless you change the screen to full bright when you view them they will look darker.

That was it. I keep the phone on Auto brightness. I didn't realize that the cam sets it to full. It's not especially obvious when the cam app loads. But that explains it.

I didn't have a problem with the pics as they were turning out. I was just trying to understand the discrepancy between what I was seeing "in cam" vs "in phone," so to speak.

Thanks.