Camera Aces, help needed

[missouriexile]

I took some pictures outdoors in full sunshine yesterday. Very disappointing. They seem 'washed out.
I would like to adjust the iso value in manual mode from 400 down to 100 or even 50. Trouble is I don't want to fool with every other setting.
Especially when it is difficult to see the screen In the sunlight.
Does auto still work when you are in manual mode. (I know, it sounds dumb to think so).
Does anyone make a hood sort of thing that you can use to use the camera in very bright sunshine?
(turns out AUTO did use ISO 50, MY BAD)
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[RedOctobyr]

It's not a dumb question, Manual mode isn't as fully-manual as I'd expected.

You can go into Manual mode, and still get a fully-automatic exposure, if you don't touch anything, or only use certain controls.

But as soon as you set either the ISO or the shutter speed, you must manually set the other one's value appropriately yourself. That is, it becomes a manual exposure, which will not adjust again if the scene gets lighter/darker. You'll see that the "AE-L" button lights up, indicating that the exposure has been locked, and will no longer auto-adjust.

If you find your pictures to be over-exposed (too bright, washed-out), I'd suggest go into Manual mode, and tapping on "+/-". This is the exposure compensation control. It lets you bias the exposure to be lighter or darker as you prefer, measured in f-stops. Try setting it to -0.5 and take the same picture, then try -1.0 and take it again, then compare them, to get a feel for how much adjustment you want to make.

But this is the closest you'll get to a "free" adjustment, without immediately forcing you to continuously adjust ISO & shutter speed yourself.

For things like sunsets, on the G4 or otherwise, I'll often to go maybe -0.5 to -1.0. The stock exposure settings always seem to make things too bright, making the colors very pale and washed-out.

I wouldn't worry yet about getting a shade for the lens, I'd start with the easy stuff, exposure settings.

Another thing you could try, to get more detail in the very-bright and very-dim areas of a given picture, is to use "HDR On", in Auto mode. This lets the camera take multiple shots with different exposures, and combine them to try and provide 1 picture with reasonable exposure in both the light and dark areas.

 

[missouriexile]

Many thanks for your feedback. It clarified a lot.
As far as the hood I was thinking of something that would partially shade the screen in bright sunlight. Even at full brightness the screen is sometimes hard to see.

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[belodion]

I believe that screen hoods or sunshades for phones and other devices are available. You might find one that will fit.

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[greydarrah]

Lens glare is the most common culprit for a washed out image. It doesn't need the sun shining directly into the lens to cause a negative impact, you can also get glare from a white overcast sky, reflections from a lightly colored nearby building, or from standing on concrete. The easiest solution is to use your free hand to form a shade over the lens area. There's quiet a but more detail about the subject here: Cell Phone Camera |