what makes a picture like this be under exposed?

Question

for example http://flickr.com/photos/emmamayer/71672800/in/photostream/

the subject is close to the camera, flash is on and everything should be ok, but still it is dark.

i find this happening a lot.

Answer 1

Note the overexposed white bit in the foreground on the bottom. Your camera tried to not overexpose everything by setting a fairly short exposure time and a high aperture. Try to avoid having bright or reflective objects in your field of view when taking the flash and your camera should do a much better job of adjusting itself to take better-balanced pictures.

Answer 2

I think Z is on the right track. Is the flash firing at all?



One approach is to see if the camera has a reset button. If so, try that and see what happens.



Absent that, be certain:

a) that the camera is set on auto exposure mode;

b) any exposure compensation settings are set to zero (this setting allows you intentionally alter the xposure under or over);

c) any exposure compensation settings for the flash set to zero (this setting allows you intentionally alter the xposure under or over);

d) be sure that nothing is obscuring the flash (i.e., your right forfinger);

e) the battery is fully charged or nearly so;

f) The flash is set to something other than fill flash (at least initially -- FF is often great but we are debugging a problem here...)

g) white balance is set either to auto or to the appropriate setting.



If this fails, try similar steps but with the camera set to manual.

Answer 3

It seems like your camera is overcompensating for what it thinks is an overexposed picture. Assuming this is a digital camera, try adjusting for a slower shutter speed or more exposure time. Make sure you are in the camera's auto mode, and if you are, try in the manual adjustment mode.