photo vs video image quality question from the ignorant and unlearned

[dkc923]

First and foremost please understand that I am in no way experienced in photography in any way. I have the m2p and am trying to figure out how to fix my photos I take over water. It only does it in photo mode but looks great when I video the exact same thing. I will attach a picture below to describe my problems. So bright in photos you can't see anything yet when I switch to video the video is crystal clear. Thanks for the help!

 

[Meta4]

First and foremost please understand that I am in no way experienced in photography in any way. I have the m2p and am trying to figure out how to fix my photos I take over water. It only does it in photo mode but looks great when I video the exact same thing. I will attach a picture below to describe my problems. So bright in photos you can't see anything yet when I switch to video the video is crystal clear.

The reason that image looks like that is simple.
The camera settings were wrong and resulted in a photo that's several stops overexposed.
That you say video looks fine is surprising since camera settings would affect video and stills the same way.

The exposure settings used for that image were 1/30 sec; f/2.8; ISO 250 which is letting way too much light get to the sensor for normal daylight exposures.

If you don't know what you are doing with the camera settings, here are some settings that will help you get good exposure almost all of the time.
Go into the camera settings in the app by touching the icon below the camera shutter button on the right of the screen.
Touch the icon at top left of the settings panel
Set the first setting to A (for aperture priority), not Auto
Set the ISO sensitivity to 100
Set the aperture for a number between 4 and 5.6

The camera's metering will choose an appropriate shutter speed for whatever scene you are shooting.
That should fix your exposure problems.

 

[dkc923]

The reason that image looks like that is simple.
The camera settings were wrong and resulted in a photo that's several stops overexposed.
That you say video looks fine is surprising since camera settings would affect video and stills the same way.

The exposure settings used for that image were 1/30 sec; f/2.8; ISO 250 which is letting way too much light get to the sensor for normal daylight exposures.

If you don't know what you are doing with the camera settings, here are some settings that will help you get good exposure almost all of the time.
Go into the camera settings in the app by touching the icon below the camera shutter button on the right of the screen.
Touch the icon at top left of the settings panel
Set the first setting to A (for aperture priority), not Auto
Set the ISO sensitivity to 100
Set the aperture for a number between 4 and 5.6

The camera's metering will choose an appropriate shutter speed for whatever scene you are shooting.
That should fix your exposure problems.

The reason that image looks like that is simple.
The camera settings were wrong and resulted in a photo that's several stops overexposed.
That you say video looks fine is surprising since camera settings would affect video and stills the same way.

The exposure settings used for that image were 1/30 sec; f/2.8; ISO 250 which is letting way too much light get to the sensor for normal daylight exposures.

If you don't know what you are doing with the camera settings, here are some settings that will help you get good exposure almost all of the time.
Go into the camera settings in the app by touching the icon below the camera shutter button on the right of the screen.
Touch the icon at top left of the settings panel
Set the first setting to A (for aperture priority), not Auto
Set the ISO sensitivity to 100
Set the aperture for a number between 4 and 5.6

The camera's metering will choose an appropriate shutter speed for whatever scene you are shooting.
That should fix your exposure problems.

Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge I’ll do that now and give it a try.

 

[sar104]

First and foremost please understand that I am in no way experienced in photography in any way. I have the m2p and am trying to figure out how to fix my photos I take over water. It only does it in photo mode but looks great when I video the exact same thing. I will attach a picture below to describe my problems. So bright in photos you can't see anything yet when I switch to video the video is crystal clear. Thanks for the help!

The problem is that in photo mode you have set an exposure compensation of +2.7. That means that the camera overexposed the image by 2.7 stops relative to the value that it determined as appropriate. In the image that @Meta4 posted above, that's the EV setting, which is -0.3 in his example. You need to set that back to zero.

Exposure Time : 1/30​

F Number : 2.8​

Exposure Program : Program AE​

ISO : 250​

Date/Time Original : 2019:06:20 13:02:05​

Create Date : 2019:06:20 13:02:05​

Components Configuration : Y, Cb, Cr, -​

Exposure Compensation : +2.7​

Max Aperture Value : 2.8​

Metering Mode : Center-weighted average​

Light Source : Daylight​

Flash : No Flash​

Focal Length : 10.3 mm​

 

[dkc923]

The problem is that in photo mode you have set an exposure compensation of +2.7. That means that the camera overexposed the image by 2.7 stops relative to the value that it determined as appropriate. In the image that @Meta4 posted above, that's the EV setting, which is -0.3 in his example. You need to set that back to zero.

Exposure Time : 1/30​

F Number : 2.8​

Exposure Program : Program AE​

ISO : 250​

Date/Time Original : 2019:06:20 13:02:05​

Create Date : 2019:06:20 13:02:05​

Components Configuration : Y, Cb, Cr, -​

Exposure Compensation : +2.7​

Max Aperture Value : 2.8​

Metering Mode : Center-weighted average​

Light Source : Daylight​

Flash : No Flash​

Focal Length : 10.3 mm​

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I see people using filters a good bit I wasn’t sure if that’s what I needed todo to correct the issue or not.

 

[sar104]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I see people using filters a good bit I wasn’t sure if that’s what I needed todo to correct the issue or not.

No - you don't need filters - that's just for video to keep the exposure time at around one half of the inter-frame time. For photos, just don't overexpose relative to the correct, metered exposure.

 

[Meta4]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I see people using filters a good bit I wasn’t sure if that’s what I needed to do to correct the issue or not.

As mentioned above filters wouldn't be the solution.
You've accidentally set the exposure compensation to overexpose beyond the metering.
Look in the upper part of your screen and you'll see a line of camera data like this:

In your case (if you haven't corrected it) the number under EV would be +2.7
You should dial that back to zero
The settings suggested in post #2 will then give you good results.