Overexposure frustration

[Bart Bandy]

I've had a couple of rejects for overexposure.
For example,
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject_b.php?id=1294051

What are the "normal" settings for brightness and contrast on a computer screen from a screeners point of view. Pictures like the above look fine at home, but on a different screen are clearly overexposed. How I missed the leveling is another story. It's not about salvaging this one, but rather to getting them "right" before submission.

Thanks,
Dave

[E-Diddy!]

From a screeners point of view, the colors should look about as natural as possible, and no monitor is perfect. It's best to have a side by side comparison of 2 monitors, but unfortunately, no monitor is the same unless you have pretty much the same model of everything (at which point, you'll have no "control" reference point).

Try adjusting the adobe gamma on your computers screen, turn off all the lights in your room and eliminate as much ambient light as possible before doing this, it'll give you about the best calibration possible.

Also, LCD's without TFT's are generally poor in terms of contrast, if you're using a laptop, this could be your problem.

[wwshack]

I copied your picture into Photoshop and brought up the Levels and the Info Palates.
Unfortunately, you can not see where I was sampling so you will just have to take my word for it that the cursor is on the cabin roof above the word "Service." You are looking to see detail in the white areas without the whites looking grey.
The closer the number is to 255 the more over exposed or "Blown out" your picture is and once an image is blown, there is no way it can be undone unlike under exposure.
If you look at the histogram on the levels palate, you can see the graph piling up on the right hand side, that says that your picture is over exposed.

The aircraft is acting like a huge reflector blasting light into your camera and fooling your cameras light meter. Stopping down a stop or shooting RAW would have helped immensely. Try and think a shot through; you know the aircraft is going to reflect a lot of light so dial up a + 1 EV adjustment, rather than to trust your cameras light meter or its Program mode to do the job for you.