What is this called? What causes it and how do I fix? I can clean up the levels in Photoshop, but I am clearly not setting the camera correctly.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j246/justindoria/detail%20garage/whatthe.jpg

Depend on if this is a manual setting or an auto?

The metering system could have metered on the black tyre walls causing everything else to be overexposed or

The ISO setting is too high for the available light
The Aperture is too large, number to small, for the ISO and Speed settings
The Speed could be too slow for the ISO and Aperture settings

If you have the histogram view available on the camera then check this after taking the shot.

So if it looks like this lower the ISO, or pick a higher speed, or a smaller aperture, that is bigger number.

Another method is to focus on grass behind you and half depress the shutter button and hold it then recompose and take the pic and see what that looks like.

If you have different metering systems, e.g. evaluative, centre weighted, or spot metering then try selecting one of the others to see what you get with that setting.

Roger

Its full auto.

I like the idea of metering in the grass. then manually focusing on the car.

I dont know what the histogram should look like. Ill try spot metering on the scetion of the car I want to capture. In this case it would have been the tree in the reflection on the door.

Here is the best book on exposure I've read.

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Updated/dp/0817463003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207097262&sr=8-1

If you are shooting full auto.......it looks like the image had too much Dynamic range for the sensor and the meter tried to balance it.

Learn how to read a histogram and experiment with bracketing your exposure & then looking at the difference a small change in exposure makes.

Len

Its full auto.

I like the idea of metering in the grass. then manually focusing on the car.

I dont know what the histogram should look like. Ill try spot metering on the scetion of the car I want to capture. In this case it would have been the tree in the reflection on the door.

If you spot meter on the tree reflection in the car you'll probably get a similar result to what you have.

The only way to get the dynamic range you have is to

Take a photo for the highlights - so meter on the wheel rims, not the tyre
Take a photo for the midtones - meter on the grass
Take a photo for the shadows - meter on the tyre

Then combine with an editor.

Roger