New to Canon 30D--photos are dark!

[hmp121]

Hi everyone
I would consider myself a pretty good point and shoot kinda gal and I wanted to venture into bigger and better things so I purchased a 30D and am very excited about it! I took it outside today to try it out for the first time, where it was bright and sunny and I could use automatic mode just to get a feel for the camera. It turns out that all of my photos came out dark! It is a really great camera--such a fast response time. But, everything in the shadows seems REALLY dark (I have some of my daughter look away from the sunlight and her face is hardly discernable) while everything that is in the light or facing the sun came out the way it should. I am using the kit lens, so nothing special for these photos. I am thinking I will need to venture into the more custom modes and learn how to set aperature and REALLY understand what different aperature settings mean for my photos. There are so many other custom options on this camera that I don't even know where to begin! At this point, I would like to learn to take photos in optimal outdoor conditions, and I don't know where to begin. Any tips or any direction to a good free tutorial are welcomed! I have attached a photo of my dog so you could see what I am talking about.
Thank you for your help!
Heidi
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o38/hmp121/adah.jpg

[Stephen Lutz]

It looks pretty well exposed to me, given the dark and light elements. Nothing looks "wrong" in other words. I suggest you might want to use fill flash in situations like this. The camera's popup flash is great for situations like this where you want to brighten up the shadows just a touch. The camera should adjust the flash output automatically in "auto" mode, or you can adjust it to taste in the "creative modes."

My (six- year old) step-son was looking over my shoulder and said, "oh a doggy! he's funny!" Now he's buggin me to get him a "doggy." Great.

[Loupey]

I agree with Stephen, the camera looks to be operating fine. Your camera is trying to adjust for the bright background, making the shadows even darker.

If expose for the shadows, the background will become very bright. Best way to handle it would be to find a suitable background for any subject.

[gryphonslair99]

Check out this book: Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson

An excelent book for all photographers.

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-...e=UTF8&s=books