Need Brightness/Exposure adjustment: Ring Doorbell camera does not handle bright backgrounds

I am observing that my new Ring Doorbell camera does not handle bright backgrounds encountered at my home.

How can I change camera brightness and/or exposure?

Is there an adjustment that can be made to change the brightness and/or image exposure of the video doorbell?

My doorbell location is under a deep covered porch that faces north. Consequently, the porch is naturally dark. However, during the day, the background is extremely bright. This causes the overall exposure to be far over-exposed in the center view of the camera, which makes the camera pretty much not-usable during the day. I can’t find any brightness or exposure adjustments in the settings for the video camera. I suspect that the Ring Doorbell camera simply can not handle the bright backgrounds in a darker environment, such as my home.

When the background is dark, such as in the early morning or evening, the video image is fine. Also, at night, when everything is dark, the regular night-vision video works fine as well. So the problem time that the video image is not usable is during the day.

I have attached images that show the following:

RING_daytime_IMG_7359 - Shows the problem. This was captured in the middle of a bright sunny day. Note that the center of the image is grossly over exposed.

RING_dark_IMG_7356 - Shows an acceptable image. This was captured extremely early in the morning when the skies are dark.

RING_early_morning - Shows an acceptable image. This was captured right at sunrise, and you can see color in the image. However, within 5 minutes, the image becomes “blown-out” (overexposed) to where you can’t see anything in the center of the camera view.

Please advise on how to correct this situation.

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Hey @msloane794. Since your Doorbell is in a very enclosed porch, this is going to be why the contrast is so stark during certain times in the day, making it hard to make out the difference. Depending on the Doorbell you have, you may have access to the HDR feature that you could turn on or off to see if this helps. HDR is a feature we have available for the Ring Video Doorbell 2, Doorbell 3 and Doorbell 3 Plus when it comes to our Doorbells.

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Thank you for the reply.

I received the Ring doorbell as a gift, and the box only says “Ring Doorbell”. It does not say “Doorbell 2” or “Doorbell 3”, etc. I looked in the app under “Device Settings”, and I do not see anything associated with HDR there. So, I’m assuming that the model I had does not support the HDR feature.

So it sounds like there is no solution to this problem for me, without purchasing a different product.

Thank you again.

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I am experiencing the same with my new ring. Imagine selling a camera that doesn’t have a brightness adjustment. Incredible.

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Hey neighbors! At this time there are no lens adjustment toggles beyond the devices that may have the HDR toggle. The HDR feature could certainly optimize image quality, but it likely would not resolve a background light exposure concern. This is best resolved through physical alteration such as angling the Doorbell differently or mounting it elsewhere.

Environmental concerns can be tough to resolve for a recessed or enclosed entryway. While the lens is designed to automatically adjust to an area and the illumination of it, some mounting or lighting scenarios can make this difficult. As Video Doorbells are intended to cover your entryway, we see many neighbors add a second Camera beyond their entryway for the best coverage in and outside of the entryway. I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

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The answers to this are ridiculous and unacceptable. Upgrading to another model with with HDR does not address the issue. Saying it has no capability to adjust brightness is not the issue either. The camera clearly auto adjust through I’m guessing some software. I can see it adjust really quickly when going live. This means the software can be tweaked /updated to include a fix. Ring simply doesn’t want to fix the issue.

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I agree with you…this should be simple to resolve. The issue with my camera is at night…the video shows the entryway to be very dark, despite it being well lit. This was not the case when I first installed the camera. About a month after install, the video changed. Occasionally, I will come across an image with proper exposure, so I know it’s possible. I suspect there was an update that screwed up the exposure/contrast ability. Frustrating!

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I went through 3 replacements before the camera on the doorbell functioned correctly and did not bleach out.

The Ring doorbell 3 that they sent as replacement for the orognal device I puchased over a year ago, would not operate my indoor existing chimes I have. The oroginal Doorbell 1 did work after Ring downloaded a software change. (and I removed a capacitor in the chime circuit board) I put an oscilliscope on the power lines and pressed the ring 3 button…nothing happened in the advanced mode. (any choice of mechanical, digital 1,2 etc) In the automatic chime detect mode the Ring device created a short distorted signal. (the Ring tried to “short” the wires, but could not do it effectively)

All they had to do is a simple “momentary short” of the 2 wires , lasting about 500 milliseconds (simulating a mechanical push botton)

How difficult is that to do?

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I have accepted that Ring technical support has stated that the situation I encountered is acceptable to them, and there will be no resolution for this problem without purchasing new hardware. Given that, I am searching for doorbell cameras and other security hardware from other vendors.

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The doorbell cam needs software updates to provide exposure/brightness controls, and the recommendation is to instead move the doorbell cam to another location than at the door ( where doorbells go)?

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I agree. My Ring 3 has terrible video due to a bright background. The only reason I am keeping it is because of all of the holes I had to drill to install it that I don’t want to expose when replacing it with a standard pushbutton. What a waste for what is sold as a premium product. Even really cheap cameras have brightness controls.

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What Ring needs to do is upgrade the camera design to Wide Dynamic. The allows backlighting to be bright while still allowing the subject (person) to be in clear view.

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I have the same issue where the background lighting makes identifying person too dark to identify. Please do as others have requested:

“…the doorbell cam needs software updates to provide exposure/brightness controls…”

It seems a (relatively) simple software update. After all it is doing something similar for night vision.

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Thank you for the continued feedback on this, neighbors! If the above recommendations in this thread did not help to fine tune your view for the environment, feel free to add this request on our Feature Request Board. This way other neighbors can share their interest in one place, that we can organize and share with our teams here. :slight_smile:

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I agree with this post. During the daytime on bright days, it would be very nice to have a setting to automatically adjust the exposure to be a bit darker. Or a manual override daytime exposure setting. This would also increase the daytime contrast, which would be a great thing. So, Ring software product development ? What do you think ?

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We didn’t have the “auto dimming “ issue until we updated to the latest version of the software and now we can’t see anyone’s faces during the day. Ridiculous. The board mentioned above has hundreds of entries that you have to page through with the hopes of finding the one you are looking for.

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Same thing here. It’s only recently that it’s letting in way too much light. Also right around last light at night the whole picture is white like a full moon. It freaks me out!

Ring has been dark every since update

Some how they got it backwards: In my very shady Front Door camera location, all day long everything beyond the porch is washed out; at night the porch light washes out everything on the porch, and beyond that is so dark as to be useless. I’m thinking of a lens shield that blocks all but the center portion of the display view.

My doorbell camera is on my front porch where the front is wide open it faces to the west and during the day it’s so dark the camera picture that you can’t see anything and at night my lights on my front just seemed a mess with the quality it can’t see too far it is a joke that there is no adjustment