Over-Exposure

[Maezyra]

Hi Everyone,

I need some help - I have my camera (Nikon D60) set on manual mode and I am using the In-built light meter to correctly expose my shots. Problem is - Regardless of what I take my reading off, my photos are all over-exposing. Is there some setting or something that I have changed accidentally that might be causing this? What am I doing wrong?

The following photo was taken outdoors, the light meter was set to the 0 point, the reading was taken off his face and yet still, it is over-exposed. Why is this?

Please help - thanks!

Erin

[kiwi]

can you explain what you mean by meter is set to "o" and how you do that and what you change on the camera to meter ?

As you say, the settings that you have in the sun will lead to this exposure that you see

(just look up the "sunny 16" rule to see what I mean"

[Maezyra]

Sorry, I'm not so great at explaining what I mean - When I say 0 - I mean set right to the middle. On my Nikon - I change this by setting a suitable ISO, then the aperture for what I am shooting, getting a light meter reading and adjusting the shutter speed to the point where the built-in light meter is at the centre or "0" position.

My thoughts are (from all the theory that I have read) the more light there is, the quicker the shutter speed should be, but my camera's light meter, to get that in the right place, suggests it should be slower than what I'd have expected, then I get these over-exposed pictures). At first I thought that maybe I was taking the reading off something that is too dark, but I was very careful to take it off the subjects face, which, by rights, should have been under-exposed... It just doesn't make sense...

I will read that Sunny 16 rule too.

[ricktas]

I see your problem. looking at your EXIF

Camera Maker: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D60
Image Date: 2010-07-17 11:22:28 +1000
Focal Length: 55.0mm (35mm equivalent: 82mm)
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure Time: 0.010 s (1/100)
ISO equiv: 400
Exposure Bias: +2.67 EV
Metering Mode: Spot
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Manual
Light Source: Fine Weather
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB

Some questions. Why ISO 400 and why is exposure compensation set to +2.67 EV

[kiwi]

err yeah, the exp bias should not come into play if you are on full manual

I wonder if you have autoiso on though ?

[kiwi]

by the way, wy shoot on manual ? just practicing ? I hardly ever do this, I shoot on apperture priory mode mainly and use spot for this stuff with EV comp if I need it

[ricktas]

His sunglasses appear to be the focus point? and therefore probably the metering point seeing you are using spot metering. The sunglasses are dark and reflective, one of the best ways to confuse a metering system. You camera has metered off the glasses (most likely) and cause they are dark, it has tried to get a correct exposure based on that single dark point, but most of your photo is brighter.

However, you are using manual mode, are your getting a reading from the scene then obtaining your shutter speed etc based on that?

[Maezyra]

I had his nose as the focal point, but I suppose a small section of his glasses were in. This wasn't a one off for the day though, I took a few shots of people without sunglasses, focussing on their face and I was having the same issue. And yes, I am getting my shutter speed based on the reading, the aperture and ISO were already decided, based on what I am shooting. In this case, low ISO (100, from memory, although, apparently it was on 400, oopsy! There's part of the problem) and low F stop number. I guess I use manual mode because the camera course I recently did used manual mode. I am not too familiar with aperture priority, I have only used it in practice after reading the NTP forums, and because I am not too good at that yet, I go back to what I know best when shooting things that I want to keep. Okay, so that EV thingy seems to be the problem... Okay... trying to work out how to change that...

[Maezyra]

UH HUH!!! Light bulb moment (or speedlight, as the case may be)!!! Thanks, Ricktas!!!! I think I know what I did - As I said before, I am most familiar with using the full manual mode and to change the aperture on manual mode, is the same way you change the exposure compensation on the Aperture priority, so I must have tried to change the aperture, whilst practicing in aperture priority, forgetting I was in aperture priority, hence changing the exposure compensation, so when I have switched back I had it set to a positive compensation, rather than having it at a nil value. Wow, you do learn something every day!

[Keza]

That would be the issue here. If you set +EV in manual when you use the in-camera meter it will over exposure the shot however the meter will show in the middle oy as you put it at 0 .

[kiwi]

Not sure really

Ev comp has no effect on exposure in full manual and the meter is just taking a light reading

I still suspect autoiso was on

[ricktas]

I agree with Kiwi, if this was taken in full manual as the EXIF says (EXIF can be wrong), then Exposure compensation should not affect the result. Auto ISO could be part of the issue here, but I think we are looking at a combination of factors.

[Keza]

When you adjust EV in manaul the meter (light) adjusts fooling the meter so to balance it to '0' it then over exposes the picture.
I did a test with EV the othernight as I normally shoot in manual and when I adjusted theEVto +2 the meter showed under exposure so I had to then slow the shutter or adjust aperture (iso) to make the meter 0 out.

So as KIWI states EV has no effect when in manual unless you are using the cameras meter to obtain exposure then when you adjust the settings it does effect the exposure.

[kiwi]

Hmm, OK, that makes sense, but not how I thought it worked, I didnt think EV Comp adjusted the "effective" metering. I'll have to do the same test !!

[Maezyra]

I think you're right on the money, Keza - I did some experimenting this morning. I took three photos (of my daughter - She can't run away yet, therefore a willing participant). The first one is the control - Manual mode with the EV set to 0.00, the shutter speed was 1/30s. The second one is only changing the EV to +3, which the light meter to read that it was very under-exposed, but I didn't change the shutter. The third one is using the light meter to 0, whilst the EV was on +3, to get the light meter to read 0, it said the shutter had to be 1/5. Nothing else was changed in any of these photos (all set to ISO 100 and f4.2).

Control

"Under-Exposed" according to the light meter.

Adjusting the light meter to 0 with EV +3

[kiwi]

good test

[Maezyra]

Thank you, Kiwi

[Keza]

That is a very good test. I was lucky I had played with this last weekend otherwise I would not have known anything about it.

[Maezyra]

Thanks, Keza. I have to admit I didn't even know it existed until I posted this forum and Ricktas pointed out that I had it on, which was a bit of a relief because every shot I have taken recently on manual has been over-exposed - I thought I was going mad! I went back through my photos tonight to see if I could find the point where I switched it on, yep - I've had it on for nearly a month and I was exactly right - the last picture before and the picture where it was added was aperture priority. A silly mistake that has cost me almost a month of photos, but a great learning experience! I'll know where to start looking if it happens again. It's also taught me a lot more about aperture priority. I really should read my manual one of these days, so I can start diverting away from the basic functions if I need to.

[NikonNellie]

Wow, hasn't my little grand niece grown? She's gorgeous Erin - must come and take some photos of her before she grows too much!