Exposure issue

[paul48503]

Lately it seems like I am having to PP most of my photo's due to underexposure. I have a Nikon D80. Just for fun todayI went out in the sun even shooting in auto. Same issue. Any suggestions...

[GypsyHighSide]

check your exposure compensaton. It may be that you dialed in some -EV and forgot to zero it out.

Rob

[paul48503]

I checked it and it was set at 0. I guess I will do a Factory reset tomorrow.

[srwatters]

I know that back in my D70 days, Nikon's meters were known to underexpose by a little more than 1/3 of a stop. There was a guy that created an in camera curve you could load that compensated in the shadows and mid-tones without blowing the highlights. Check out this page for some information: http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/2...custom-curves/

If it was working well for you before and has only now changed, then I'm at a loss. You're on the right track with a full reset. It that fails, then perhaps a repair is the answer...

You wouldn't happen to be photographing scenes with a majority of lighter tones, would you? When you go from winter colors to summer, your meter will try to drive them to middle gray, which will show up as under exposure. The wedding photographer's nightmare of black tux and white dress come to mind...

[CaptainTom]

If you have a hand held light meter you can take an incident reading and compare the exposure to the cameras reading.

or

Use the sunny 16 rule and see which exposure ( sun or camera ) is closer to what you want.

With digital I'd prefer a slightly underexposed image than overexposed.

Keep in mind that the camera meter is trying to convert the light levels to approximate 18% gray.

your ultimate solution may be to dial in 1/3 more exposure.

[Gabby498]

Nikon favors the highlights. Increase your exposure compensation to plue 1/3 or plus 1/2 stop and see if that solves the problem.

[paul48503]

I re-set to factory default today. I am still in the compare mode. I have alway had to increase some but just recently I have noticed it happening more frequently. I think the plus exposure compensation may be my fix. I really appreciate the input. I am going to give it a couple of days to try to find the sweet spot. Thanks...