Over exposed images

[Andy Price]

Can any of the knowledgeable help me out, I am having problems with over exposed images.

The problem seems to occur when trying to do landscape photography when there is a reasonable amount of light but cloudy/overcast not so much a problem with blue sky and sun, the camera is a D80. Lenses being used Sigma 17-70 & Nikon 18-200VR
Normal settings are in Apperture mode, ASA set to 100 I also remembered to set the exposure for +0.7 or +1.0, Apperture normally set to F11 to F22. I am no problems with portrait or indoor photography.

Can anyone give me advice on what I am ballsing up?

Andy

[ap4a]

If adding a stop of exposure compensation is causing you to overexpose, don't add that stop. Only add positive exposure compensation if your meter is causing you to underexpose.

Use a ND grad to balance the brightness of the sky with that of the land (or bracket your shots and merge in post), keep an eye on the histogram to ensure that there's no clipping, and also turn on highlight alerts if you have that option.

[Andy Price]

ap4a

Thanks for that I have just had a sudden thought that may be I need to dial the exposure the other way. The problem is I haven't been able to use the camera outdoors for nearly a uear so have forgotten the exposure settings i need for this camera.

[Rachael DCruze]

Hi Andy,

I'd advise you taking you first picture with no exposure compensation dialled in and then go from there, depending on the conditions.

Remember + makes your images brighter, - makes them darker.

Hope this helps,

Rach

[chris-p]

Personally I always have my D90 set to exp. comp. at -1. It's easier to add half a stop of exposure back in ACR than remove half a stop.

Also, what sort of shutter speeds is your camera giving you with -1 exp. comp., f/22 and ISO 100?

[Andy Price]

Thanks everyone.

To be honest I have spent so much time taking potraits and doing indoor photos that I had forgotten the settings I needed for outdoors.

With my old D50 I could leave the exp. on 0 and never have a problem, with the D90 I remember using +0.7 when I was in Canda for snow conditions but had forgotten what I required for general UK summer conditions. I am aware that Nikons do generally over expose, its a case of remembing how to counter act it.

My problem seems to occur when the day light conditions are bright but overcast or when the sun is on the object I am shooting.

[jinky]

Sorry Andrew - I thought I had replied to this but see no entry now.
A quick google would bring up lots of people saying they set their D80`s at -0.7 because of over-exposure. I tend to have that setting on mine as a rule on the same premise as Chris above but will often change further according to conditions after a quick light check shot. Get used to using the histogram capture on the back of your camera when reviewing shots and alwas make sure that you do not clip the highlights. NX2 has some great tools for saving highlight and shadow detail but generally if you blow your highlights they are very difficult to recover. Therefore using + exposure comp is unlikely to be a regular thing you do -especially in snow / sand conditions

[OldBoy]

Set you focus point on something between the brightest and darkest point of the scene, so for example a dark cloud will force the camera to lighten the scene, whilst a bright cloud will force the camera to darken the scene. Press the shutter halfway and recompose your shot on the subject you want, then press the shutter fully to take the shot. Check the results with the histogram.

[Andy Price]

Thanks everyone for your help.
Basially just got a bit rusty.

Good to see a lot of the old faces/names have moved over.
Hope everyone had a good summer??? and managed to take lots of inspiring shots.

[MitchellKrog]

For a beginner who does not own grads turn on Active-D Lighting in your camera and leave it set to normal. It will help you somewhat with getting better exposures. You can always increase, decrease os completely turn off Active-D afterwards inside Capture NX but you cannot turn it on later in NX when it was off in camera.

Next step if you do not have grads, learn to bracket images and do image blends, tons of tutorials on the web.

Best solution however is to invest in grads and learn to use them and learn to manually meter your light and not trust in Aperture Priority / Semi Auto Modes.