Overexposure

[Sam2002ituk]

Hi all,
Whilst putting my new Nikon d300 through its paces I am getting a lot of over exposed shots even in prog auto mode. Can anyone suggest a remedy? Here is an example taken on a sunny day of a shaded footpath. I am new to digital photography and I would appreciate all possible help.

[miketoll]

I am not a Nikon man so don't know that camera but I would start by very carefully checking all the settings on the camera, especially the exposure compensation. It's so easy to have a wrong setting, I have just accidentally taken shot in bright sunlight with ISO 1600 set which did not do a lot of good for the exposure either combined with the shutter speed and aperture set!

[Derekb]

Sam, I too have the D300. It is perfect until I set it to program mode, then it overexposes by 1 or 2 stops. I know the user manual backwards, so it is not me making a mistake.

Now I know about it I don't use Program mode, or if I have to I'll dial in compensation. It is annoying though - I would normally return my camera but as the rest is working fine I'll wait for an update and see if that fixes it.

Attached is an example taken in Program mode: Even though this is (was) a Raw file the waterfall is too badly blown out to recover.

[yelvertoft]

Derek, with the dynamic range of tones in this picture, I'd say you're expecting miracles if you want detail in the dark bits and no blow out on the bright bits, regardless of the camera/mode being used.

[Sam2002ituk]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep an eye on exposure compensation Mike.
I will try to keep away from program auto too for now thanks Derek, Have you heard of any other d300 users with the same problem?

[gordon g]

Learn how your camera meters in different modes too. The camera will try to render the scene with midtones as much as possible, so if the scene is dark, the camera will overexpose the 'proper ' value to lighten it to a mid-tone; similarly, if it is a light scene, the camera will underexpose it to render it as a mid-tone. The camera user needs to interpret the meter reading in the light (sorry, bad pun) of what the desired result is, ie which bit of the scene the user thinks should be a mid-tone.

assuming the D300 has some common ground with D80, if you use it manual centre exposure, by waving it around a frame, you get an idea of correct exposure for the important bits. Having then taken one, look at the replay and rotate the knob until you get to a mode that shows 'highlights'; if a significant area is flashing, stop down and retake. Shoot RAW and you can sort out any underexposure, globally or locally, in Capture NX (see thread in Digital Dargroom)

This is one of the key techniques to grasp on landscape photography as the problem of huge range of exposure is so common. Others might recommend HDR, but will leave that to them.

[Birdsnapper]

A common technique is to expose for the highlights and accept that the shadows will be deep. I agree with Chris about shooting RAW - it can be a life-saver. You could try setting the aperture to say f16 to get depth of field, try a shot then then set exposure compensation to -1 and see what happens.

As an aside, I quite like the shot as it is - looks a bit abstract - the softness of the image and coloues make it attractive.

[Derekb]

To be fair the only time my camera goes into Program mode is if I forget to change it. I'm well aware that I'm asking a lot of the camera's metering in the picture above, which is why I prefer to select my own settings and relevant compensation needed. I don't usually miss a shot altogether.

The shot was taken in RAW and no way can I get back the blown highlights. On this particular occasion I was not chimping (looking at my shots) because I was pre-ocupied with showing Caroline how to use her camera (I know - I should learn mine first! ) and didn't realise it was in program mode until the next location - my bad. Oh well, lesson learned...

Oh and Sam, there has been some discussion of this on Photo.net. I honestly think that the D300 is very poor in Program mode, as shot's taken in normal light with no definite highlights are still underexposed too often for my (and apparently a number of others) liking.

[Don Hoey]

As Lello has posted that he is getting a D300 as well, I thought I should download the manual and try to understand whats happening.

May request posting of some duff exposures with camera settings info after I have had a read.

Don