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Archive 2017 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?

  
 
unangelino
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


Look, I know I'm no good at this but I still can't figure out what caused my Nikon D300 to suddenly start overexposing the other day.

I was getting set up when I shot this image to get a sense of things. You can see from the EXIF that exposure compensation was set to -.5 and I was trying to use the flash to illuminate beneath the subject's hat.

Anyway, so this image is wildly overexposed, wouldn't you say?

Now, what's doubly weird is this; later on I noticed that the D300's meter would occasionally show that an image was going to be pegged, totally overexposed, even though I was then at zero in an attempt to get a handle on things. In these instances, the flash was turned off. When I hit the +/- button it would show 0.

Later, I reset the D300's shooting menu but it still did it's overexposure act a few more times just to piss me off.

I am hoping for my typical "operator error" but currently I'm at a loss.

Any ideas? Thanks for reading...







Wowsa...kinda bright!




Aug 16, 2017 at 01:02 AM
Photozack81
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


Were you in spot metering mode and pointing it at something dark?

Also, it seems like you were in one of the assisted shooting modes. Manual mode won't do this to you.



Aug 16, 2017 at 01:04 AM
unangelino
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


It was in matrix metering and aperture priority.


Aug 16, 2017 at 01:07 AM
bgorum
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


Does it do this with all your lenses or only one? If its just one lens, then a possibility is that the lens is not diaphraming properly. One of my lenses recently developed some play in the lens barrel, which in turn ended up somehow tearing the lens' circuit board. This caused the camera to not recognize the lens, and to not stop it down to the aperture I had set. The clues to the problem for me was that the aperture readout in the viewfinder and the EXIF would sometimes read strange values, (like f6), and all my pictures were overexposed by the same number of stops as I had the lens stopped down from wide open.


Aug 16, 2017 at 06:56 AM
spoupard
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


I doubt this will help, but have you tried completely removing the flash from the camera; not just turning it off? I would also do as bgorum suggests and try another lens. You could just have a sticky iris.


Aug 16, 2017 at 07:21 AM
NightOwl Cat
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


Is bracketing on?


Aug 16, 2017 at 08:07 AM
reggieb
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


unangelino wrote:
Look, I know I'm no good at this but I still can't figure out what caused my Nikon D300 to suddenly start overexposing the other day.

I was getting set up when I shot this image to get a sense of things. You can see from the EXIF that exposure compensation was set to -.5 and I was trying to use the flash to illuminate beneath the subject's hat.

Anyway, so this image is wildly overexposed, wouldn't you say?

Now, what's doubly weird is this; later on I noticed that the D300's meter would occasionally show that an image was going to be
...Show more

What aperture did you have it set to? That looks to me like a photo where I've set things to a point where it would be impossible for the camera to not overexpose it (if you're at f/1.4 on a bright sunny day, and have a fill flash, for example, your camera's fastest shutter speed might not be fast enough (well, fine, absolutely won't be), even at base ISO, to get the proper exposure.

Happens to me my first shot sometimes after I've been shooting something in manual mode auto-ISO, and I suddenly change subjects. I don't know if that camera has the little exposure indicator in the viewfinder, but if it does, and it reads overexposed, make sure your base ISO is set correctly, and adjust aperture until it indicates proper exposure.



Aug 16, 2017 at 08:35 AM
CanadaMark
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


Things to check:

- Your flash EV compensation (not the normal EV compensation)

- If you have bracketing turned on

The easiest way is to reset the entire camera, which will guarantee that every setting returns to its default value and will rule out user error the quickest.



Aug 16, 2017 at 09:41 AM
unangelino
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


funny. that was one my first thoughts. i own a fuji x100 and thought it looked like SAB. this image was at f4 with my usually well behaved nikon 35 f/1.8. i'll experiment with a couple other lenses to see if it's lens related. thanks!

bgorum wrote:
Does it do this with all your lenses or only one? If its just one lens, then a possibility is that the lens is not diaphraming properly. One of my lenses recently developed some play in the lens barrel, which in turn ended up somehow tearing the lens' circuit board. This caused the camera to not recognize the lens, and to not stop it down to the aperture I had set. The clues to the problem for me was that the aperture readout in the viewfinder and the EXIF would sometimes read strange values, (like f6), and all my pictures
...Show more




Aug 16, 2017 at 09:41 AM
rstoddard11
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


Did you have the ASA (ISO) set on a high setting? I have done this before.


Aug 16, 2017 at 09:46 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


Or did you have ISO set to auto ? Auto will not go less than the value that was already when you switched to auto. e.g. you might expect it to use ISO 200 but it's actually pegged at 800.

Make sure that your flash is not set to a different mode or value than what your camera thinks it is set for. e.g. flash unit in manual mode while camera is in auto.

The use of flash may be setting or restricting the camera shutter speed to say 1/60 or 1/250 and hence causing overexposure in scenes that need faster than that for the ambient light level.

Anyway, you certainly got to see under her hat, so it wasn't all bad



Aug 16, 2017 at 10:21 AM
mitchel674
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


EXIF says ISO 200, f4 and 1/250.

I suspect when you popped up your flash, you limited your shutterspeed to the top end of 1/250 and with your aperture at f4 and ISO at 200 your camera was forced to overexpose. Try stopping down a bit when you are in this situation since your camera sync speed can not exceed 1/250 with the on camera flash. An alternative would be to try a flash with high speed sync enabled.



Aug 16, 2017 at 10:29 AM
unangelino
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


i think you're onto something here...the f/4 was "leftover" from the last time i used the camera.

my brain didn't work quickly enough to stop the lens down further. thanks, this makes a whole lot of sense.

by the way, to another person who replied; flash comp was at zero also...



mitchel674 wrote:
EXIF says ISO 200, f4 and 1/250.

I suspect when you popped up your flash, you limited your shutterspeed to the top end of 1/250 and with your aperture at f4 and ISO at 200 your camera was forced to overexpose. Try stopping down a bit when you are in this situation since your camera sync speed can not exceed 1/250 with the on camera flash. An alternative would be to try a flash with high speed sync enabled.





Aug 16, 2017 at 11:10 AM
unangelino
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


Thanks to everyone for your responses. I'm certain it was the flesh limiting my shutter speed to 250. Like I said, I'm no good at this. The only positive result is that I'm re-energized to learn how to use flash better. Still not quite sure what led the meter to indicate overexposure later on.

Maybe I dreamed that?

Thinking about doing a full reset just for giggles.

Thanks again...



Aug 16, 2017 at 01:20 PM
j-photo
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


Your shutter speed is maxing out at 1/250 sec. So your settings look to me like f/4, 1/250 s, and whatever your lowest iso is. That should overexpose under normal daylight.

Either you need to use high speed sync to raise shutter speed, a smaller aperture, or an ND filter.



Aug 16, 2017 at 02:06 PM
LinuxHack3r
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


unangelino wrote:
Thanks to everyone for your responses. I'm certain it was the flesh limiting my shutter speed to 250. Like I said, I'm no good at this. The only positive result is that I'm re-energized to learn how to use flash better. Still not quite sure what led the meter to indicate overexposure later on.

Maybe I dreamed that?

Thinking about doing a full reset just for giggles.

Thanks again...


I quite honestly nearly ruined 1.5 photoshoots in my past by trying to be "clever" and use a flash for fill for engagement shoots. Canon 6D and 430 EXII paired with 85mm 1.8 USM and the images were much "worse" than yours.

I salvaged some of it simply because I was smart enough to turn the flash off. After severe pondering later I realized that of course 1/250s coupled with ISO 100 and f/1.8 in daylight is a no-go from the start. A higher aperture should cut things down a bit but that may not be what you want.

I am going to likely purchase a 3 Stop ND filter for this exact scenario.

An alternative would also be setting the flash to M and turning the flash power way, way down, although it will still limit your shutter to 1/250 so if that itself is overexposing this method will not help any.

A second more viable alternative would be to turn on HSS (High Speed Shutter Sync) on your flash if it supports it. Then you can bump your shutter speed much faster.



Aug 16, 2017 at 02:21 PM
NightOwl Cat
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


FYI, here's full exif for that shot:

Standard Information
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D300
Software: Ver.1.10
ImageSize: 1024x680
CreateDate: 2017:08:14 16:43:12.60
ModifyDate: 2017:08:14 16:43:12.60
DateTimeOriginal: 2017:08:14 16:43:12
ExposureTime: 1/250"
Aperture: F4.0
MaxAperture: F1.7
CircleOfConfusion: 0.020 mm
HyperfocalDistance: 15.14 m
ExposureProgram: Aperture-priority AE
ExposureBiasValue: -1/2
CompressedBitsPerPixel: 4
MeteringMode: Multi-segment
Flash: On, Return detected
ISO: 200
WhiteBalance: Auto
FocalLength: 35.0 mm
FocalLength35efl: 35.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 52.0 mm)
SensingMethod: One-chip color area
ColorSpace: sRGB
Contrast: Normal
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal

GPS Information

Other Information
ApplicationRecordVersion: 2
Artist: Cervantes
BitsPerSample: 8
By-line: Cervantes
CodedCharacterSet: UTF8
ColorComponents: 3
Creator: Cervantes
CreatorTool: Ver.1.10
CustomRendered: Normal
DateCreated: 2017:08:14 16:43:12.60
DateTimeCreated: 2017:08:14 16:43:12.60 16:43:12
DigitalCreationDate: 2017:08:14
DigitalCreationTime: 16:43:12
DigitalZoomRatio: 1
Directory: C:UserslauraDownloads
EncodingProcess: Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
ExifByteOrder: Big-endian (Motorola)
ExifImageHeight: 680
ExifImageWidth: 1024
ExifVersion: 0221
ExposureMode: Auto
FNumber: 4.0
FOV: 38.2 deg
FileModifyDate: 2017:08:16 16:12:51
FileName: 1508374.jpg
FileSize: 659 kB
FileType: JPEG
FlashCompensation: 0
FlashpixVersion: 0100
FocalLengthIn35mmFormat: 52 mm
GainControl: None
ImageHeight: 680
ImageNumber: 30389
ImageWidth: 1024
JFIFVersion: 1.1
Lens: AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 G
LensID: 336896262
LightSource: Unknown
LightValue: 11.0
MaxApertureValue: 1.7
Orientation: Horizontal (normal)
ResolutionUnit: inches
ScaleFactor35efl: 1.5
SceneCaptureType: Standard
SerialNumber: 3173340
ShutterSpeed: 1/250
SubSecDateTimeOriginal: 2017:08:14 16:43:12.60
SubSecTime: 60
SubSecTimeDigitized: 60
SubSecTimeOriginal: 60
SubjectDistanceRange: Unknown
TimeCreated: 16:43:12
UserComment:
XResolution: 300
YCbCrSubSampling: YCbCr4:4:4 (1 1)
YResolution: 300



Aug 16, 2017 at 03:13 PM
Jay968
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Weird overexposure from my Nikon D300. Any ideas?


ExposureTime: 1/250"
Aperture: F4.0


ExposureProgram: Aperture-priority AE
ExposureBiasValue: -1/2

Flash: On, Return detected
ISO: 200

In daylight at ISO 200, 1/250sec, exposure bias of -1/2, your aperture should have been somewhere between F11 and F16, not F4
You have to realize that just because you are using flash, you cannot disregard what the exposure needs to be to control the ambient light which is also contributing to the exposure. As a matter of fact, the ambient light (being the sunlight) takes priority here because you cannot make the sun darker, you have to work within its exposure requirements.
In order to use flash to fill in the shadows, the best way here would have been to use high speed synch if your equipment is capable of doing so. This would have allowed you to use a higher shutter speed to compensate for the bright sunlight.



Aug 16, 2017 at 10:43 PM





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