D7000 - photos are all too dark

[pipylnic888]

Hi, I'm new to photography so please bear with me. I just got a Nikon D7000 and have shot with it twice now. The first time, my photos came out normal, but today they all came out very dark, almost black. When I uploaded them to my computer I was able to adjust the brightness and could make out the photos, but they were still very dark. Both times I shot outside in daylight on a sunny day in auto mode with no flash.

An older post on this forum said that I could have inadvertently changed the exposure compensation, but I checked and it is at 0 and the photos are still coming out dark. Does anyone have any ideas as to why this keeps happening?

Here's a picture to show what's going on - I took this in the afternoon when it was bright and sunny.

 

[budget cruncher]

I don't have an EXIF reader, so would you please post the EXIF? Just make a screen shot and post that.

 

[robbins.photo]

There are several resets in the menus, one for the shooting menu and one in camera settings. I'd reset both and put the camera back to factory defaults.

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

 

[pipylnic888]

I just tried resetting the shooting and camera settings and the photos are still dark.

Is this the exif?

File Size
1053 kB
File Type
JPEG
MIME Type
image/jpeg
Image Width
4928
Image Height
3264
Encoding Process
Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample
8
Color Components
3
X Resolution
1
Y Resolution
1
YCbCr Sub Sampling
YCbCr4:2:2 (2 1)

 

[budget cruncher]

Is this the exif?

That's a small portion of the usual EXIF. Unfortunately, I have not equipped this computer with an EXIF reader, so I needed to ask you for the particulars.

What some of the more experienced photographers will be interested in seeing are things like lens, aperture, shutter, ISO, exposure mode, flash mode, etc. etc. If you upload your photo directly from your computer, someone with an EXIF reader can just read it from your photo.

 

[pipylnic888]

Here's the photo directly from my computer.

 

[480sparky]

Camera Maker: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D7000
Image Date: 2016-04-01 16:19:05 (no TZ)
Focal Length: 55.0mm (35mm equivalent: 82mm)
Aperture: ƒ/4.0
Exposure Time: 0.0003 s (1/3200)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No (enforced)
Orientation: Normal
Color Space: sRGB



Very strange. If you're shooting in sunlight, this should be dead on.

 

[robbins.photo]

Exposure time 1/3200 at 100 iso? Check your iso settings, see if auto iso is on and if so if it's set to a max of 100.

Set your auto iso on and set the max to say 1600, then decrease your shutter to say 1/200 and see what that does

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

 

[pixmedic]

something else must be going on.
in good sunlight, a SS of 3200 at ISO 100 should produce a recognizable picture. even at f/4

 

[robbins.photo]

something else must be going on.
in good sunlight, a SS of 3200 at ISO 100 should produce a recognizable picture. even at f/4

Been a while since I looked at exif data, does it express a shutter speed of 1/320 as 3200 or would that be a shutter speed of 1/3200?

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

 

[pixmedic]

something else must be going on.
in good sunlight, a SS of 3200 at ISO 100 should produce a recognizable picture. even at f/4

Been a while since I looked at exif data, does it express a shutter speed of 1/320 as 3200 or would that be a shutter speed of 1/3200?

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

the shutter speed was 1/3200
should not have been that big of an issue though.
i took a bunch of my dog park pictures at 1/4000 ISO 100 f/4 and got good exposure.

 

[pipylnic888]

ISO was set at 100. Should I change it?

 

[pixmedic]

I just noticed the OP said it was in auto mode....
so....thats what the camera decided the settings needed to be for correct exposure based on its meter.

ISO 100 should have been fine in outdoor sunlight.
all of the settings look fine for daylight shooting.
im currently at a loss as to what the problem might be.

 

[pixmedic]

ISO was set at 100. Should I change it?

you can try, but outside in bright sunlight....you shouldnt need to.
maybe try ISO 800 and see what difference it makes. you would need to shoot under similar conditions as the other pictures though. OR, take a shot inside with the lights on at iso 100, then try 800 and 1600 ISO and compare

 

[Watchful]

Pull the battery and turn the camera on for 15 sec.s with no battery. Put the battery in again and retry it.