allend

I'm new to photography. I took my Nikon D3400 out to snap some pictures today. I tried Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority. All photos were either underexposed or overexposed.........badly. I could not get the light meter to center on any photos. If I went up or down and f-stop or shutter speed it threw the light meter either too high or too low. I know this is probably something elementary I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

CO

Is it possible that you have exposure bracketing activated? I've had exposure bracketing activated in order to take a set of photos for HDR. The next time I take pictures I forget that it's still active and wonder why the exposures are all over the place.

BebuLamar

In either shutter priority or aperture priority the D3400 doesn't show the meter unless you have the flash on.

allend

I did not have the flash on. As far as I know the D3400 does not provide exposure bracketing. I knew I was going to be under or over exposed from the light meter display. Since I took those photos I did some reading and I guess I have to apply exposure compensation. Is this typical when taking pictures in Aperture or Shutter Priority modes?

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

Do you have the EV set to other than "0?"

cedymock Loc: Irmo, South Carolina

What was the ISO set on?

This may help you understand;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eVjUrY9a9c

BebuLamar

I don't think the meter is visible when in aperture priority or shutter priority mode except when the flash is in use as well.

pbcbob Loc: Delray Beach, FL

In theory, this is almost impossible. If you adjust either f-stop or shutter speed, the camera will adjust the other value, i.e., faster shutter speed will be compensated by a larger (smaller number) f-stop.
See if you have an EV value set. This would always result in over or under exposed depending if the exposure value is negative or positive. Make sure it is set to zero.
I am sure the answer is very simple and this problem will soon be behind you.

allend

ISO was set at 200

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

A possibility....
If you are shooting scenes where the subject and the background are dark/light, and you have spot metering on, a slight reframing of the subject will have the camera try to expose for the background or the foreground and so every shot will be under or over exposed. (I shoot manual 90% of the time for this reason :-)

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

It might be worth setting your camera to default and trying again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YWb72KMpgY

CO

crazydaddio above makes a good observation. There could be a lot of variation in spot metering mode. If the camera is in spot metering try switching to matrix metering.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

A few ideas:

1. Attach an example JPEG from the camera that demonstrates the exposure issue. Be sure to store the original. In digital photography, the camera writes a host of technical details into the image file that we can download along with your original image and analyze (EXIF data). We can see the image and the exposure and the exact camera settings and can help you understand what happened.

2a. Take an image in full auto. Review the settings selected by the camera. Switch to either Aperture or Shutter priority and adjust to the same settings. Assuming you have the ISO fixed (not auto ISO), you should be able to create the same image as the camera did in Auto. Depending on the mode, you can then begin to adjust the Aperture or Shutter as desired. You should achieve the same exposure with the adjustments as the camera will dynamically adjust other aspects of the exposure triangle. In Aperture mode, for an example, if you open the aperture, the camera will quicken the shutter to compensate.

2b. While using Aperture or Shutter priority mode and setting the Aperture or Shutter to the desired values for your composition, use Exposure Compensation (EC) to modify the overall exposure making it either brighter or darker. I believe the EC tool will prove to be the control you need to employ to achieve success in the Aperture, Shutter or Program modes.

3. In digital photography, having the exposure at 'zero' in the view finder is rarely the desired result. Rather, you should be using the camera's histogram and highlight warnings (aka blinkies). Your highlight warnings should not be occurring or should be minimal, depending on preference. Your histogram should have a bias to the right, up to the point the highlights are blinking. As suggested in 2b, use EC to shift the exposure to the "left" or "right" when the technical details of an image are viewed in the histogram or the meter. Make an EC adjustment and view the details again until the desired exposure is achieved. Then, begin working on composition and focus of your images as the exposure is set until the light or scene changes.

4. Use your manual to find and understand the dials on the body and menus in the camera to operate / enable the suggestions above, if needed.

mgoldfield

Have you read the user manual for your camera?

If not, you cannot possibly know how to use your camera properly.
Until you do, try using full auto mode.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I'm not sure what you were expecting the camera to do when you were metering. As you rotate the proper dial the needle will pass through zero on its way up or down and you could stop it at zero. At some point you may have to change the ISO in order to meet the other parameters of aperture or shutter speed you prefer. As someone else noted, set your camera to its default settings and start over. I'd suggest going outdoors in good ligh with the sun behind you. Use Auto and take some pictures and see what combination of aperture, shutter, and ISO the camera selected. Then with the same subject, use Aperture mode with the same aperture setting as the camera did and note the shutter speed set by the camera. Without changing the ISO, it should be close to what the camera had chosen in Auto. The same goes for Shutter priority. These are my observations.