Brightness in Nikon D5100

[samehar]

I have a nikon D5100. I noticed that the brightness in sun shining daylight photos is less than expected. I shoot with P and adjust the sharpness to +6 and the saturation to +3, the white balance to auto with amber +1. when I set the brightness to +1 which is the maximum, the output brightness in the photo does not increase. when the light is less as for markedly cloudy weather or near sunset, the photos become more bright.

Does the camera normally compensate for the brigheness so as to give more brightness in lower natural light and less brightness in naturally very bright outdoor?

[Inkanyezi]

The answer to the bottom line is yes, as long as you use evaluating light metering. The reason is that it really has the built in hardware necessary to evaluate the scene, and that high contrast scenes may get less exposure due to the highlights.

And there is one setting, maybe you did set that one, Active D-Lighting, which is a bit stricter in this respect, although it brightens up the shadows, something not done when you have Active D-Lighting off. So this control may be what you'll prefer in order to keep the sunny shots a bit brighter. The Active D-Lighting also will work at other high contrast scenes, as indoors where windows are included and similar. So if you have not set Active D-Lighting, try it out and see if it does something for your sunny shots.

[AB26]

Hi samehar,
Tune back all settings to "normal". The +3 saturation will make images look less bright.
If you are not familiar with the effect of different settings go back to the default and experiment with one setting at a time.

[herbert]

The camera tries to make the overall brightness of an image constant. But it also tries to avoid pure whites in the scene and may under expose to protect them. Have a read of this tutorial about the exposure metering of your camera:

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...a-metering.htm

You should then experiment with the exposure compensation and review your image and the histogram to check the settings.

I agree that you should reset your camera development settings to standard. Focus on the effects of changing picture styles (portrait, landscape, etc) and the exposure settings. To use the development settings requires a lot of post processing experience. By experimenting on a few shots in camera it will be hard for you to you learn how those settings change things. You should be able to apply similar changes in picture editing software. You can practice on many photos, compare settings on the same photo and get to learn the situations where you would want to use them.

Alex

[samehar]

Thanks so much for your valuable replies.
I will follow your advices to reset the settings and try one by one as AB26 recommends. I would like to thank Alex for the link and I will try to use the histogram with reviewing the photos.
Yes - Inkanyezi - the D-lighting is on. but I'll try to make the saturation maximally +1 and make the white balance Amber +1 and review the results. I'll keep sharpening to +6 as I think the photos direct out of the camera is a bit soft. I'll try to make these during this weekend - especially that I'll also have a sony nex-5n to compare -and give a feedback.

The camera tries to make the overall brightness of an image constant. But it also tries to avoid pure whites in the scene and may under expose to protect them. Have a read of this tutorial about the exposure metering of your camera:

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...a-metering.htm

You should then experiment with the exposure compensation and review your image and the histogram to check the settings.

I agree that you should reset your camera development settings to standard. Focus on the effects of changing picture styles (portrait, landscape, etc) and the exposure settings. To use the development settings requires a lot of post processing experience. By experimenting on a few shots in camera it will be hard for you to you learn how those settings change things. You should be able to apply similar changes in picture editing software. You can practice on many photos, compare settings on the same photo and get to learn the situations where you would want to use them.

Alex