New Nikon digital camera D80 overexposure in autu program? Please advise?

Hi everyone, I just got the D80 and took photos of appliances my husband sells. They are white stoves. I took the photos outside, The frame was 70% filled with the white stove and the rest was dars shadow background around the stove. I took the photos in auto mode and ended up with the stoves being over exposed so all the detailed got washed of -/ handles and other details are missing/ I wonder what I did wrong doesnt the auto mode should ne able to measure the exposure corectly?

Should I have change to exposure mode for the center only?

Any advice will be very apritiated than you so much Katy

Answer by vienna2001
It’s highly unusual for a camera to overexpose a 70% white image — they will usually underexpose.

However, many Nikons tend to overexpose, so try this: put your camera in P mode; find the exposure compensation button; dial in -0.5.

Hope this helps.

Answer by antoni
cameras are stupid and so are those think they are smart – any automatic metering weither spot, center weigghted or 500 zone or whatever is wasting your time

on automatic they expose white subjects as grey, because they want to meter mid grey or blue skys and green grass,

get and use a “grey” card, use manual exposure and take control of the camera – auto is a waste of time if you want good exposures

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLR,GGLR:2006-30,GGLR:en&q=grey+card

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLR,GGLR:2006-30,GGLR:en&q=grey+card&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

Answer by Mason Torrey
I’m guessing you had the metering set to centre weighted. I’ve had nothing but problems with that metering mode. Set it to matrix metering and everything will come out perfectly.

I don’t know what idiot gave me the thumbs down but I’m a wedding photographer and use Nikon. With wedding photography, it’s critical that you don’t overexpose a white wedding dress. I fouldn’t that centre weighted metering didn’t work but with matrix metering, I’ve never overexposed a wedding dress nor will you overexpose whiteware. The matrix metering won’t be fooled by a dark background.

What do you think? Answer below!

Nikon rocks !
nikon d80 digital camera

Image by PotironLight

I have a Nikon D80 digital camera and the lens seems to be broken. When I’m trying to take outdoor pictures now, unless I have the lens completely extended, the picture turns out VERY light. I have to zoom all the way in for the picture to turn out normal. When I'm indoors and using flash, it seems to work fine. Does anyone know what I need to do different to make this camera work outside without having super-light pictures? Or is it time for a new lens? Thanks.
Sorry, should have added that the lens says it’s a “AF-S NIKKOR 18-135 mm 1:3.5 5.6G ED.” (Whatever that means.) It also says Nikon DX on the lens. And it takes the really light photos on every setting I put it on.

Answer by Caoedhen
1st question… what lens? Complete ID…

2nd question… what mode do you have the camera set to when this happens?

If could very well be the aperture is stuck, but let’s make sure before we get it sent off to Nikon for service.

EDIT: If you have tried this in manual and auto modes, and the lens is still acting this way, it sounds like the aperture is stuck open. This could be the camera has an error, or the lens has an error. You need a second Nikon lens to stick on the camera and see what happens. If the lens aperture stays wide open like your current lens, your camera has the problem. If the second lens works as it should, your lens has the problem. One of them needs to go to Nikon.

Answer by retiredPhil
Why the answer to this is perfectly obvious. The lens has camera envy. It really wants to be used on a D90. Time to trade in. )

Answer by Edwin
Seriously, does anyone ever bother to actually READ & STUDY the Owner’s Manual for their camera?

What Mode are you shooting in? From the description of the problem, it appears to me that you are in Manual mode with a shutter speed that is too fast at f3.5 (18mm) and just right for f5.6 (135mm).

Learn to use the light meter in your camera. Or, until you do, shoot in Aperture Priority and let the camera set a correct shutter speed. Or, just leave it in Program and turn your nice DSLR into a really expensive point & shoot.

These books will be of great help to you:

“Understanding Exposure” and “Understanding Shutter Speed”, both by Bryan Peterson.

Add your own answer in the comments!

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