Dark levels way too dark

Hi,
I've noticed that with my 5200 my exposures are good for anything daytime, but any kind of darker or night shooting just comes out way too dark. There's a dropoff at some point and it's really steep. I was photographing the Northern Lights and on the LCD it looked fine but on my computer it's really dark. None of my daytime images appear dark. My NL pics were f5.6 at a 30 second exposure, but on the computer you can't even see anything. I can lighten it in photoshop but I just don't know why there's such a difference with the black levels. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

hello Lisa and welcome, post up one of your shots along with the exif data and you will get more responses.

click on the insert image (3 to the right of the smiley icon) select from computer, select files and direct it to where you have your files stored, make it 1000 ON THE LONG SIDE, this way your details will be visable.

When you say they look fine on the LCD, are you playing back the finished image or are you talking about watching on Live View as you shoot? I am assuming Live View.
I'm not sure how to explain why, but what you see in Live View is not necessarily an indicator of how your final exposure will look. If it happens to be a good normal exposure, it matches. When you change settings, you might also note that the live view does not change.

Welcome to the forum. Here is a guide to posting a photo here. Also please let us knowGuidelines to adding a photo to your post.

1. Resize photo to 1000px on the long side.
2. Resolution set to 72ppi (Pixels Per Inch)

These guidelines will be good for viewing on a computer but will not be good for printing. This will help safeguard your copyright.








if you are shooting in RAW or JPEG. The more details you can add the better we might be able to help you.