Confused about exposure meter in Aperture Priority mode

[djmodifyd]

Hi all, new here.

I've done some searching with no luck.
My question is this, in A mode with a set ISO.... I'm confused about the EV meter and the information its displaying. Say I'm in a darker room, the EV meter will show up all the way to the right (which as I understand is saying that there is not enough light and my picture will show up under exposed). What I'm confused about is, if I change nothing but Exposure compensation, the only way to get the exposure meter to move back to the middle is to put in NEGATIVE exposure comp...which makes no sense to me. My camera is wanting me to darken the picure that it is already saying is too dark?

I hope that question made sense...I am in the understanding that if the meter is showing the picture would be dark, and adding positive exposure comp (or +1 or 2 or 3) would bring the meter back to the middle...not adding negative.

Thanks!

 

[AC016]

If you are in A mode - which I take you mean as Aperture mode - you have control over the aperture. If your meter is telling you the exposure is to dark, you have to fiddle around with the ISO. Boost it a bit and see what happens with the meter. Or, you can adjust your aperture and see what happens. If you use the flash, it will help as well. Positive EV makes it lighter. Negative makes the exposure darker.

 

[WayneF]

Your understanding sounds correct, what you see does not.

Investigate D5100 menu F5 (and F3) - manual page 166 - which reverses things - and make sure they are not fooling you.

 

[djmodifyd]

If you are in A mode - which I take you mean as Aperture mode - you have control over the aperture. If your meter is telling you the exposure is to dark, you have to fiddle around with the ISO. Boost it a bit and see what happens with the meter. Or, you can adjust your aperture and see what happens. If you use the flash, it will help as well. Positive EV makes it lighter. Negative makes the exposure darker.

Thanks,
I understand all of that. My question was, if I touch nothing else but the EV...the only way to get the meter back in the middle is by doing the opposite of what makes sense. If the meter is showing that the picture will be dark, and i have to put in negative EV to get the meter to move back towards the middle. I would think that adding positive would move the meter back to the middle.

I know I can change other settings, I just want to make sense of how the camera is thinking putting in negative EV will bring the exposure meter from dark back to the middle.

Thanks!

 

[djmodifyd]

Your understanding sounds correct, what you see does not.

Investigate D5100 menu F5 (and F3) - manual page 166 - which reverses things - and make sure they are not fooling you.

Thanks, I did check that but I will double check again when I'm with my camera.

 

[AC016]

Thanks,
I understand all of that. My question was, if I touch nothing else but the EV...the only way to get the meter back in the middle is by doing the opposite of what makes sense. If the meter is showing that the picture will be dark, and i have to put in negative EV to get the meter to move back towards the middle. I would think that adding positive would move the meter back to the middle.

I know I can change other settings, I just want to make sense of how the camera is thinking putting in negative EV will bring the exposure meter from dark back to the middle.

Thanks!

My question to you then is, have you tried to do what the camera is telling you to do? That is, to put the negative exposure in on an already dark exposure. Try it and then let us know how it turns out. If the result is that it brought the meter back to the middle and gave you a better exposure, then I would not try to understand anything more

 

[djmodifyd]

My question to you then is, have you tried to do what the camera is telling you to do? That is, to put the negative exposure in on an already dark exposure. Try it and then let us know how it turns out. If the result is that it brought the meter back to the middle and gave you a better exposure, then I would not try to understand anything more

haha, well I could try that out.

I was just confused and was hoping for a clearing up, one thing I noticed, was it really only seemed to happen when the flash was up, maybe that has something to do with it?

 

[WayneF]

I can duplicate your original report. The reason is this: It shows insufficient light (when real dark), meaning A mode shutter cannot do any more to help it, A mode cannot match the necessary exposure. Then if you specify +EV Exposure Compensation, you are saying you want it even brighter than normal, and since it cannot even do what it had before, now it makes it even more insufficient (for your request).

That seems right to me now that I see it.

I have the D300 and D800, and it has to be pretty dark before camera A mode even shows that meter scale. Because, in A mode, the scale disappears whenever it is able to match exposure with any shutter speed (i.e., not underexposed).

Unless the flash is up, enabled, ready to go. Which is because when flash is enabled, the Minimum Shutter Speed with Flash kicks in, typically increasing to 1/60 second in dark scenes, which is then no longer able to match the darker exposures... which is the explanation. Some models have a menu to set this Minimum Shutter Speed with Flash, but default is generally 1/60 second.
Reasoning is, if using flash, we don't need 1/4 second that the ambient might have metered.

But the thing to know with flash is that that this meter scale shows the ambient exposure, and is not affected by the flash or flash exposure. The TTL flash system in camera has its own invisible meter, not shown. This meter scale only shows ambient.

On Nikons, Exposure Compensation affects both ambient and flash, and Flash Compensation only affects Flash.

 

[djmodifyd]

I can duplicate your original report. The reason is this: It shows insufficient light (when real dark), meaning A mode shutter cannot do any more to help it, A mode cannot match the necessary exposure. Then if you specify +EV Exposure Compensation, you are saying you want it even brighter than normal, and since it cannot even do what it had before, now it makes it even more insufficient (for your request).

That seems right to me now that I see it.

I have the D300 and D800, and it has to be pretty dark before camera A mode even shows that meter scale. Because, in A mode, the scale disappears whenever it is able to match exposure with any shutter speed (i.e., not underexposed).

Unless the flash is up, enabled, ready to go. Which is because when flash is enabled, the Minimum Shutter Speed with Flash kicks in, typically increasing to 1/60 second in dark scenes, which is then no longer able to match the darker exposures... which is the explanation. Some models have a menu to set this Minimum Shutter Speed with Flash, but default is generally 1/60 second.
Reasoning is, if using flash, we don't need 1/4 second that the ambient might have metered.

But the thing to know with flash is that that this meter scale shows the ambient exposure, and is not affected by the flash or flash exposure. The TTL flash system in camera has its own invisible meter, not shown. This meter scale only shows ambient.

On Nikons, Exposure Compensation affects both ambient and flash, and Flash Compensation only affects Flash.

Makes total sense! Thank you! I appreciate your in depth response!