Exposure compensation in M mode, does it do anything?

Hi,

I was trying out some features yesterday, I tried to use Exposure Compensation in M mode and it appeared to have no affect upon the image captured.

I have since read the manual on this feature, p112/113 and the wording is not clear to me.

At values other than ±0.0, the 0 at the center of the exposureindicators will flash (modes P, S, and A only) and a E icon will be
displayed in the control panel and viewfinder after you release
the E button.

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Mode MIn mode M, exposure compensation affects only the exposure indicator; shutter speed and
aperture do not change.

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​Is this effectively saying it will only affect the exposure in P, S & A modes?

I assumed 'exposure compensation' worked like a neutral density filter and just reduced or increased the exposure via its internal 'software'. Does it actually change the shutter speed & aperture and only work in P, S & A modes?

I was attempting to get a longish exposure (0.5 - 2 secs) on a beach on an overcast day.

I appreciate any clarification i can get on this subject.

Cheers.

Manual mode is manual, you chose the aperture and shutter. If you use exposure compensation, which would you expect it to change? Or would you want exposure compensation to mess with ISO? On my D5100 there's a thumbwheel to change the shutter speed. When the exposure compensation is pressed (and kept pressed) the thumbwheel becomes the aperture adjuster.

Your meter is marked to show a change of up to plus or minus 2 stops, any more than that, a mark shows that you are off the edge of the meter.

It does nothing in Manual. It's meant to adjust for the metered exposure in S & A modes. Want to do the same thing in M? Just meter properly and then over/under expose changing the shutter speed or aperture.

Clearly what i thought exposure compensation was was quite wrong, i.e some kind of post processing / virtual exposure density filter , if it just adjusts the aperture and/or shutter speed i confused as to its purpose?

How is it useful, why would you not just make the adjustments yourself.

In Manual mode you would. In Aperture or Shutter Priority the camera is setting at least one of the other exposure elements based on the metering. In some lighting situations that could result in the over or under exposure of what you want. For example, shooting something like birds in flight, a bright or dark sky can cause the bird you want to capture to be blown out or overly dark, so adjusting the exposure compensation means that you'll get the details where you need them. More times than not you can do this adjustment on a RAW file in post-processing, but when you're still shooting it's nice to be able to know that you got the details you want.

Watoh said:

Clearly what i thought exposure compensation was was quite wrong, i.e some kind of post processing / virtual exposure density filter, if it just adjusts the aperture and/or shutter speed i confused as to its purpose?

How is it useful, why would you not just make the adjustments yourself.

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Since it only works in S & A modes I consider the EC function a sort of "Quick Bracketing" button.

That, to me, is it's only real purpose.

If your in A mode, and set it to say 5.6, the camera will select the shutter speed. If it thinks say 1/400 is correct, and you use exposure compensation to get something overexposed, the camera will slow the shutter speed down to say 1/200 to let in more light (over exposing). Same things true with S mode. If you say you want 1/400 and when you press the shutter half way, it thinks 5.6 is the correct aperture for a proper exposure, but you want it underexposed, it will move it up to say 6.0 to let in less light, underexposing it. In M mode, you are the exposure compensation. You can look in the viewfinder, and line up the exposure dial. +-------0------- - to 0, then adjust either the aperture or shutter speed to say +------0---*-- - to make it underexposed. Just change whichever one is less important to you. If you really want an aperture setting, slide the shutterspeed to over/under expose. If you need a certain shutter speed, then adjust the aperture to over/under expose. YOU are the exposure compensation in manual.

Watoh said:

Clearly what i thought exposure compensation was was quite wrong, i.e some kind of post processing / virtual exposure density filter , if it just adjusts the aperture and/or shutter speed i confused as to its purpose?

How is it useful, why would you not just make the adjustments yourself.

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If your not quite comfortable shooting in full manual, or sometimes you have a spur of the moment shot you need, and don't have time to dial in the aperture and shutter, you can just set it to either A or S, and use compensation. Some people (me included for a while) were scared of full M. So I used it a lot. I also think it has more benefits shooting in JPEG. If you shoot RAW, your going to edit it anyway..

Thanks for the input... i'm very happy in M mode, only ever use something like S mode for fast moving subjects in changing conditions, like wildlife in woods and the like.

I have a pretty good grasp of the key elements of exposure (iso/aperture/shutter speed), its just the multitude of features on the D600 that i have issues with. And the old finger shuffle of making quick changes to all the options in M mode. Sometimes i feel like a struggling saxophone player fumbling with the different notes!

One mode that most people stay away from is the Program Mode. You can set the ISO and the minimum shutter speed to suit your shooting for the day. In Program it will set the shutter speed and aperture for you. That we all know. What else you can do is to turn the Command wheel and it will change the combination of Shutter Speed and Aperture that it uses. One goes up the other goes down to always give you the correct exposure. this is great for walk around shooting since no matter what you are going to get a good exposure.

Just another tool for you to use.

Personally, i shot in M mode for quite some time and it taught me to be more attentive. However, you always have to remember bringing that meter to the middle. We have sophisticated cameras that are fine tuned to do the job that they do. Why not let the camera take care of part of the equation? I will use Aperture mode when i know what aperture i want and i will let the camera figure out the rest - except for ISO. I would use S mode if i was going to take pics of moving objects and let the cam figure out the rest. Learning M mode is great if you want full control over the camera and want to get a certain "look" to your pics. But i say let your camera work for you a little bit

AC016 said:

Personally, i shot in M mode for quite some time and it taught me to be more attentive. However, you always have to remember bringing that meter to the middle. We have sophisticated cameras that are fine tuned to do the job that they do. Why not let the camera take care of part of the equation? I will use Aperture mode when i know what aperture i want and i will let the camera figure out the rest - except for ISO. I would use S mode if i was going to take pics of moving objects and let the cam figure out the rest. Learning M mode is great if you want full control over the camera and want to get a certain "look" to your pics. But i say let your camera work for you a little bit

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I agree. M mode is something that everyone should learn. That goes for all the modes. Except for full AUTO they all have positive uses.

mmmm,, I get lazy and just use manual 98% of the time.. then I have total control, and ironically don't have to think as much, versus, setting it to say

aperature,, and then having to check if the camera is not picking a speed too slow for a hand carry.

I just find that in manual mode, I am tuned into the speed, and aperature, and also, aware of the meter on whether or not I want to under or overexpose depending on the type of shot I am taking.

but,, it is what you have conditioned too.. and FM,FA,F3, etc conditions.

Once I got over the initial apprehension of shooting in manual I knew I'd never go back to anything else. P, S & A are fine and most of the time the camera gets things pretty much right... Usually. But after forcing myself to shoot in Manual for a while I found the "groove" and now operate on my own, intuitive version, of "Automatic".

Like any new skill it's awkward at first but stick with it and before you know you're flowing like water without having to think everything through before you do it. I think it's a lot more fun, too.

Exposure compensation actually does something in M mode. What it does is, to change the bias of your meter. So if your digital meter shows 0 (middle) and you dial in a EV of +1.0, you will see the meter now showing -1.0.

So if you are basing all of your decisions based on the meter scale in the camera, change in Exposure compensation will affect your exposure. However, if you are using Sunny 16, or your own lightmeter (be it an electronic one or the one between your ears), exposure compensation will not affect you.

And if you turn auto ISO on, Exposure compensation will definitely affect your exposure.

Mfrankfort said:

Some people (me included for a while) were scared of full M. So I used it a lot. I also think it has more benefits shooting in JPEG. If you shoot RAW, your going to edit it anyway..

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There are a lot more options if you edit in Photoshop and RAW instead of other file types JPEG TIFF......

Tracsoft - Don Kuykendall said:

I agree. M mode is something that everyone should learn. That goes for all the modes. Except for full AUTO they all have positive uses.

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What I did learn from getting back from my cruise, AUTO has it's uses, haha. I pretty much had my camera on manual the entire cruise, and everytime I gave the camera to someone to take a picture of me and my wife... well... they looked scared, and they weren't as good in Manual as I would have thought. haha. So when I had people taking pictures of me and my wife... I threw it in AUTO. It worked better than giving someone a D600 in full Manual, haha.

Mfrankfort said:

What I did learn from getting back from my cruise, AUTO has it's uses, haha. I pretty much had my camera on manual the entire cruise, and everytime I gave the camera to someone to take a picture of me and my wife... well... they looked scared, and they weren't as good in Manual as I would have thought. haha. So when I had people taking pictures of me and my wife... I threw it in AUTO. It worked better than giving someone a D600 in full Manual, haha.

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My photography magazine this month has a big article on why some of the pre-programmed auto modes should be used, even by pros. It also talks about using the wrong mode on purpose to achieve different artistic effects.

If you're really serious at photography, you should shoot a roll of film with a fully manual camera at least once in your lifetime. I love my D7k, but there's something about having to set everything on my Nikon FM manually and it's satisfying ka-chunk! when you hit the shutter button.

By the way, as an alternative to exposure compensation, you can also shoot in bracket mode while in a program mode other than "M". You shoot 3 or more exposures in series...over, under and normal. You can set the increments.