Ray

I use my d5300 in full auto mode but photos come out too dark even in bright sunlight.

Lens cap off? lol. Maybe ISO is stuck on 100?

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Thanks

After you fill out your profile then give us an example of a shot that is to dark. WE need you to upload a photo and also tell us the Aperture, shutter speed and ISO that the camera picked.

Guidelines 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.

Post a sample with the EXIF data. Exif data is the information on the shot; ISO, shutter speed, exposure time, etc...

Sounds like you may have moved the exposure compensation..

photo info is : NIKON D5300, 10-20MM f / 4-5.6G, 1000 x 667 - 311kb, 18mm - AUTO (ISO400), 1 / 400s - f / 11, 0EV - AUTO.0.0

RTORANA1 said:

View attachment 71738photo info is : NIKON D5300, 10-20MM f / 4-5.6G, 1000 x 667 - 311kb, 18mm - AUTO (ISO400), 1 / 400s - f / 11, 0EV - AUTO.0.0

Click to expand...

Looks evenly exposed to me. Some fill flash may help but its not bad.

I think its pretty good. You are shooting directly against the sun on the 'shadow side' of the car.. thats of course darker, than the other side, where the sun hits directly (also on the top of the car).

If you shot this exposing for the shadows than the glare spots would have been blown out. You're camera is exposing for the very bright glare issues making the shadow areas that much more darker. Only fix to this is to do an HDR image or add some fill light. Digital cameras can only capture about 12 stops of differance between the brightest and darkest areas. This shot simply has allot more than that range. Imagine trying to see someone in a dark lit room while holding a flashlight in your eyes.

The camera is doing a good job for what you are asking it to do. Fill in flash or HDR is one way to Fix what you think is wrong. Also if you shoot in RAW you can brighten the shadow areas and bring down the highlights to get a more even look if that is want you are wanting to do.

Welcome to Nikonites!

I also don't see anything wrong with the exposure from auto. Looks like the metering did a great job. You have a lot of contrast from sun and shadow. Auto looks to have exposed so as not to blow out the highlights. The trade off is darker shadows.

Nice shot.

A little work in PS and you'll have a nice image...

Thanks, but I want to try and avoid re-processing the images as there are literally hundreds to do.

To get really great images with any camera you are going to have to do post processing.