Exposure compensation

To correct an incorrect exposure, or to make a picture brighter or darker for effect, use exposure compensation. Nikon D-SLRs let you increase or decrease the exposure up to five stops, which is more than enough for the majority of situations you’ll face. To shift the spread of tones to the left of the histogram (and make a subsequent shot darker), move the indicator to the ‘-’ end of the exposure scale. To make the next shot brighter, move the indicator towards the ‘+’ end.