In a recent shoot, I just bought a new camera (Nikon D3400) and accidentally hit the button to adjust the exposure for one of the programmable modes. Also I just started out with photos and previously was doing video with a SONY. I look through the eyepiece, and it was a bright sunny day, so I did not notice that the exposure was being darkened quite a lot, until I did an image review, which I do after about 25 or 30 photos.

so my question is... if the exposure is adjusted by the camera using the manual function to adjust it, and it is quite dark, will there be any artifacting from software correction? the images have already been corrected. they look a little strange.

In a recent shoot, I just bought a new camera (Nikon D3400) and accidentally hit the button to adjust the exposure for one of the programmable modes. Also I just started out with photos and previously was doing video with a SONY. I look through the eyepiece, and it was a bright sunny day, so I did not notice that the exposure was being darkened quite a lot, until I did an image review, which I do after about 25 or 30 photos.

so my question is... if the exposure is adjusted by the camera using the manual function to adjust it, and it is quite dark, will there be any artifacting from software correction? the images have already been corrected. they look a little strange.

If you aren't already shooting RAW, I highly recommend you start as soon as possible. It's always best to get your exposure correct in camera of course. For those of us that don't get it right all the time, shooting RAW gives you quite a bit of flexibility in adjustment for exposure and white balance when necessary. I can be off by a full stop and adjust in my RAW conversion using Lightroom with no noticeable effect on the quality of the image.

I would also recommend you practice shooting in manual mode to take complete control over the exposure of your images. It takes time, practice and studying to get it down but once you do it will become like second nature for you and you won't have to worry about the camera settings having a negative impact on the quality of your work.

Good luck!

Mat

My ageing and well used Canon 5D Mk 2 has developed a nasty habit of occasionally altering the exposure settings without my help.
The annoying thing is that the top screen shows my normal setting but checking in the menu settings usually reveals it has set to overexpose by a stop or two.

Weird situation, check exposure compensation may not be included. Otherwise I do not know what that could be and I also have 5D mark II.

My ageing and well used Canon 5D Mk 2 has developed a nasty habit of occasionally altering the exposure settings without my help.
The annoying thing is that the top screen shows my normal setting but checking in the menu settings usually reveals it has set to overexpose by a stop or two.

It's normal for the exposure to vary, from time to time, by 1/3 of a stop, or so, since the diaphragm is a mechanical device with a mechanical margin of error.
When the diaphragm mechanism ages, its margin of error goes up.