Exposure compensation
Meet ‘Exposure Compensation’. This function allows you to make your entire image brighter or darker and looks something like this:
On most cameras the exposure compensation button is marked by 
but some cameras have a dedicated dial instead. Scrolling towards + will set your camera to overexpose your photographs, meaning they’ll be brighter. Scrolling towards – will set your camera to underexpose your photographs, meaning they’ll be darker. Always remember to set your ‘Exposure Compensation’ back to 0 or you’ll end up affecting all of your subsequent shots.
Intentionally over- or underexposing your photograph may seem an odd thing to do, but ‘Exposure Compensation’ is a function you’ll find yourself using more than you would think.
In a nutshell if you photograph something very bright, like snow, you’ll find that it looks quite grey or underexposed. Likewise, if you photograph something very dark, like the inside of a bar, you’ll find it looks too bright or overexposed.
Exposure compensation overcomes this by allowing you to make your picture brighter (scroll towards the +) or darker (scroll towards the –).
Exposure compensation is also essential for a backlit subject. Let’s look at a couple of examples.