My photos are turning out dark despite 6400 ISO, low aperture, long shutter speed. Help?

[joshjlowlowy]

I'm shooting with a Rebel T5 and have recently had my photos turn out very dark.  This is a new problem.  I have my ISO set to 6400, and am using a low aperture with long shutter speeds to compensate for this error.  Is my camera malfunctioning/broken, or is there something I can do/fix myself?

[Peter]

Please upload a sample with exif still embedded in the picture.

[jrhoffman75]

Do you have exposure compensation set? Try resetting all camera settings in the menu. 

[joshjlowlowy]

I'm attempting to shoot in Manual mode which only allows me to widen or shorten the compensation range, but not actually set it myself.  Is there a way around that?

[ScottyP]

Why are you shooting in Manual?  What are you shooting?

[ScottyP]

And to apply the equivalent of exposure compensation, just set an overexposure of however many stops you feel you want. It is manual so you can do what you want. 

[joshjlowlowy]

I'm shooting rock climbing, but am trying to favor getting "the shot" over good exposure.  Ideally, I want to shoot at ~1/500 or faster to minimize motion blur and reaction delay.

[ScottyP]

If "getting the shot" is the goal, stay away from Manual. Manual is fiddley and a lot slower. 

Use Tv mode, and set your shutter speed for 1/500th.  If the f/stop is blinking at the lowest f/number the lens can do, you don't have enough light, so increase the ISO until it isn't blinking anymore.  

If you have the luxury of plenty of daylight to get the fast minimum shutter, and you want to create either a lot or a little depth of field in focus, use AV mode and pick a narrow aperture for lots of DOF, or the reverse for shallow DOF. 

[cicopo]

Firstly EVERY consumer grade camera has limits to what it can capture and the Rebel series is the lowest in the Canon line so a body upgrade should be considered in this situation, but then that maybe outside your budget. You haven't said what lens & that may also not be up to the task. My recommendation won't solve the problem but it will isolate what needs upgrading to a degree. Use Av mode, no exposure compensation, set it to force the lens to shoot at it's wideest aperture and set the ISO to AUTO for a few shots, then set it to the highest ISO the camera offers for a few shots, & then the next lowest full stop lower (IE 6400, 3200, 1600) & see what the camera used as the shutter speed. If the shutter speeds are TOO SLOW in all of them you need better gear. .   

[joshjlowlowy]

Awesome!  I'll try those.  Thanks for the help guys!