Camera taking dark pictures. Do I need to fix my Aperture ISO or what?

Please help. I'm an amateur photographer. Actually, I don't think I'm even there yet. Thing is learning dslr's can be stressful to the point where I've given up on it. I took it back today and we went to the park I was using it in Manual mode, with an f8 aperture and 100 iso. BUT I put up the Exposure compensation to 5.0 it was good because I no longer had dark images. However, now I'm back home using it in aperture priority, and shutter priority mode. The images are black. I'm getting stressed bc I just don't seem to understand what I'm doing wrong. I've tried learning through youtube and the Internet but it's so stressful. Any tips or any videos that can explain to me what I might be doing wrong, will be appreciated. Please Help. I think I have some talent for photography but honestly I don't seem to understand what I'm doing wrong.

Btw I have the beginner's Nikon D3300.

No stress

Suggestion use in AUTO for a while until you gain confidence. But be aware that a bright sky will cause the darker part of the scene to underexpose.

Many cameras have a feature - center the camera on the main part of the scene - without the bright sky - push the shutter button half way down to lock exposure and focus - hold it there - then frame the scene as needed and push the button all of the way down to take the photo with the locked settings.

Try that.

Please… Forget youtube and the internet. Get a REAL BOOK. This one will be of IMMENSE help to you. Also, have you thoroughly read and studied your camera owner's manual? That is the first place to start. Then this book should be your next step:

http://www.amazon.com/...81740502X/

Why are you using manual mode?

There are 3 things that will affect the density/exposure of your images.
1) shutter speed
2) aperture
3) iso

If your image is dark (under exposed) then you can reduce the shutter speed, open the aperture more, or increase the iso. Simplest way to do it is by manually changing aperture or shutter speed. While exposure compensation will do the same, that's not really a good way to do it.

Again, why are you using manual mode? I'm a fairly advanced amateur. I only use manual mode when I need something very specific. Otherwise, I use aperture priority.

My suggestion to you is to either use "P"rogram mode or "A"uto mode until you learn how those 3 things I mentioned first interact together.

Dark photos mean under exposure.

To use manual mode successfully, you need to learn how to meter your shots using the internal light meter in the camera. There's no need to guess, or stress. How to use it is described in your camera user manual.

It doesn't matter what camera you have. All DSLRs have a light meter for use in Manual mode.

If you want to understand more about camera exposure, after you have learned to measure the exposure using your light meter go read this to understand the relationship between ISO, aperture and shutter speed - called the Exposure Triangle: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/...posure.htm

In the park is is surely not that dark in daylight! And is very hard to imagine any circumstances in which Exposure Compensation of 5 is needed; generally 1 or 2 at max even in fairly extreme images such as under a beach umbrella with a brilliantly lit sandscape in the background. In the theatre you might need minus 1 or minus 2 for a spotlit figure on dark background.

For a start: Put Exp Comp to zero, put ISO to 100 or 200 if the daylight is reasonable, even cloudy, and the exposure control to Auto. Observe what the camera will do when left to itself. At 100 ISO, with good sun behind you, it will give around 1/200th at f11. In cloudy conditions at 100 ISO it will give in the region of 1/100th at f5.6.

When you are reasonably sure that you will get good exposure levels in your image files you can begin to be more adventurous, Try setting the Aperture at f4 or f5.6 for limited depth of field, then set at f11 or f16 for large depth of field. Try setting the Shutter Speed high, 1/500 or 1/1000 for action pics of sports etc.