Beginner Help with colour in dull conditions

No I use inbuilt meter to alter exposure to suit, or just use aperture priority.
 
I have the nikon d3300 and if I use the exposure meter sometimes the middle is under exposed. So I generally try to overexpose when I'm shooting in manual, and it's easy to take light away....

Firslty if your using a tripod use a remote shutter or timed release. And try 1/30th of a second
If your not using a tripod, set shutter to 1/100th
Then work on your aperture a 3.5 will make the image brighter, but a shallow depth of field.
Then bring in your ISO to what brings the exposure over exposed. And try a few shots reducing ISO until the shot is right..
Then when you've got the exposure right you can work on that..

If you want the image less grainy, reduce the ISO (which will darken the image by 1 stop) so you need to brighten it (by decreasing your shutter speed).

Or if you want more of your shot in focus, change your f3.5 to something higher (count the steps) if you step up 2 steps to a 5.6 you've made the image 2 steps darker, so you could introduce more light via the ISO by 2 stops, or the shutter speed by 2stops. Or both of them by a stop each. So it's just a case of looking at your images, see what you think shot needs then adjust in full manual mode. I think it's called the exposure triangle.
 
Exposure_triangle_cheat_sheet.jpg
 
You can take 4 or 5 photos one after the other and they are all exposed differently from over to under. Using aperture priority has the same results. I have had a few photos which have turned out really nice but at least 10 times that are terrible The rest not much better.Quite often the focus seems just slightly out although it was fine through the lens. I was convinced there was some sort of fault so I took to using my many film cameras or my point and press digital. If it was a least reliably under or over exposing I could correct it easily.

Crazy idea here, so feel free to ignore it, but it’s not set to auto-bracket the exposure is it? I only mention it as I’ve accidentally left mine in auto-bracket mode in the past and then wondered why the explores are all over the place!!!
 
Aperture is o.k as I can see it move when I adjust, all the lenses are manual film camera lenses. If I adjust saturation after taking the photo using my editing software by plus 150 to 200 and the photo was somewhere near exposed right the photos colour will look somewhere near right.Is there anyway I can improve this by camera settings to reduce processing ?
 
PS I will check if it's set in auto bracket !
 
Aperture is o.k as I can see it move when I adjust, all the lenses are manual film camera lenses. If I adjust saturation after taking the photo using my editing software by plus 150 to 200 and the photo was somewhere near exposed right the photos colour will look somewhere near right.Is there anyway I can improve this by camera settings to reduce processing ?
Do some test shots in controlled conditions to find out how far out the metering is. Use a neutral subject and compare the meter to the histogram. It's a couple of minutes work..

If I may be so bold, your previous 'experiments' have been anything but 'scientific' :)
 
The first of those two shots looks OK to me exposure wise - it just looks like a rubbish day! They look soft though, possibly down to shooting f16?
 
Update I have been given a Pentacon 135mm f2.8 to f32 lens with the m42 mount, as I use a number of Pentacon lenses (with the bayonet mount) with two of my film cameras with good results I was keen to give it a go. The results are the best I've seen from the camera yet, odd as the other m42 mount lenses I have been using work well with my Zenit but obviously not the Canon digi . Here's the image taken in poor light from about 75 to 100 feet away. I have tweeked it a bit but even straight from the camera it was sharp !
hhh.jpg
 
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