I own a Nikon D5200 and I use the 18-55 kit lens. I always use the Manual Mode. I was recently messing around with my camera. I was trying to take photos of a lit lamp in darkness.
As part of the experiment, I clicked photos with the lens held in front of the shutter (removed from the body of the camera) to give the photos a slightly macro-like look.
Now, all the images in Manual mode are underexposed. :(
When Nikon lenses are disconnected from the camera body, the aperture automatically closes down to its smallest size. Unless you manually move the lens's aperture lever wider open and "jam" it at that position using gum, sticky tape, a toothpick stuck in the aperture lever slot, etc., you will always be freelensing at your lens's smallest aperture (f/22 – f/38, depending on your zoom focal length).
For instance, if you were trying to free-lens at f/4 at 55mm, you were 6.5 stops underexposed from what you thought you were using. Even at the +5 exposure compensation, you were still 1.5 stops underexposed.
Thus your only exposure controls in camera when freelensing are shutter speed and ISO.
