Well, my first roll got back and you can see my gradual understanding of how my new camera works on it (the first few frames are so underexposed there's nothing on them grin).. there's a few OK pics though (once I figured out the light meter :P ), but that first roll was just plain experimentation anyway. Now, I was wondering about this thingee.. I've used it on the second roll (which is being processed right now) so I'll only know if I'm doing it right after I get the pictures back, but I thought I'd ask. There's an exposure compensation dial on my camera (goes from -3 to +3).. I know (well, I gather) it's for purposely over- or underexposing the picture, but I've also been using it when there's a certain aperture and shutter speed I want for a scene to get the light meter needle in the middle.. is that a good use for it, or am I just gonna end up with bad pics? I'm just eager to get some really good pics back. :P - darkpen

Well, post some pics from the first one, let us have a look! I'm jealous cos my SLR is so old the nasty analogue light meter on the top doesn't work, so I'm judging purely by eye.......still, if there's a hard way to do something I'll find it!!! Good luck in anticipation too!! fingers crossed (",)

I was always thought that the exposure compensation dial was particularly handy for certain circumstances, such as if your subject was strongly backlit, and you wanted to reduce the 'silhouette' effect and bring out more detail with the subject...but I never really used that dial much, and I'm sure it can be used for lots of other things. This is a question for our professionals! :-)>

Hard to tell for sure without reading the manual, but my guess is that that is NOT the correct use of the compensation dial. It seems you are describing a "matched needle" operation; where you can center the needle by changing either the aperature or the shutter speed? So, if the needle is centered, it will also be centered if you open the aperature one stop, and double the shutter speed (halve the exposure time)? PC's interpretation is correct. An example would be with a snowy landscape. Normal metering, (no compensation, centered needle), would make the snow turn out too gray (underexposed). You have to tell the camera that there is really a lot of bright white stuff in the frame, by giving it a little + compensation. Another example would be a black cat in a coal mine. Normal exposure would make the cat come out too gray (too light). You have to tell the camera that there is a lot of dark stuff in the frame by setting a little - compensation. [Damn! I hope I'm getting this in the right direction? Alpha?] If someone understands this correctly, (I think I got it right), this compensation is the real heart and soul of Ansel Adam's "Zone" System; where the exposure is adjusted to make gray in the scene turn out gray in the final result. For normal looking scenes, with balanced highlights, shadows, and midtones, you can usually forget about compensation and just center the needle. If the scene has really strange lighting you are always best in any case making several shots at different exposures. You could use the compensation know to easily do this. Biggest mistake is to set compensation and forget about it for the rest of the roll. [I've never done that! ;-) ] Again, I don't think I've told any falsehoods here, but is always best to check the manual. Sometimes these controls work a little differently with different manufacturers. In any case, hope you have fun with the new camera. I'll be looking forward to seeing some postings.

Well, it's a really interesting part of photography you just picked out here ;) First of all it depends on how good the metering in your camera is. That's basically where a problem with exposure starts. If you know you can trust your metering system in most situations (there are always some extreme situations ofcourse that no camera can handle really well :), only then you can use your exposure compensation to manually correct your camera's readings. I'd do it like this: Find some very boring average sitations, preff. outdoors. Make sure you're not shooting into the sunlight, and take photos on manual, using your camera's exposure readings. Just shoot away....your house, street, etc. Also use the 2nd half of your roll for shooting single objects. Make sure they're in the center of your photo, and shoot away....portraits might be best (or statues, street signs, etc, anything which is loose from it's background). The simple trick is, if you use your camera's readings, you can check how the metering works....see if your photos are well exposed....if they are not well enough exposed it's good to see if they are all under/overexposed, or if it changed per photo. That's basically a simple way to get to know your camera. As soon as you sort of have an idea of wether it'll meter the situation correctly or not, you can set your exposure compensation. It's also great to do this in series, which will show you how great the effect of the compensation is. Personally I always underestimate the difference + or - 0.3 makes on a photo. So if yours works the same as mine, you'll really never use the 3 :P So, like I said, it all depends on your camera's metering. As soon as you've figured out if it's very good or not, and if it's not, when it makes mistakes, you can start using exposure compensation. Otherwise it will just be a wild guess :) Hope that helps ;)

umm, what misha said, and Rork too. Once again, I arrive way to late to be of any use. ry

Well, one situation that I remember using it at -3 (the highest setting) is this: I was outside, there was a lot of snow everywhere, and I wanted to shoot this block of ice on the river. Early afternoon, so everything was really white, but I wanted the smaller aperture effect.. put the shutter at 1/2000 (my fastest setting), and f/22 (the smallest aperture on my lens), but the "needle" (it's actually a LCD in the viewfinder) was at its lowest and the minus sign was blinking. Turning down that dial was the only way I could get it in the middle (I was actually aiming for a little above the middle because it was snow and I read about light meters reading the world as gray on another website). And I always put it back to '0' after shooting a picture.. at least that's a good habit. :P Another thing I tried, was if I wanted the large aperture effect.. I'd put the aperture to f/4, try to find a good shutter speed (not too fast and not too slow, depending on what I wanted to shoot) and then use the compensation. Thanks, everyone, btw. :) And that black cat in a coal mine example will come in handy.. my youngest cat is totally black and he enjoys sleeping on black stuff (resulting in me sitting on him by accident more than once). Now I'll know how to take a pic of him without disturbing him. :P - darkpen

Did the ice picture turn out like you expected it to?

One small thing: snow isn a very difficult situation to meter :) Just so you know.... Anyway, good luck =)

Not sure yet, the ice picture I'm referring to is on another roll that I finished later, so I'm picking it up next week. :) And it might not be a very difficult situation, but I only figured out about that light meter last weekend. :P I'm sure I'll encounter some more difficult ones later, but one step at a time. grin - darkpen

There are some instances when you may want to use this mode. The first and biggest is when you think your meter might be reading incorrectly. For example, a portrait of someone with a bright sky behind them. The camera might give you a reading for the sky. This might be a good time for compensation. The opposite also holds true. Say, maybe a portrait with a black background when your meter will give you a reading that will cause overexposure of the subject. Just remember, your camera will always give you a correct reading, you just have to decide if it is reading the area you want it to read. The way a camera's light meter works is it takes all the highlights and shadows and blends them all together and tells you what aperture and shutter speed you need to shoot at to get an 18% grey average. So, obviously, if your frame consists of 90% a bright sky behind the subject, then the meter will account for the sky as 9/10ths of the 18% grey average and 1/10th for the subject (if the subject is the only thing else in the frame). Does that make sense? The only other time that I can think of that you might want to use your exposure compensation is if you are going for a high-key or low-key image. A high-key image is one that is overexposed to the point of being primarily white which is sometimes nice when trying for a soft feminine photo. And a low-key photo is one that is underexposed which gives a harsh, foggy type of atmosphere. Those are the only two times you should use your exposure compensation feature unless you discover your meter is a stop or two off, in which case you can leave your compensation on constantly to make up for it. (I have had to do that with a previous camera.) I hope that helps. =o} -Andrew

Alpha: The model I bought is a Pentax MZ-M.. and I'm not sure what you mean by 'more than one metering mode?' I just know it's a reflective light meter, no ambient mode. The manual just says I should use the compensation dial when I want to deliberately over- or underexpose a frame.. that each eV value I can select corresponds to a half-stop (so I can go 3 full stops over or under in half-stops). Doesn't give other recommendations or anything else, really. APFrey: Yes, that makes sense. :) And thanks for the tips. As it turns out, though, I got the roll back and most of the pictures are actually (IMO, anyway) pretty good.. just a few that didn't turn out right because of too much backlight, camera shake, etc. I'll post a few up after I catch up with a weekend of posts. :) I went to shoot pictures this weekend and tried to stay away from the compensation as much as possible, using only aperture and shutter speeds (even using bulb exposure mode for night scenes when the largest aperture and slowest shutter speed didn't read correctly). Trying to build some good habits and all. :) - darkpen

Your photos may still turn out alright depending on the latitude of the film and how much contrast between important areas of the print. Your color film will have about 3 stops latitude and your black and white considerably more up to about 7 stops, all depending on the type of film. When do we get to see these prints?! =) Andrew

They're up! (a few of them, anyhoo) I put them into separate posts.. "First roll" and "2nd roll". I put 7 pics of the first one up, and 6 from the second. - darkpen