An indication that your pictures are underexposed is when your blacks look dark gray, instead of rich black. Sometimes it's a good idea to set your meter a little lower (125 or 160 for 200 film, for example) to ensure sufficient exposure. You also might want to check your meter against the one in another camera.
As for sky, it's much brighter than land, so often the sky is ok, but the foreground is too dark, or the foreground is ok, but the sky is burned out. Use a circular polariser, or a graduated neutral density filter and you'll get much better results. Your meter should accurately expose "average" scenes, but if they're not average, you need to compensate. With lots of white in the frame (snow, etc.) add up to two stops of exposure, and with lots of black, stop down some. For film, you wouldn't see much difference with pro film in 4x6s, and it's quite a bit more expensive. As for framing, it takes practice to know when you can capture what's in front of you, or whether it'll disappear when you put a frame on it. You could try cutting out a 4x6 hole in a piece of cardboard and holding it up at various distances from your eye (to simulate various focal lengths) to help you visualize the actual picture. Good luck, and keep shooting! Pat White - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
