>>203282fuck you comment too long... Cont'd:
EV, exposure compensation, is another good button to become familiar with. There's a reason it's right next to the shutter button... it's important. Even my Sony has a hard button for that setting.
The camera's going to figure out the exposure to meter the image to neutral gray. Sometimes you've got a lighter subject on a dark background (
>>203255) - I'll knock the EV down a few clicks so the dark dirt is a touch underexposed, but the subject has good contrast.
Opposite on snow (>pic related), the camera's going to overexpose the image to bring the snow into that neutral gray, which makes the subject real dark. Bump that EV up a stop or two so the snow is overexposed, but the subject you're shooting isn't dark.
White balance your shots. RAW lets you adjust this later - I almost always shoot RAW when I'm on a tripod (JPG fine for sports/action, because memory buffer).
And most importantly, go shoot more. Digital makes that easy.
