What is metering and getting the best exposure for a scene?

Question

I have a digital SLR and I would like to know how do set exposures for various kinds of scenes.

Answer 1

The bookstore is your friend. (Or a well stocked library)
Get a beginners book in photography, and a book called Understanding Exposure.There is too much to know about exposure to cover it in Yahoo Answers.

Seeing as how you have digital, you can experiment without adding cost. Try taking the same picture using different Fstops and shutter speeds and see what happens.

Shutter speed and aperture are reciprocal. If a picture is a bucket of water that you're filling, then your aperture is the size of the hose pipe. Bigger = more water quicker. , (Bigger aperture is smaller numbers, 2.8 is bigger than 5.6) The shutter speed is how long you leave the hose pipe running. You can achieve the same exposure by adjusting the shutter and aperture settings.

Aperture also controls depth of field, or how much of your picture is in focus. Bigger = less in focus, smaller = more.

Hope this is enough to get you started.

Answer 2

I would suggest two books on the subject. Both are easy to read. The first is "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. The second it "The Digital Photography Book" by Scott Kelby.

Your digital SLR should have a meter scale that you can see through the viewfinder. If it meters a correct exposure the scale will show no marks on either the "+" or "-" side, but the cameras meter can be fooled. The books mentioned above do a much better explanation of telling the shooter how to overcome those situations and explain the 18% gray that meters are calibrated for much better than I ever could.