Gerald A. Cox (Jerryc)
Same with my CP5000 shots, and I am fine with it. Realize that we are shooting slides, even if digitally.
The auto-exposure is biased to protect our highlights. This is good - there is no way to recover detail in a blown out highlight, while a bit of 0,0,0 black in the image is often needed to give the picture "snap".
Interior shots often include windows or light sources that will push the rest of the histogram down. Bright sky - specially overcast sky - will also force the camera to underexpose, since it is protecting the detail in the sky - which is many EV brighter than the ground.
Of course, you can use exposure compensation in auto mode, or go to full manual mode to override the camera entirely. When doing either, constantly check your histogram in playback, to make sure that you are not blowing highlights.
My ideal histogram shows most of the density in the lower 3/4 of the graph. Ideally, the graph should not be touching either the left or the right axis, but far better quality can be extracted with the histogram touching the left than the right.
Aside from the histogram window, the D100 has a display that flashes blown and endangered highlights.
Realise that using auto exposure still takes skill and intelligence to use. It just strives to seek an average, and knows little about the content of the image. Matrix metering has some intelligence, but the photographer must still have much more than the camera.
More on histograms at
http://www.larry-bolch.com/histogram/
More on dealing with contrast ranges beyond the range of photographic materials at
http://www.larry-bolch.com/layers.htm
larry!
http://www.larry-bolch.com/