Originally posted by butchblack I often comment on photography questions on Quora. One thing that keeps coming up is believing that a camera (or worse, a smartphone) can handle every shooting situation perfectly. Most of these posters have little idea of how to take a photograph properly. My recommendation is always, learn basic photography if you want better photographs. I recently upgraded to a Pentax KP and love the Tav setting, which is basically setting both SS and aperture, and the camera adjusts the exposure via ISO. I've been taking photographs since my Spotmatic days, so it all makes sense to me. The other recommendation that I see other people posting is to slow down and become deliberate when you shoot. I still try to shoot as if I have a finite amount of film, as one of the drawbacks with digital is that it is too easy to just shoot away and hope you get a keeper among them.
I haven't seen anyone mention Sunny 16 on this thread. Try it with your digital; you might be surprised. Shutter Speed = 1/ISO setting. Here's my take on the concept (which I have used since 1954 approximately):
f/22: Beach in bright sun
f/16: Normal scene in bright sun: -- hence the name
f/11: Bright cloudy light
f/8: Cloudy
f/5.6: Dark cloudy
f/4: Miserable rainy lighting
f/2.8: Dawn or Dusk.