[Marc Sabatella]

I'd say you're expert enough to be answering these questions rather than asking them - that's all I meant. How many times have we seen people post pictures saying "my camera underexposes or overexposes horribly", and it turns out they were spot metering and the center of the frame was a white sail, a black cat, or whatever? I'm just trying to avoid the OP running into that until he understands a bit about how exposure works.

[Ira]

Sorry I came to this so late, and I hope OP has good experiences today with the graduation.

I was extremely happy with the shots from my older son's HS graduation on the 7th, but I was lucky because the arena was solarium type, with like 90% ambient light.

Regardless, unless the kid's last name is Aardvark, you have a ton of time to make your adjustments before he/she gets up there.

[SpecialK]

Spot metering - a mode guaranteed to take *terrible* pictures until you learn exactly what it is and how it works, how to control where you meter, and how and when to apply compensation. Not something I'd recommend for someone who isn't already an expert at the basics of exposure.

+1. It's not difficult to check the histogram on a couple test shots using much simpler metering and make some EV adjustments.

I only use spot-metering on accident - particularly for a day while on vacation. Fortunately, most everything in the desert is sort of medium tone, so it worked out OK, except a shot of an aluminum plane where the reflection made it about 5 stops underexposed....

[Bramela]

This is a Mods trial post. Please ignore.

[matsui255]

Thanks for all the help. They pictures came out good! I am just trying to reduce the noise on some of them. Any tips on what to use for this?