[maxmagnum]

For some of you this may be easy, but I cannot seem to figure it out. Here's what I need:

On my old PS digital camera when shooting landscapes at sunset, I would point the camera to the brightest area of the sky, press s.r. half-way, get a reading for the exposure, than tilt the camera down to properly compose my shot and then shoot. This way I would avoid overexposure of bright sky which would kill all the beautiful colors at sunset. If I didn't do it this way, the sensor would read the light from a darker area of the frame, get an average value, overexpose the sky and ruin the pic.

Now, I am trying to figure out how to do this with K-x. I suspect I might have to turn AF off to begin with, use Av mode, compose the shot, focus, then point the camera to the brightest area of the sky, use AE lock, frame the shot again and shoot? Or there is a better/simpler way? I want to shoot hand held, no HDR/bracketing. Just a single shot. And, no graduating filters.

[simico]

Now, I am trying to figure out how to do this with K-x. I suspect I might have to turn AF off to begin with, use Av mode, compose the shot, focus, then point the camera to the brightest area of the sky, use AE lock, frame the shot again and shoot?

That's rather complicated Just point your cam to where you want to meter ("brightest area of the sky" if you want to meter and lock exposure on that), lock exposure, frame and focus, shoot. Or just use M mode if you'd like to take several pictures with same exposure - point the cam to where you want to meter and press green button, now exposure is set and locked (since you are in M mode) and all you have to do is frame and focus.

Or to put it more simply, do exactly as you did with your P&S camera.

[maxmagnum]

Thank you gents. I know it feels kinda stupid, but this is my first DSLR and there are too many features I need to figure out. I didn't think a simple approach ("do exactly as you did with your PS") would work right because of the AF or some other feature I'm still not familiar with. Especially, the AE lock which has at least four different settings.

Thanks again!

[GerryL]

Or to put it more simply, do exactly as you did with your P&S camera.

Well said...LOL

[reeftool]

While there are some differences between P&S and DSLR's, exposure works the same. There will be differences in the different metering modes however. You could get very different results by spot metering vs matrix metering or center weighted metering. Your P&S may not have given you a choice. The technique you do with your P&S is what most of us would do with our DSLR's. I use center weighted most of the time.

[maxmagnum]

Thank you for the helpful reply. I will try different types of metering and check the results. My PS did have different metering options, but I always used the matrix type, since most of the shooting involved landscapes.

I tried AE lock today and to my (pleasant) surprise, it locks the exposure only, while the AF remains available to re-focus if needed. My initial understanding was that both AF and exposure would get locked once I press that button, which obviously would have subjects out of focus in certain situations.

Love the camera so far!