Spot metering, as the name implies, measures the light from just the very centre of the frame. A separate spot meter will measure from a 1 degree area, but the camera spot meter will be slightly wider than that.

It is ideal for measuring, say, the exposure of a spotlit subject, or measuring the darkest and brightest areas of a scene so that an average exposure can be worked out. This works best using manual exposure.

It doesn't lend itself so well to auto exposure techniques. Most of the trouble comes in where the spot meter ends up reading an inappropriate area of the image, so it's not the method for beginners.

Centre weighted metering offers a more easily reliable method, coupled with exposure compensation where necessary.

Hope that helps.

The easiest way to do HDR for Phtotmatix is to put the camera on a troipod. Set to Av and choose the aperture. Take images using the exposure compensation to alter the exposure.

I use -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3. A friemd of mine uses -2, 0, +2. It doesn't matter as long as the result pleases you.

Use the 2 second delay so there is no movement or vibration of the camera.

Then blend in Photomatix. Bear in mind foliage moves, so may well be blurred. This technique IMHO works best with architectural subjects.

The K value is the value alloocated to the meter, as mentioned previously usually 18% grey or 10% grey.

One post removed at poster's request.

Fair enough Jamie. You might also consider the 18-135mm WR lens. That stays on our cameras almost all the time, it's incredibly fast and versatile.

For lens tests try www.photodo.com and the tests on ePHOTOzine and here. Pentax and olympus are both excellent lens makers, so you don't need to worry unduly.

In the Pentax range the general purpose telephoto zoom of choice is the 55-300mm, which in terms of technical quality improves on the 50-200mm. The latter is still a good lens though.

Fair question, the focusing is a feature. The benefit is that focusing in brighter light may well be more accurate and reliable as a consequence. It's a tough thing to quantify because it depends on what we are shooting.

My feel for it was that in very low light (not necessarily pitch black) focus was locking on with no problem. Most cameras would be pushing it at the lowest light levels.

We can learn a lot about perspective from art. So how did painters know what a wide angle or telephoto effect would be? Apart from anything else such as imagination or aliens, they used cameras. The camera obscura predates photography and can of course project an image onto a flat surface. This can be used as a guide, and was.

M C Escher is also an interesting souce of ideas.

Centre weighted metering, centre spot focus, aperture priority.

If you have backlight or a spotlit subject, exposure compensation can be used as necessary.

Stick with that, practice, practice, practice and you won't need any other setting.

What you write will be dictated by how many words they want.

If there's a particular image in mind then how you got it should be relatively straightforward. Just tell the reader in good, clear English.