GARTMORE: exactly, I find it bit daunting to see the back screen in bright sunlight, hence the few mistakes, I guess...

thanks, gartmore. But, I have used the centre-weighted metering all the time. I guess bit of experimentation is required here...
Filling cards/drives is not all that important, as I delete the undesirables straight away...

How about just using the Exposure Bracket Mode, chaps? Would that not solve my problem?

Thanks gartmore. Will experiment with all the suggetion over the weekend...

hefty1: I am aware of light and time of the day. Yesterday, I started at 7am. Not only to get the early light, but also to avoid the hordes of people, who come out of the woodwork at the slightest thought of being able to strip to their basics and plonk themselves on the lawns of Kensington Palace Gardens, where I was yesterday..

hefty1; I got K20D. A little practice is required here, I guess. I have managed to lighten some of the imaged in my gimp and increase the contrast. They are all for my gardens of London website. The rest, I will just have to retake. Fortunately, the garden is only a short distance from Notting Hill...

greynolds999: strangely used hood with the 18-55, not with the other..

hefty1: had another look at the images. You are right, those with most sky, were overexp. Exposure compensation? Do I follow the 'Adjusting the Exposure' in the manual by turning the front e-dial, whilst pressing the +/- button. Or is there another way?

lemmy abd hefty1 thanks. will try lemmy's test. Hefty, the images were taken outdoors - all of them, with both lenses.
Will do the test tomorrow and let you know.

I am a new kid to DSLR. When I use my 50-200 in the AV mode on my K20, everything looks OK. However, when I switch to 18-55 and using the same mode - AV, the images seem to be under exposed. What am I doing wrong, please,anyone?

Thanks. I thought likewise, if using RAW, than bracketing is somewhat redundant, as all the adjustments can be done later. Wanted to confirm my idea, as I am pretty new to Pentax DSLR. I am following a gardens competition judge next weekend, weather permitting, to take pics of the participating gardens. I will take both JPEG and RAW images. as I will not have much time to set up and wait for the light/sun position to change. I will try and go back at a later date to take proper pics, to suit my fancy..