First photos with K1000

[Snoopydance]

My photos, for the most part, turned out pretty much exactly the way I wanted them to

The only thing is that I'm not sure whether my light meter is off or not. For a lot of my indoor shots, it read as being underexposed but the pictures look perfect. Some of the outdoor ones look nice but possibly overexposed while they were the result of an exact middle reading on the meter. Do you all think I should compensate by changing the film speed to always be one higher than the one I'm using, just to get accurate readings?

Let me know what you think of these photos and about changing my light meter.

Thanks
-Chris

EDIT: Whoops, I messed it up. one second, uploading...
I decided to just use imageshack. Here we go:

[Xia_Ke]

I took a look at your Flickr page. I'm assuming those are the pics you are referring too? Keep in mind, exposure is subjective. To me, "Waiting", "Christmas Dinner", "Brand New", and "Bad Habit" look a little under exposed. "Shady Lane" looks a bit over exposed. Lighting situations like these can be very tricky, especially with older meters like the K1000's. The K1000 uses what's called center weighted metering. I'm not sure exactly how it is configured with the K1000 but, with my Nikkormat it is 2 overlapping circles in the middle of the frame, with the metering emphasis on the section in the center where the circles overlap. Some of the situations you were shooting were very high contrast. Your meter is just going to take a simple average of the highs and lows. It's not like modern metering such as Nikon's Matrix Metering which will compensate for tricky situations. The more you shoot with your camera, the more you will learn to compensate for situations like these.

Aaron

[Jenn_B]

You mentioned the shutter was off at lower speeds, I think. It may be off at all speeds. Mechanical shutters are not as accurate as electronically controlled shutters, and they do not improve with age. A CLA is probably in order.

[Snoopydance]

I just got my second roll developed yesterday. I took a lot less chances with underexposure and the photos all look great, so for the moment I don't really think the faster speeds are off, but either way a ~$125 CLA is not in the cards right now.

Here are some of the new photos:'

[Xia_Ke]

If those are the shots you were getting based on your meter readings, I wouldn't worry about the meter or shutter speeds. As Jenn said, pretty much any older manual camera is going to be off to some degree. Once you get a little more used to the camera, you will learn when compensation is needed. Have fun shooting and I look forward to more pics

[Snoopydance]

They were indeed Thanks very much and I'm looking forward to improving and having opportunities to take great photos