There's a little more to it than that: The light meter in any given scene is trying to set the average exposure to middle grey, using reflected light in the sce

There's a little more to it than that: The light meter in any given scene is trying to set the average exposure to middle grey, using reflected light in the scene as a hint. This will never work well with a photo of, say, a black cat sitting in the snow. You can't spot meter for the snow or you'll massively underexpose the cat, and the snow because snow isn't supposed to be grey. You can't spot meter for the cat or the snow will be blown out and the cat will end up looking brown. In regular evaluative metering camera will end up trying to meter for an average of 18% grey and unless the exact ratio of cat-to-snow is perfect will almost certainly get it all wrong. This is the same scenario with most high-contrast scenes. Black paint on a white wall will have the exact same problem. You're essentially left with having to manually control your exposure: If you're outside in the midday sun, you can slam it over to sunny-16 and get something relatively close, or use an incident light meter to actually determine correct exposure. If you do take photos outside during the day, I honestly suggest giving it a shot, because it's incredibly helpful and even if it doesn't improve any given shot it'll improve your understanding of how to meter.