D3000 Overexposing Outdoors?

[andybender]

I have noticed when I am outdoors (festivals, photowalks) on very bright days, that my D3000 overexposes, sometimes by as much as 3 stops. I have been using a circular polarizer, or exposure compensation to keep things well exposed. It has been on the kit lens, stopped to f/5.6-8, if that helps. I use Aperture priority and spot metering on my subject, so my shutter speed should be correct if the meter if functioning properly.

Is this common at very fast shutter speeds? Is there something with my meter that I am missing? If its my fault, I would like to correct myself, otherwise I will just keep compensating as I am now.

Thanks for the advice.

[scootermcq]

With spot metering, your meter is only reading a small area of the image (i.e. the face). If that is darker than the sky or a wedding dress etc, then you are going to blow the highlights. Try Matrix metering and see if it improves.

[OsmosisStudios]

Try Centre Weighted or even the Matrix modes and see if that changes anything. I, too, think it's a product of using spot metering.

Spot metering is a good tool, but I wouldnt use it for every day. I use a centre-weighted average as a general rule, with matrix for landscapes. I only use spot as a reference to see how far off it is from the rest of the image: very rarely do I shoot with it.

[andybender]

Thanks guys, I will defer to your judgment and try out Matrix metering first. I figured it was user error in some way.