•Correct exposure is what looks correct to you, depending on what you are trying to achieve.
That's about it now with watching and reading all this stuff re lighting etc you realisehow much there is to remember and the amount of practice needed i have only just about remembered ffs (frame focus shoot) and lightning is so big and i suppose alot of things could be sorted in Lightroom or Photoshop but I've spent enough of my time working on computers so i want to cut that down and don't really want to start learning lr4 inside out when i could be outside but maybe that's one of the things you just have to do any way I'm not even that good with my camera yetHi Val, I'm not sure whether your question is about the different ways to achieve a particular exposure value (or "brightness", if you will) or whether it's about how bright/dark should your images be?
If it's the former then any of the links earlier should help explain the "exposure triangle". It's all fun and a bit theoretical but an important cornerstone of photography.
If, however, it's about deciding how bright or dark to make your images... well, that's up to you. What I will say is that when I was starting I had a habit of underexposing most of my shots - not because that's what the camera did, but that's what looked "right" to me when I processed them. It was only when I compared them to others' shots that I realised mine always seemed dark and drab. So, I'd recommend viewing your own images alongside professional images of similar subjects. This should highlight how yours differ - whether it's through exposure, through focus (what is in focus vs out of focus) or, most likely, through lighting differences. The latter is the guts of what make good vs bad photos - exposure can be changed to create a different mood, but a poorly lit subject will remain a poorly lit subject no matter how much processing you apply!
Not sure if that's helpful, but I guess I wasn't sure exactly what you were asking when it came to exposure...
That's the right attitude, you should be concentrating on learning the photography not the software.That's about it now with watching and reading all this stuff re lighting etc you realisehow much there is to remember and the amount of practice needed i have only just about remembered ffs (frame focus shoot) and lightning is so big and i suppose alot of things could be sorted in Lightroom or Photoshop but I've spent enough of my time working on computers so i want to cut that down and don't really want to start learning lr4 inside out when i could be outside but maybe that's one of the things you just have to do any way I'm not even that good with my camera yet
To make it simple :
1. close up with nice bokeh (blur) F 1.8 or 2.0
2. sharpest zone around F 8.0 ( not for all lenses ) but technicly around that zone
3. Landscape - F 12 and above up to F 21 and all will be in focus