Creativity vs techicality; M vs P ... and film

For many years I shot Kodachrome 25 in a 'Kodak Colorsnap 35' (which was essentially just a dial-the-weather camera) and I had very few slides that were incorrectly exposed, or at least, so badly exposed as to be unusable.

Much more recently I spent an entire year taking hardly any photographs but always carrying a simple light meter with me, continually metering the same or different scenes under different lighting conditions. Soon I learnt how exposure varies with the time of day, the type of weather, the amount of light and shadow in a scene etc. And to be honest, it is all surprisingly simple. With practice and experience, it is easily possible to take excellently exposed slides by estimating the exposure without using a meter at all. Of course you can assess any particular scene and decide how to adjust the base exposure for the presence of 'tricky objects' such as dark doorways or white walls; in this way the technicalities become pleasurable and are part of the creativity.

Don't be put off by the assumption that photographic metering is a profound mystery of some sort - it isn't!

I'm in the "Just shoot on 'program'" camp... sort of...
You don't have to shoot in any one mode all the time. I don't.

I like shooting on aperture priority mode most of the time but sometimes I shoot on program mode. Still, other times, I shoot on fully manual mode. I can't tell you exactly how I decide but there is some technical thought that goes into it. There is also a lot of thought about the situation I'm in. For sports or fast action, program mode is what I'll usually use. For portraits, still lifes or creative shots I'll use full manual. For general "shooting around" I'll use aperture priority.

You guys know how all that works. You're all better at it than I am. But my point is that I'll often jump around from mode to mode, using manual for one shot and auto or semi-auto the next.

So, if you want to be technical and manipulate the camera, add this parameter into your decision tree: "When should I shoot on manual and when should I shoot on automatic or semi-automatic?"

Just go out and shoot a couple-few rolls of film on program mode, bring them home and develop them then sit down and compare them to other pictures you have already shot. See where the differences lie then put that information into your mental database and try to use it to decide what mode to use in the future.

Look likes your instincts of light has me envious. A lot of APUGers have repeatedly suggested. Shoot lots to develop those instincts. Instincts you can't buy at a camera store.