Quote Originally Posted by ajohnw View Post
. . . As I mentioned earlier the OP's real problem is not specifically metering it's more along the lines of PP. I doubt if he actually spot metered what he thought he had more likely it what ever it was and some other parts of the scene. What ever processing he used the result isn't too bad to take further especially from full sized images.
It's interesting that the sunny 16 rule can work but I'm not so sure about assuming 6000K. Whites for instance can vary a lot and still be white plus unless specifically calibrated camera are not well known for recording colour accurately anyway.
The OP's image is most very likely underexposed. I have already explained why.

Post production will produce a better result, on a better exposed image. Post production is certainly part of the process.

The OP specifically asked for methods to use to get better results -

The F/16 Rule is one way (not the only way) of the OP attaining a better exposure for that particular scene that the OP provided as a sample – hence suggesting using the F/16 rule is addressing the OP’s specific question – and in my opinion not just “interesting that it works”.

*

Re the sample fruit image:

The image of the plates of fruit is one example of the F/16 Rule in practice.

The link to the cat images is another.

The Colour Temperature was not "assumed" but it was mentioned as an indication as to how the White Balance was manually set to make the image - as opposed to the image being a JPEG with 'AWB' set in camera.

WW