A quick tip, today:
Green vegetation is dark. About a stop darker, on average, than a grey card.
That means that when you shoot green plants (a hedge row, or the back yard,or the fall colours), the image is too bright. Too bright means “washed out”:
Not too bad.. but one stop darker – i.e. exposure compensation set to minus 1, or the light meter pointing at “-1” if you do it manually – gives you this:
If you had adjusted the wrong way, i.e. to plus 1, you would have gotten this:
Of course this holds for average green plants – some are brighter, and if you mix sky into the mix your camera will give you different readings (you might try the spot meter).
At least you are warned now – plants will often look washed out unless you expose them right – and right often means down by a stop.