under ~ METER ~ over. By Golly, she got it!
I had the camera with a 300mm lens, on a tripod faced out pointed at some shrubs waiting for a pair of Sunbirds. Mannat [our daughter] came by and peered through the viewfinder and wanted a few tips how to get the exposure right. Ok, here we go…. in theory the camera meter averages out everything to 18% neutral [Mannat: "Like gray? but I can see everything in color through the camera!"]. No no, not that kind of gray. Ok forget that for now. Just remember that the camera cant think. Its just a machine. You got to think for it. OK? [Mannat: "Ok, as you say. Let me take some pictures ok?"]. So I explain how to over-expose and under-expose to change the mood of the photo, and that the correct exposure is not necessarily what the camera says is correct :-p
She goes for it:
 
 
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Under-exposure by 2 stops ~ Center ~ Over-exposure by 2 stops.
Flicks the sub-dial and increases the shutter speed 2 stops from metered middle. Click. Chimps the image. Has a look on her face that says, yikes I don’t like it so dark! I tell her its fine to have a dark picture, depending on how you want to portray what you see. She looks at me like I’ve gone nuts…. Brings back exposure to middle. Click. Chimps the image in the LCD. Grins. She likes it. Says she likes the way the light is coming through the petals now. Then spins the sub-dial the other way and reduces  the shutter speed 2 stops. Click. Chimps. Says it is too bright. I tell her it is just fine. Not to worry. All are nice. Just pick the one you like best. She says the middle one’s the best  
My opinion? Does it matter?
Ok, I like the overexposed one…but maybe the over-exposure is a bit too much. Just a tad down, and it would have been just great IMHO.
The final image after a bit of tweaking and post-processing.
hehehe! my choice matches mannat’s!
I like the dark one..like the cloudy, monsoony feel