a horrible chapter in our endeavor to become illustrious world famous photographers

[Kerbouchard]

Quick trick on metering, there are lots of things out and about that read a neutral grey...green grass is probably one of the more available ones. If you center your meter on grass that is lit by the same light as your subject, you should be good to go.

You can also pick up a neutral grey card at Home Depot by swinging by the paint samples. Or, you can pick one up for under $10 bucks at adorama... MQDGC Adorama Gray Card Exposure Aid, Pack Of(3)

You'll really laugh at this, but in the old days, we metered off the back of our free hand to get a good reading on the reflected light....really......lol

I actually did put back of the hand when I first wrote my post. I deleted it because I didn't want to confuse the issue with different complexions, shadows, compensation, etc.

I do agree with you that a hand can be used and is just about always available.. You just have to know where your hand is in terms of middle grey and compensate for it.

 

[dxqcanada1]

over half of each of our rolls is so overexposed... or at least it looks that way. maybe it's underexposed.. heck i don't know.

Take a look here about the negative appearance: Appeal to Emulsion: Understanding Exposure; High Key and Low Key
There are other examples, but this is the first one that I found.