Here's a photography tip for setting exposure when you're shooting street or on-location portrait photography using natural light or continuous lighting. Use your hand to test exposure under different lighting conditions (in direct sun, in the shade, in shadows) in your scene to get the exposure that you want. I use this method daily, so that I can use manual mode and focus on capturing moments.
Now I've got thousands of images of my hand - maybe I should put together a photo book of my hands.