Well I wonder why people do it in the first place, what is the need with signing your own work? It's a pointless process people put themselves through. People know its from you and I think it distracts, yeah okay there is an argument for it to be a watermark but why put it on the edge, I can crop it right out if I felt the need. Go to
http://www.viiphoto.com and look at the examples there of a decent watermark if you have to write on your photo.
It is simply a carry over from when painters would sign their work. I say painters because I've never seen a professional photographer (whether it be an artistic photographer or a photojournalist) sign their work because you know its their photography by the work defining them not the other way around.
So as a suggestion to the beginner, its best to not even begin to do it. Plus anybody reading this might think otherwise as well, the less people do it the better in my opinion. It smells of camera club as well.
I don't really think they need a handheld light meter just yet, especially when they're very new to photography.
I think once that person realises how a picture exposes properly without a camera involved, their thinking greatly differs, sometimes I've fallen into the trap of taking a picture and not being aware of the exposure. They can seperate the parts of what makes a good exposure and learn to bring them back together again. A good time to do it is when the brain is softening up to how a DSLR works.
