Low-Key and High Key

So with the black images, the first two are the low-key images in which I had to increase the shutter speed.  The last one of the set is what the camera thought the settings should have been.  I learned that the camera tends to expose it too bright, and it makes the blacks look bland, faded, and almost a little bit brown.
For the white images, the first two are the high-key images in which I had to decrease the shutter speed to get a good exposure. The last of the set is what the camera thought the ideal was.  I learned that the camera doesn't make it bright enough for you to get any real white.  It almost made all the white look dirty.
Overall I learned that sometimes the settings in the camera may not work out to be what is the most pleasing to our eyes, so you really have to experiment with various exposures to make sure that you are capturing the image the way that you want to.