Thanks asa and skylark. You've helped me to figure this out. I was shooting in the advanced mode "M" for manual control. However, I believe I was shooting in "Live View" mode according to the website mentioned below. I will have to check when I get home this evening.
The manual that came with the camera only referenced one page for metering mode and it said nothing about metering mode adjustments not working when shooting in Live View.
I found this site that I believe explains my problem:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/...
Which says that "The Canon Rebel T3 and T3i offer four metering modes. However, you can access all four modes only in the advanced exposure modes (P, Tv, Av, M, and A-DEP) and only during regular, through-the-viewfinder shooting. In Live View mode, as well as in the fully automatic exposure modes, you’re restricted to the first of the four modes, Evaluative metering."
Still learning this camera and photography in general. It can be frustrating, but I would like to do more than just point-and-shoot at this stage.
