How to shoot in Manual

[equetefue]

I've always shot in aperture priority. What benefits are there from shooting full manual and, are there any tips.

Also, will it hinder photo oportunities because of the longer time it takes prepping for a shot; eg. when shooting birds and stuff... ?

Thanks in advance.
Edwin

[viewfinder]

The basic rules of thumb for me when choosing the shooting mode are:


Use aperture priority to control depth of field
Use shutter priority to freeze motion or achieve motion-blur
Use a fixed ISO setting in either modes to achieve a particular grain effect


The most interesting factor that is often overlooked in digital photography is the third variable in manual exposure control: the ISO rating.

In the film days, you have a fixed ISO rating for each roll of film. You can choose to push the ISO rating, i.e. shoot at ISO 800 for a film rated at ISO 400, and compensate at development time. However, this push setting is for the entire roll of film.

Can anyone remember or resort to changing film mid-roll? Great with a camera with a crank for rewinding, as you can leave the film leader out by carefully listening and feeling for the end of the roll as you rewind. Or you will have a film-puller handy in your camera bag. And to have a felt-pen that you can mark the number of shots on the film canister for when reloading the film, and to shoot the appropriate number of frame+1 with the lens cap on when reloaded, and cursed when you forgot to turn off the date/data back when imprinting the date or exposure information? Those were the good old days of film and slide photography! I guess I am showing my age here... ;)

Enter the digital age, and the ball game changed substantially. ISO rating can now change on a frame-by-frame basis, and most importantly, ISO rating can become the third variable in manual shooting, i.e. you can now cheat!

Here is what you can do in manual mode:


Set the aperture for the depth of field you wish to achieve
Set the shutter speed to freeze or achieve motion-blur
Set the camera to not lock ISO rating, i.e. variable ISO rating


Voila! The camera varies the ISO rating based on the lighting condition, no more bad exposure! Of course this is bound to the absolute range of the ISO rating supported by the camera, you will still get over or under exposure at the extreme end of the spectrum - you can always post process to compensate for these to a certain extent. The other thing to keep in mind is that you will sacrifice the ability to control the grain of the final result, since ISO is now variable. You can of course use noise reduction in post processing to compensate for the excessive grain to a certain extent.

At least the above is true of the Nikon range of DSLR, I am assuming other makes will provide the same behaviour - i.e. referring to the variable ISO setting in manual mode.

So, to me, manual is no longer manual in the true sense in the modern digital camera!

Regards,
Jonathan

[Rudi]

Manual is handy when you shoot differently-coloured subjects with varying backgrounds, all in the same light. Sports, birds, etc. This is because once you have the exposure dialed in, the camera will not get confused buy a bright background, or dark shadows, it will expose correctly every time. The other thing you have to remember is that the camera is not measuring the light falling on the subject, it meters the light reflecting off the subject, and this is not always an accurate representation... so manual mode has its uses! :)

[Paul S]

Manual is absolutely essential when shooting panoramas!

-Paul

[Kevin]

Shooting manual doesn't impact any shots, at least not for me. (as far as lost opportunities)

Take Gatorland, for instance, I'll take a test shot of a white bird and check my histogram/blinkies. Make adjustments as necessary to ensure it's properly exposed. Then I'll make a mental note of the numbers (usually in the neighborhood of 1/2500, f5.6, ISO200 on a normal bright, sunny FL day). For dark birds, I'll do the same. I've found it's typically a quick "3-clicks" of the shutter dial to change from a white bird to a dark bird and vice versa.

The benefit is exposing for the bird, ensures the bird is properly exposed whether the bird is flying in the sky and dips down below the tree line and even against the water. As long as the light doesn't change on the bird, it'll be properly exposed while the rest of the scene is secondary to the image.

With any type of auto mode (Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or P mode) your camera's meter is going to interpret the scene (in whole or in part) and adjust your settings accordingly. With Manual, nothing changes unless you change it. You're in total control.

Hopefully some of this will make sense. :)