Manual Exposure week
For the coming week, here’s a challenge for you: Abandon the safety of Program (P) mode. Shy away from Aperture priority (Av) or Shutter priority (Tv) modes, and reach for the holy grail of photography: The M of Miracles, Magic and other alliterative phrases. Yes, kids, it’s time to stop letting the machine do the thinking for you, and do all the hard work yourself.
I admit it; I’m as bad as the next man. “Hell, I’ve earned this”, I tell myself. “I paid a lot of money for a camera that has a good light meter, who am I to second-guess it”? And I’m right of course – Programme mode is great for snapshots. I use Aperture priority mode frequently when I want the fastest possible shutter time. And I override the light meter too, by setting a -2/3 Exposure value, because I’m petrified of over-exposures.
Rusty by boliston (Creative Commons) on Flickr
But here’s how the boys are separated from the men, and the girls from the women: Unless you have an instinctive feeling for how shutter times and apertures work in perfect harmony, you’ll be struggling to really realise your visions as a photographer. Opinion? Fact? Who knows, but what have you got to lose? Go on, go manual, and add your photos to the Manual group on Flickr while you are at it. (Or you could, y’know, start the manual mondays challenge!)
For one week only, set your camera to Manual, and take photos only like that. Don’t cheat even once. At the end of the week, if you still don’t like it, then you’re welcome to switch back.
But I bet a good few of you would benefit greatly from making the switch, if but temporarily. I know I will.
Good luck!
Big thanks to @Patryk for the idea, and to boliston for the illustration image.
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In front of you, five hyperactive men with guitars, drums, and microphones. Behind you, five thousand fans. In your hands, a camera... You're going to need more than just a little bit of good luck to pull this one off. That's where this book comes in.
Take a Canon EOS 450D. Attach a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens. Hit the streets of London. See what happens.
Insights, suggestions and comments
It’s on! Thanks for cluing me in on this, I was about to go shooting today. This’ll definitely makes its way into the flickr manual group
Glad to help, Jeremy! Drop us a link on here once you’ve done them – I’d love to see what you come up with!
Ha, what a cool coincidence, I just bought an old film camera with a broken light meter :)
Hmm, I’m not convinced. If all you do in manual mode is follow the meter, then how is it any different to using aperture or shutter priority?
I think there’s more to it than ‘just following the meter’ – the point is that if you dial things in yourself, you’re more conscious about what to do – and it’s easier to purposefully under- or over-expose…
But hey, if you don’t see the use, then don’t take the challenge.
Wimp :-)
I started shooting in Manual about 2 years ago and have never once switched to anything else! I understand it so much better now, as if I needed to be able to shoot in M to ‘get it’!
Manual mode forces you to understand how the camera (and light) works. So, it’s a good teaching tool. But shooting in manual mode doesn’t automatically give your photographs some magical quality which you couldn’t get in P, A, or S (or Tv, Canon folks :P) — it’s simply another tool. It can be used when you have a specific intent in mind which the “auto” modes won’t let you do, but it can also be used to create awful crud — just like any other mode.
So what I’m saying is, use Manual Mode to learn about your camera. Learn how it’s useful. Learn how to make unusual photos with it. But don’t pretend that it is mystical and magical — it’s just another tool to learn and use when appropriate.
I’ll be taking you up on this challenge – I’m trying to learn my new-ish camera, and though I use manual mode occasionally, I never have exclusively for a full week.
I wouldn’t know how to shoot in any other mode other than manual. I’ve shot in manual mode since I pretty much had my first SLR and don’t understand how others still use Tv or Av modes, as its like having one hand behind your back when shooting. I may tinker a little more, but I think that’s perfectly normal to get the shot I want…
I only shoot in Manual Mode have done for the past year and cannot go back to the priortiy modes. I have tried but do not get the same results that I do shooting manual.
I can’t NOT shoot in Manual (sorry for the double negative). I’ve learned how to NOT listen to what the light meter says (it’s just a suggestion, really), and my life has gotten much better.
If you’re already at Av you probably have an idea of how exposures work… at the most it’ll take a week to get used to the scary M :)
if i can’t get it to work, i’ll use M, for instance, shooting the moon or oddball flash setups, though it is a bit trivial to use M on a DSLR, since you have instant feedback. now M on a film camera in a weird light setup (lets say wedding reception), that’s ballsy
I just tried this today and I have to say, I REALLY enjoyed it! It forced me to slow down and actually visualize the shot before I just pulled up the camera and pressed the button. THANKS so much for the challenge, I can’t wait to try it again tomorrow!
When I got my 450D I knew essentially nothing. What I did know was the green square was Auto and the M was for Manual and that I wanted to shoot RAW. I pretty much taught myself what combinations of shutter speed, aperture (which I didn’t really understand) and ISO got the results I wanted. I had no idea how to meter and learned just by taking shots and seeing if they looked good.
I did plenty of reading up on exposure (how I found Photocritic) and used the camera manual to find out what all these features were for, but I’d never had learned as fast as I have if it weren’t for jumping in the deep end and starting out with Manual. I’d even say thanks to shooting M I have a better grasp of knowing when its a good time to use the other modes.
I can’t shoot in Auto anymore…. Manual is fabulous!
You can play with your camera in many ways!!! It is so much fun!
Since I started taking pictures in manual, I try to visualize
the composition before taking pictures.
The good meter on my old Nikon FE2 has me a bit lazy sometimes, since all you have to do is line up with whatever the meter says. But after a while it helps that you’re mentally saying “I’m going to f2.8 and 1/30 now, naw actually 1/60 since the lights are too bright.” It is different from saying “I’m at f2.0, camera I want -2/3 stops and whatever you choose.” Having to turn the dial yourself helps after a while.
I read this post a few weeks ago and realized I’d never did more than noodle around a bit with anything other than the auto setting on my Canon A720 despite looking for a vareity of features when I bought it last year.
I just spent a couple of weeks on holiday and decided to explore the possibilities. The shutter and aperture settings became mainstays, ISO and white balance got workouts and I managed a handful of half-decent shots with the manual focus setting.
So, thanks!
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