Comments on: Everything Manual

By: John Setzler

John Setzler — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:29:45 +0000

Wes, I don’t disagree with you and I did the same thing for a long time. I still shoot a large majority of my ‘work’ photography in aperture priority mode due to the nature of sports photography in general. Fully manual exposures would work fine for me in sports, but it would limit the number of good shots I get in any particular event. It’s all about what you are doing and when…

By: Wes

Wes — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 03:03:59 +0000

Being that I’m only just into my 2nd year of learning, I’ve delved into the camera world with my eyes and ears open. I’m primarily self taught, and one of my primary goals was to learn how to use the camera properly. So i’ve worked my way up to using manual, to taking full control of the camera, and the resulting images. Knowledge and ability was what I was after.

I’m still shooting in full manual, and quite enjoying it, as for the most part, the camera never leaves my side, is fitted with a lens to suit where I am, and generally set up to suit conditions…. when conditions change… I change the setup.. Its become second nature to me..

I dont frown apon anyone for using the automatic features, I’m just not interested. I wouldnt dream of saying none of my images would be better if i had used a priority mode instead, because I’m sure a lot could be. I’m more interested in learning, I dont think i’ll ever stop.

Its a great article, and I see valid points. Just none that are valid to me, when I just want to learn, try new things.

If I’m at an event, or somewhere I need to focus my attention on providing quality images, I still shoot manual, I havent come across a situation where I havent been ready for an opportunity, where I havent been able to get the image I wanted. I’m sure it’ll happen at some point. But for now, I’m happy to continue using manual.. Learning more every time I turn the camera on.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:02:15 +0000

Ted, you are right. I didn’t bother to go into the details of when shooting in manual mode is appropriate. There are lots of reasons to do it. If everything you do is panoramas, then shooting manual all the time would be quite appropriate ;)

By: Ted Byrne

Ted Byrne — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:54:53 +0000

Great presentation… both concise, accurate and accesible. Let me suggest one other time that you might find the manual setting useful for taking a number of pictures… Panoramas.

If you intend to stitch together a pan of overlapping images, you won’t want your internal metering to tamper with the aperature/time setting as you pan. Hence a central reading, once determined is best set into the manual mode. Thus reducing the dark edges and mismatched focusing… Oh yea… turn off the auto focus as well, right?

BTW – your set rocks!

Thanks for sharing

Ted

My Images Explained
My Images Stored

By: Walt E.

Walt E. — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:24:42 +0000

I agree completely. There is no need to operate manually 100 percent of the time. I usually shoot aperture priority 90 percent of the time. The most important time to shoot *ALL* manual, is when you want a series of shots to have the same exposure. You’d have to disable auto ISO, auto white balance, and auto anything.

By: Roxanne

Roxanne — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:20:06 +0000

John,
Very informative and well written article.

I’d like to add another theory: Inertia

The importance of learning manual mode was impressed in my mind when I started with my first SLR. It has been a long, slow process for me to learn and understand the relationships between ISO aperture and shutter speed and how to use them for the desired artistic effect.

Although I realize that a priority mode is more efficient and reliable, I find it difficult to give up the habit of experimenting in all of my shots.

The results is that I usually get one properly exposed shot for every 10 bad ones. Guess It’s time to tighten up and take this good advice.