Manual vs Automatic

redbourn

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Lots of people have been patiently pushing me to get better and better.

And I appreciate it.

Took a big step today and finally changed the dial on my camera to 'manual' for the first time!

Chose a very simple setup and chose 'default' in PS when I combined the images.

Comments?

Thank you,

Michael

P.S. Didn't use manual focus; one step at a time ;-)
man-auto.jpg
 
What's the point of switching the camera into manual? What did you do in taking the photo that made using manual necessary? What did manual mode provide that you couldn't achieve using the camera in auto?

Joe
 
Changed it to Manual from where?

Having learnt my photography with a manual camera (it is all there was back then) I never use manual now. Even in challenging situations, there are easier ways to work. Knowing how to meter in an automatic mode will be a greater advantage.
 
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What advantage is there to shooting this in manual? Did you not like the settings the camera chose?
 
What's the point of switching the camera into manual? What did you do in taking the photo that made using manual necessary? What did manual mode provide that you couldn't achieve using the camera in auto?

Joe

The manual photo is much much better !
 
Changed it to Manual from where?

Having learnt my photography with a manual camera (it is all there was back then) I never use manual now. Even in challenging situations, there are easier ways to work. Knowing how to meter in an automatic mode will be a greater advantage.

Which photo looks better?
 
Changed it to Manual from where?

Having learnt my photography with a manual camera (it is all there was back then) I never use manual now. Even in challenging situations, there are easier ways to work. Knowing how to meter in an automatic mode will be a greater advantage.

Which photo looks better?
Not the issue. You either 1) used the camera's meter and then made a slight adjustment which could be easily done using exposure compensation or 2) guessed without the meter in which case you will have had to take a lot of shots to get it right.

Using the meter properly in automatic is both easier and gives consistently better results. The advantage to using automatic exposure with exposure compensation is that you make one adjustment to compensate for subject/lighting and then concentrate on the composition and timing.
 
What's the point of switching the camera into manual? What did you do in taking the photo that made using manual necessary? What did manual mode provide that you couldn't achieve using the camera in auto?

Joe

The manual photo is much much better !

Why? How did having the camera in manual account for the difference? What do the raw files look like?

Joe
 
..........Using the meter properly in automatic is both easier and gives consistently better results. ...........

Not always. The camera may say ISO 400, 1/250 at f/5.6. And that's based solely on the algorithm built in to the camera by some nameless engineer in some far-flung country who doesn't really care how my images look, just that they're exposed 'correctly'.

I, however, as an artist, want to use ISO 200, 1/30 at f/11 because it far better suits my needs in terms of how I want the image to be recorded. Exposure compensation just ain't gonna do that. I haven't changed the exposure, both of them will be technically equal. But the results will be vastly different.
 
There are also posts all over the Internet about the advantages of not using manual. Being on the internet doesn't make it right or sensible.
 
What's the point of switching the camera into manual? What did you do in taking the photo that made using manual necessary? What did manual mode provide that you couldn't achieve using the camera in auto?

Joe

The manual photo is much much better !

Why? How did having the camera in manual account for the difference? What do the raw files look like?

Joe

Using a meter I was able to measure the light on what I considered the most important part of the photo.

I've had problems with my food photos because to show the food correctly I had to blow out other parts of the photo.

I didn't make corrections to the two photos.

Normally I've been shooting the same shot at a dozen different apertures which is bad for food photos because the food cools etc.

Using manual I will only have to shoot at most three photos.

Michael
 
What's the point of switching the camera into manual? What did you do in taking the photo that made using manual necessary? What did manual mode provide that you couldn't achieve using the camera in auto?

Joe

The manual photo is much much better !

Why? How did having the camera in manual account for the difference? What do the raw files look like?

Joe

Using a meter I was able to measure the light on what I considered the most important part of the photo.

I've had problems with my food photos because to show the food correctly I had to blow out other parts of the photo.

I didn't make corrections to the two photos.

Normally I've been shooting the same shot at a dozen different apertures which is bad for food photos because the food cools etc.

Using manual I will only have to shoot at most three photos.

Michael
In other words, you improved by addressing the metering, not by using manual.
 

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