P for PROGRAM. Am I right or wrong. Manual Mode is for dummies!

[Overread]

Oi behave you or I'll start finding even more spiders and creepy crawlies to scare you with!!!!

 

[manaheim]

Oi behave you or I'll start finding even more spiders and creepy crawlies to scare you with!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

 

[Dominantly]

Manual, who needs it when ya got program? LOLOLOL You just use the Program setting. The camera does its best to set everything for you but then after you take the image you can look at it and make the adjustments needed to make it better or correct errors.

Thats right Master Photograffer!

Or is that cheating?

Also I read that when shooting in manual mode you should first try and set the ISO to the lowest setting possible with out causing or being in danger of camera shake and then adjust your aperture and shutter speed from there.

Does this make sense, does anyone practice this?

You say shoot on Program, see the results, then switch to manual to fine tune it to fit your desired end result? I say, SURE. You are then of course taking quite a while to set up a shot you could have nailed from the get go, but if you want to see a "suggestion" offered by your camera in it's little creative mode, then why not.

When shooting in manual, YES most people will leave their ISO to the lowest setting feasible. As I understand it, you are saying that you should leave your ISO as low as possible, and then only to use it to compensate for the lighting conditions in adjusting your Shutter (and Aperture) to facilitate a setup that will minimize your effects of a hand held shot, in your picture. To this I say, YES.
I personally do not raise the ISO for s#its and giggles, I use it to allow flexibility with my other settings (shutter). If my light is low, I'm wide open, and my shutter speed is too slow; I will bump the ISO until it provides me with an acceptable shutter speed. I will balance the need for a fast shutter with the drawbacks of taking the ISO too high.

My understanding of your initial post.

 

[ghpham]

oi vey! This topic again?

 

[Boomn4x4]

Manual, who needs it when ya got program? LOLOLOL You just use the Program setting. The camera does its best to set everything for you but then after you take the image you can look at it and make the adjustments needed to make it better or correct errors.

Thats right Master Photograffer!

Or is that cheating?

Also I read that when shooting in manual mode you should first try and set the ISO to the lowest setting possible with out causing or being in danger of camera shake and then adjust your aperture and shutter speed from there.

Does this make sense, does anyone practice this?

From a beginners perspective, I use manual because I want to learn what my camera is doing. Learning from your mistakes is the best way to learn, no? If I run in auto, or semi-auto, I don't make mistakes, and I don't learn. And honestly, some "mistakes" are actually some pretty cool shots.

 

[burstintoflame81]

I use Av and Tv more than manual, but also use manual. Depends just how creative I need to get. I never used auto even since the day I started, simply because my canon would only shoot Jpeg in auto and I was hellbent on shooting RAW. So I was forced to learn.

 

[PJL]

I use Av mode on my film SLRs, because "learning from your mistakes" in film is a bit more expensive these days with all you digital folks running about.

 

[ghache]

outside shootting i use A most of the time, i like to have control over my dof. i set the ISO for the embient light
in studio i use M
if i do quick snapshot (or let friends or GF use the camera, i use Program, i set my ISO to whatever i feel is right for the embient light and its a sure shot.

 

[RumDaddy]

Rumdaddy may have had a little too much to drink , but...I think he is just pulling some legs with his original post. It certainly got a few peoples attention.

Thanks. A phrase comes to mind. Good attitudes are free and they usually come with a sense of humor. :thumbup:

Im currently trying to learn the manual settings. But I really dont know where to start. I know when trying to learn new tricks in life, you can spend hrs trying to figure something out, sometimes days, weeks or years. But somewhere along the way a expert can say. Look, click here, view there, do this first and trun that off. So Im just looking for a little guidance and wanted to share that Im experimenting on my own and not looking for the easy way out.

One of my tricks is to shoot a image on auto, remember the settings, switch to manual, dial in the settings and then start making changes from there. I GUESS THATS THE WHOLE IDEA BEHIND PROGRAM! LOL!

 

[RumDaddy]

Oh hey... it's THIS thread. It looks a little different this time, but it's just this same ol' thread again. Nice to see you, thread!

Hey come on now.... You are in the Photography Beginners' Forum & Photo Gallery But Im no stranger to forums and understand repetitive orreoccurring threads can become annoying.

 

[Overread]

Rum Daddy I understand what you mean indeed and its possibly one of the more tricky things to pick up in photography (right after the backwards way in which apertures and f numbers work ). Myself when I came to learn this I did 3 things;

1) I had the book "The Digital Photography Book" By Scot Kelby
The video on the amazon page here really does outline the content of the book very well:
[ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Photography-Book-Step-step/dp/032147404X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271427650&sr=8-1-spell]The Digital Photography Book: The Step-by-step Secrets for How to Make Your Photos Look Like the Pros'!: 1: Amazon.co.uk: Scott Kelby: Books[/ame]

edit - also when you want to move up a gear Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson makes a great follow on read as it does start to go more in depth with the explination of the settings as well as giving you more creative ideas on how to use the settings for different photographic effects.

2) I shifted into aperture priority mode first rather than go right into full manual. This let me get to terms with setting the ISO and also with controling the aperture (and thus the depth of field) in my shots whilst letting the camera do the work with the shutter. Essentially it was making the order of priority for me in that it went - aperture - ISO - shutter speed (roughly speaking) rather than leaving me high and dry in manual mode

3) Study the works of others within your key subject areas of interest - see what settings they use, read up on the common settings advice given out as well as the commonly used shooting modes. Often as not this will give you a very good starting point with the common setups in use and from there you can branch out and experiment to determin your own shooting style and needs.

 

[RumDaddy]

Manual, who needs it when ya got program? LOLOLOL You just use the Program setting. The camera does its best to set everything for you but then after you take the image you can look at it and make the adjustments needed to make it better or correct errors.

Thats right Master Photograffer!

Or is that cheating?

Also I read that when shooting in manual mode you should first try and set the ISO to the lowest setting possible with out causing or being in danger of camera shake and then adjust your aperture and shutter speed from there.

Does this make sense, does anyone practice this?

You say shoot on Program, see the results, then switch to manual to fine tune it to fit your desired end result? I say, SURE. You are then of course taking quite a while to set up a shot you could have nailed from the get go, but if you want to see a "suggestion" offered by your camera in it's little creative mode, then why not.

When shooting in manual, YES most people will leave their ISO to the lowest setting feasible. As I understand it, you are saying that you should leave your ISO as low as possible, and then only to use it to compensate for the lighting conditions in adjusting your Shutter (and Aperture) to facilitate a setup that will minimize your effects of a hand held shot, in your picture. To this I say, YES.
I personally do not raise the ISO for s#its and giggles, I use it to allow flexibility with my other settings (shutter). If my light is low, I'm wide open, and my shutter speed is too slow; I will bump the ISO until it provides me with an acceptable shutter speed. I will balance the need for a fast shutter with the drawbacks of taking the ISO too high.

My understanding of your initial post.

Awesome post thanks. I like how you worded it. It was eye opening and a good way to look at it. P/Auto is your cameras way of suggesting settings to you. I hope to some day be better at photography then my camera is :lmao:

I was not trying to suggest anything, nor saying or claiming that you are supposed to always leave your ISO that low. I just "READ" that thats the starting process for dialing in your manual settings. Like thats one of the tricks to shooting on manual. Thats what I read in a photography book and was looking for confirmation from the experts.

I hate to say it. But for right now. My camera knows more about its own settings then I do so I currently have to take its suggestions. Im hopnig to change that real soon.

 

[RumDaddy]

Overead. A million thank yous....

 

[Overread]

I only discourage the use of program mode partly because it lacks any understanding of your subject and the context of the shot itself. All it aims to do is give you a correct technical exposure and lets you have a choice of a few varying options.

I far perfer to approach things the other way - understand the main subject area and how to firstly take a simple shot within that subject area and then to build upon that to learn to directly control things and experiment. I personally feel that its better to experiment with settings yourself in say aperture or shutter priority mode than it is to fiddle about in program mode- simply because it lets you see a simple direct effect of you changing the setting rather than being presented with two or three values which whilst they will deliver different results are not as clear as to what change in the settings is leading to which changes in the resulting image

(as an idea program mode is the only mode on my camera aside from aperture dependant that I have never used - I used the auto shoot macro, landscape and fast shot modes for a time and the full green auto mode - then jumped right into aperture priority)

 

[RumDaddy]

Reread. Let me rephrase the bottom of that one post.

So far your the only person that has either agreed or suggested that starting with a low ISO setting is "somewhat" a exceptable practice. There is a little sense to it.

How ever I will take your advise and try the Aperture Priority setting. As a matter of fact. I already started this practice last night. I was trying a wide open/deep depth of field land scape shot. With a 28-135 lens at sunset. I was hoping for the position of the sun to help illuminate the far off distance to ad to the image. You know light up the treeline a mile a way to better see the effects of how my aperture settings can effect my depth of field.

How ever I dont understand. :er: I know Im supposed to turn up the aperture higher, and this actually closes the opening more to allow less light into the sensor. And some how this will keep my distant treeline in better focus.