Using manual mode...

[Derrel]

Photos snapped with the camera in Manual mode bring one closer to God. Manual mode gives one a fuller, firmer erection. Manual mode absolves one of all sins. Manual mode shooting improves cardiovascular fitness, and can lead to increased life span, greater economic well being, and more enjoyment out of life. Manual mode shooting is on par with walking on the surface of the Moon--the euphoria it brings is almost impossible to describe in words that common people can understand. All these things are universal truths.

 

[angelo_lightning]

Well for what its worth here is my thought process when taking a shot, and how I use manual mode.

First I decide on the thing I want to be my subject, this might be an idea, feeling or object. Usually its simply whatever drew my attention, but usualy there is something about a subject in particular that grabs me.

Next I decide on the limiting factor. Usually it is either shutter speed or aperture. I'll explain a bit more....

If something in the frame is moving and I want to freeze it (like a bird in flight for example) the limiting factor is shutter speed. If I need a lot of depth of field (like shooting landscape shots) its aperture. Sometimes it can be both, (for example a lanscape shot with a boat bobbing up and down in the tide).

So once I know that I can ballpark my exposure using some rules of thumb about blur, hyperfocal distance, DOF etc

Next I'll spot meter if I have time or multiple opertunities, deciding on where I want my metered area to fall in the histogram.

After that I'll dial in whatever ISO that gets me there.

yeah... i'm already starting to do this more and more. I'm kind of developing a different process for each each situation. I'm pretty irritated with the strange button layout of my d3300 though. I have a command dial for my shutter speed. But to adjust aperture or iso I have to press these two buttons that are slightly awkward, requiring me to shift my grip and/or take my eye out of the viewfinder to make sure im hitting the right button. I'm surprised there aren't dedicated 'command dials' for each of the trinity. Is there a camera like that? And I've started using backbutton focus.

 

[table1349]

Photos snapped with the camera in Manual mode bring one closer to God. Manual mode gives one a fuller, firmer erection. Manual mode absolves one of all sins. Manual mode shooting improves cardiovascular fitness, and can lead to increased life span, greater economic well being, and more enjoyment out of life. Manual mode shooting is on par with walking on the surface of the Moon--the euphoria it brings is almost impossible to describe in words that common people can understand. All these things are universal truths.

Uh-oh, somebody got their Risperidone and their Viagra mixed up again I see.

Realizing that this is not a scientific poll, I would desire to hear from the likes of terri, annamaria, limr, JustJazzie, mmaria, and the other lovely ladies of TPF if they get firmer erections when using manual mode???

 

[bribrius]

what is perfect exposure? if it is a little dark, i usually drop the iso instead of using auto iso, to make sure the photo comes out somewhat like what i am actually looking at. seems the perfect exposure in auto iso doesn't exactly come out like what i see at times.. I do the same thing when shooting video too. Drop the iso manually to where i want it for the look i want to achieve, so why wouldn't you do that with stills?

 

[bribrius]

course then someone will say "that is underexposed"
uhh.
no.
it was dark.
duh....

if you plan on shadow recovery, of course dont do such things as it makes post process more difficult with noise. But those exposure people, that get stuck on it. i dunno....
Sounds like a auto problem. I have no problem letting iso float in auto, except when it doesn't match my photo, then i have a problem.

 

[table1349]

what is perfect exposure?

For me perfect exposure is whatever the photographer was striving for.

 

[Overread]

You can use the "expose to the right" theory for a concept of perfect exposure. This method focuses on the concept of capturing as much light data as possible into the camera; getting as much of the exposure on the right side of the histogram without overexposing any regions (barring the very odd highlight or catchlight of course).
Technically speaking that's the best to get since it maximises light data and minimises noise. You can then brighten or darken as you creatively wish.


Of course that is purely talking about technical information not artistic or anything else. Furthermore real-life situations will have constraints; the dynamic range might be too great to get perfect exposure on all areas; the light might be such that if you were to expose full to the right your shutter speed would be so slow that you'd get blur. So you have to temper it against the situation.

 

[Ysarex]

I'm surprised there aren't dedicated 'command dials' for each of the trinity. Is there a camera like that?

Yes. Fuji.

Joe

 

[TCampbell]

Photos snapped with the camera in Manual mode bring one closer to God. Manual mode gives one a fuller, firmer erection. Manual mode absolves one of all sins. Manual mode shooting improves cardiovascular fitness, and can lead to increased life span, greater economic well being, and more enjoyment out of life. Manual mode shooting is on par with walking on the surface of the Moon--the euphoria it brings is almost impossible to describe in words that common people can understand. All these things are universal truths.

There are clear health-risks linked to shooting in manual mode and years of data to back this up.

If you go back a hundred years or so, every photographer who shot in manual mode... eventually died!

With such a strong correlation in the data it's difficult to accept that this is merely a coincidence. ;-)

 

[Bryston3bsst]

what is perfect exposure?

For me perfect exposure is whatever the photographer was striving for.

Imagine that! The photographer........the very person that engineered a given picture....getting it right according to themselves. Getting it the way they wanted and intended it to be.

Pffffffftt.........simply not possible. Just ask the masses that jump in and tell the shooter all of the things they did wrong.

 

[table1349]

what is perfect exposure?

For me perfect exposure is whatever the photographer was striving for.

Imagine that! The photographer........the very person that engineered a given picture....getting it right according to themselves. Getting it the way they wanted and intended it to be.

Pffffffftt.........simply not possible. Just ask the masses that jump in and tell the shooter all of the things they did wrong.

That is their own fault. If they are not secure enough with what they shoot to be happy with it then perhaps they lack vision.

 

[Overread]

what is perfect exposure?

For me perfect exposure is whatever the photographer was striving for.

Imagine that! The photographer........the very person that engineered a given picture....getting it right according to themselves. Getting it the way they wanted and intended it to be.

Pffffffftt.........simply not possible. Just ask the masses that jump in and tell the shooter all of the things they did wrong.

Surely when one asks the question of how they get the right exposure the key element is that they are, as present, unsure how they can get "whatever they are striving for" or indeed might even not quite know what they are striving for.

Thus its a perfectly valid question to ask. Of course "what you should aim for" depends a lot on the photographer. The method I outlined above is a very "technical" approach that makes the assumption that the photographer will be editing the result. Therefore it strives for the best technical component to provide the most data for that editing.
If a photographer is only working with more limited editing then their method will change to suit that. They'll still be making many of the same choices regarding shutter speed (prevent or cause blur?) aperture (depth of field) and ISO (noise - exposure etc...).




As for commentary; if you put your work up then one must expect others to share similar, different and opposing views. That's entirely the fun of sharing ones work; to hear different viewpoints. For those new to the hobby its also a potentially helpful process of hearing other views and gaining new insights as well as improving ones ability to expose how they wish (especially if the photographer takes heed of oft given advice to give their own critique on their own work - to in a sense share their view of what they wanted to capture in words so that others might be able to give their view on what might be done differently to get closer or if the photographer has indeed achieved what they set out to do.

 

[Braineack]

what is perfect exposure?

For me perfect exposure is whatever the photographer was striving for.

Imagine that! The photographer........the very person that engineered a given picture....getting it right according to themselves. Getting it the way they wanted and intended it to be.

Pffffffftt.........simply not possible. Just ask the masses that jump in and tell the shooter all of the things they did wrong.

Yeah, read the "what's wrong with this photo" thread. Omg.

using tapatalk.

 

[buggz]

So I'm weening myself off automatic. Still use it in a pinch, but I'm taking pictures constantly going from shadow to light, trying to get the perfect exposure and field of depth as fast as possible.

This is the mental process I use for shooting in manual. I'm looking for constructive criticism to make it better.

1. I determine the white balance of the shot. Inside orange, shady blue, or sunlight yellow. I either set the white balance to counteract it, or decide to keep the natural tone of the shot.

2. Now I set the iso all the way down. If possible I want to ignore it. In fact, I don't think of iso as being part of the 'trinity' of exposure. To me its an extra option.

3. I try to fill the frame with the shot. So I zoom if necessary and this gives me my focal length.

4. I decided what kind of depth of field I want and need. If I'm not sure if I can get a perfect shallow depth of field, I stop it down a bit

5. Now I put my shutter speed at a minimum to my focal length. So if I zoomed to 200mm I put my shutter speed at 1/200

6. Now I think about how bright the light is in the environment and how wide my aperture. I speed up the shutter speed to darken it if its too bright.

7. Now, if I have my shutter speed at my minimum in accordance with my focal length... but its still too dark... I might open up my aperture a bit. If my aperture is open all the way or I need to get a large depth of field... I finally go to my iso.

So... whatcha guys think? What am I doing wrong? How can I do this better?

I shoot landscapes so here is my approach.

1. dont bother with white balance as I shoot in RAW
2. iso 100. unless shooting milkyway, then between 1600-3200
3. same as you
4. same as you
5. I use a tripod so I choose shutterspeed based on the effect I want (water/clouds/milkyway)
6. I use shutterspeed to determine exposure, and set aperture between f8-f16; or f2.8 for milkyway
7. ... perhaps

start with AP mode, and then goto M mode. AP mode is actually what many landscape shooters use. I prefer M mode as the light gets darker or lighter depending on sunrise/set and I can use bulb mode.

My 2cents.