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?