Is manual mode overrated?

[Village Idiot]

Manual exposure should only be used when you know the in-camera meter is going to give you the wrong exposure ... otherwise use Aperture or Shutter priority to have your own control over either property.

I think the biggest misconception is that Manual exposure gives you the most control ... if you set exposure manually to what the in-camera meter tells you is correct, then it is no different then using any automatic setting ... Manual exposure gives you the most control when you deviate from the norm.

By definition, having control over something is to have the power to guide of change. If the camera is doing it for you, then you don't have control of that setting. So yes, manual mode does give you the most control. Is it the easiest or most practical setting? It entirely depends on the photographer and the camera. Even when I'm not shooting with lighting equipment, I tend to use the spot meter, so my meter will jump all over the place depending on whether or not I'm lighting something black, white, gray, green, etc... and it won't necessarily expose the scene the way I want it to. So manual mode is generally what I stick with based on how I shoot and what I shoot.

 

[jake337]

What Josh said. If you shoot with Aperture Priority I suggest you stay out of spot metering.

Can you elaborate? I do this all the time and am always using spot metering. Much less now that I have off camera flash though.

 

[Higgs Boson]

I'll add in a question on this. I like to shoot in M so the settings don't change. Typically I will set my aperture to ensure the dof I want and then set a shutter speed that will keep me near 0 exposure for all my shots on that shoot.

Some pics will be 1/3 stop over or under but mostly they are all right there at or around 0.

My question is, does it really even matter? With RAW and post processing, it is easily adjustable....Is there any reason to care if you're at perfect 0 for every shot (creative or not)?

 

[Josh66]

Rocket science it is not.

Middle gray, 18% reflectance, nanoo nanoo

Houston, whe have a problem.

Meters Don't See 18% Gray by Thom Hogan

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]ANSI standards (which, unfortunately, are not publically published--you have to pay big bucks to have access to them), calibrate meters using luminance, not reflection.

Do you (or anyone) know which ANSI standard it is? He never says in the article...

We have access to them at work, and I'd be interested in seeing it.
[/FONT]

 

[Robin Usagani]

I only suggest using spot metering if you really know what you are doing. It requires you to do AE lock a lot. If you dont really know what you are doing, you will have a set of photo on the same location, same light, with exposure all over the place from -2 to +2. You wont be very consistent. AE lock on most camera bodies is a pain.

What Josh said. If you shoot with Aperture Priority I suggest you stay out of spot metering.

Can you elaborate? I do this all the time and am always using spot metering. Much less now that I have off camera flash though.

 

[kundalini]

AE lock on most camera bodies is a pain.

Must be a Canon thing. Mine is just left of the AF-ON button, which is my prefered method to focus.

 

[Light Artisan]

I didn't realize consistency was so important, I guess I personally don't care if the exposure changes, so long as I like the end result. Lighting changes, exposure should too.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Kundalini, same as Canon. But then you need to make sure you are metering from same spot over and over. I hate doing too much recompose or mess with EC. I would do a lot more aperture priority if I can lock the AE for multiple shots.

AE lock on most camera bodies is a pain.

Must be a Canon thing. Mine is just left of the AF-ON button, which is my prefered method to focus.

 

[jake337]

I only suggest using spot metering if you really know what you are doing. It requires you to do AE lock a lot. If you dont really know what you are doing, you will have a set of photo on the same location, same light, with exposure all over the place from -2 to +2. You wont be very consistent. AE lock on most camera bodies is a pain.

What Josh said. If you shoot with Aperture Priority I suggest you stay out of spot metering.

Can you elaborate? I do this all the time and am always using spot metering. Much less now that I have off camera flash though.

Ok I see what you are saying. I use it with AE lock indoors at family get togethers and whatnot when the change in light is small. You just have to watch your shadows I guess and be more aware of the lighting on your subject.
Is there any difference in exposure when using flash and spot metering? Should i be using full matrix metering more often? I turned off all the options on my d90 (d-lighting, noise reduction, etc..). I figure if the camera is not helping me then the exposure is more up to me and I can learn from my mistakes.

 

[jake337]

Kundalini, same as Canon. But then you need to make sure you are metering from same spot over and over. I hate doing too much recompose or mess with EC. I would do a lot more aperture priority if I can lock the AE for multiple shots.

AE lock on most camera bodies is a pain.

Must be a Canon thing. Mine is just left of the AF-ON button, which is my prefered method to focus.

I know I hated on my d90 how the AE lock would turn off when the camera went into stand by.

I just changed the amount of time it took for standby to the longest amount and make sure I turn off the camera if I'm not taking pictures for a few minutes.

 

[Josh66]

Is there any difference in exposure when using flash and spot metering? Should i be using full matrix metering more often? I turned off all the options on my d90 (d-lighting, noise reduction, etc..). I figure if the camera is not helping me then the exposure is more up to me and I can learn from my mistakes.

If the flash is going to be the primary light source, just ignore the meter all together - it's not going to tell you anything.

If you're just using fill flash, just meter normally and use the flash to fill in the shadows.

 

[Dmitri]

It is all over rated. Just stick it in AUTO, always use the on-camera flash, and don't bother with post processing - that's just cheating anyway.

 

[jake337]

Is there any difference in exposure when using flash and spot metering? Should i be using full matrix metering more often? I turned off all the options on my d90 (d-lighting, noise reduction, etc..). I figure if the camera is not helping me then the exposure is more up to me and I can learn from my mistakes.

If the flash is going to be the primary light source, just ignore the meter all together - it's not going to tell you anything.

If you're just using fill flash, just meter normally and use the flash to fill in the shadows.

Ok thats what I've been doing, thanks.

 

[Dominantly]

Rocket science it is not.

Middle gray, 18% reflectance, nanoo nanoo

Houston, whe have a problem.

Meters Don't See 18% Gray by Thom Hogan

Don't know if I buy it.

 

[Josh66]

Rocket science it is not.

Middle gray, 18% reflectance, nanoo nanoo

Houston, whe have a problem.

Meters Don't See 18% Gray by Thom Hogan

Don't know if I buy it.

Without seeing the spec, I don't know how we can say one way or the other.

I can print it out at work, but I have to know the number.

There are hundreds of thousands of ANSI specs... Without a number there is no way for me to find it.

I could probably search for photography related terms, but even that would still likely yield thousands of results...

edit
I've search on Google trying to find the number of the spec, no luck so far. If anyone has any luck finding the number, post it here and I'll look it up at work.

I'm pretty sure it will be illegal for me to scan and post the print I make at work - but I don't think there would be any issue with me reading it and sharing my new knowledge with you.