Shooting Manual or Auto-unhijacking the other thread

[jordan!]

What if they invented an auto-pen. You would still pick the scene and the composition, but the pen would do all the drawing. If you spent a lot of time working on your drawing skills, and someone "drew" the same picture with their auto-pen, would you still be like "Wow, what a great drawing!" or would you feel like maybe, despite the result being the same, the method the person used to get there somehow took away from the final result.

I think that's what it comes down to when you discuss something like this. There are always going to be people who feel like choosing the right settings and knowing exactly what you're doing and why are just as important as the final result when we talk about the craft of photography.

Now, if we're debating whether or not more people shoot in auto than in manual, yeah, probably more people shoot auto. But that doesn't make for a very interesting discussion does it?

 

[mrodgers]

How many people here drive a car with an automatic transmission? Are you still "driving" the car?

My current car is driving me crazy (wife's car actually). Everything is automatic. Auto transmission, I can not select the gear I want. Auto AC, I can not turn the AC off if I just want to heat up the interior via the defrost and floor as I hate the heated air blowing on my face. Auto AWD, it senses slip and kicks in the AWD. If it senses slip, hasn't it already slipped and isn't it too late? If the road is slippery, I can not threshhold brake to come to a stop. The antilock brakes kick in and lets go of the brakes.

I can not control the car. I can point it in the direction I want and make it go and stop, but that's it. It takes all control of everything pertaining to driving and automatically controls it.

Thus, I am not driving. I am only steering, braking, and moving. People call this driving, I do not.

Much is similar with this debate of photography and Auto vs. Manual mode. In Auto, you can not select your ISO so you can not control noise. You can not select flash or no flash, so you can not control one aspect of light. You can not select aperture so you can not control DOF. You can not select shutter speed, so you can not control motion.

I do agree with the disrespect people get just because they use auto mode. I have nothing against auto mode. It is only the fact that I have one particular friend who thinks that just because he has a better camera (XTi vs. my Fuji superzoom) that he gets better photographs than I do. He shoots snapshot of his kids with his $1500 worth of camera while I play around with photography in manual with my $200 superzoom. It's an ongoing arguement between us.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

My camera doesn't even have an auto mode.


My girlfriend who shoots with my D70 hates using the auto mode, because she says that it's like the camera made the picture, not her - I completely agree with her. In the auto mode, you completely forfeit all control except the shutter release and composition.


The more and more you know, and get comfortable with your camera, the less you use auto mode because you will want control. That's why you're using an SLR in the first place.

 

[stsinner]

I think this was your point, or did I miss your point?

:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

I like this one better:

 

[jordan!]

Was that shot taken in auto mode?

 

[dEARlEADER]

That's why you're using an SLR in the first place.

No... that's why you're using an SLR in the first place....

There are plenty of people out there with money to burn that buy SLR's with no intention of learning photography to the degree that we do.

Believe or not, these people have a right to do this. Just as they have the right to buy expensive wine without knowing what they're tasting, and the right to buy exotic sports without any ambition to drive them fast.

Is it that we need to make these judgements in order to make ourselves feel better? Guess that's why I periodically watch TMZ.

 

[dxqcanada]

As Tharmsen pointed out ... is this about being a Cool Dude or a Loser ?

I have forgotten what the initial point was.


BTW, a number of photographers use SLR's for it expandability concerning Lenses, Flash, and other accessories.

 

[Parkerman]

I shoot either Aperture Priority or Manual, Sometimes I might go to shutter priority, but rarely.

 

[MikeBcos]

I like this one better:

Looks just like my Pentax ME 35mm SLR, it has two modes, Auto and Flash Sync.

 

[stsinner]

Was that shot taken in auto mode?

No, I drew it on a canvas and colored it with pigments from the Orient. I took some art classes in college, and I would hate to waste that talent. Only a lazy boob would take this picture with a camera when they have a perfectly good canvas, pencils and yak hair brushes lying nearby..

 

[adamwilliamking]

My non professional opinion is this;

Automatic mode is like Auto-Focus, and not just because they both feature the word auto. Anyways, recently I noticed that when I use the feature on my D90 that allows me to magnify my liveview, and use it to focus, the sharpness I get is far greater than simply auto-focusing on the subject from what I see through my viewfinder. To me, this is kind of comparable to Auto-Mode on most cameras. The cameras ability to auto-focus only goes so far, just like the cameras ability to choose a proper shutter speed/apeture/iso/WB/etc. and perfectly apply it to your situation. Its going to do a "damn good job" just like all modern auto-focus systems, but theres always going to be "that much extra" that is acheivable by simply using your obtained knowledge and personally applying settings in that fashion. In the same regard, as some are saying, because these Automatic picture taking systems have grown so advanced, you can (in a way) reverse engineer what is going on and trick the camera into giving you what it is that you are looking for.

 

[mosu84]

A good photo is a good photo. Certain shots -- waterfalls, night shots, etc -- will most likely require manual mode (or A or S mode at minimum), but other than that, why would anyone care what mode a picture is taken in?

 

[anubis404]

You may get a good shot out of auto mode, but calling an auto shooter a "photographer" is a stretch. A guy that shoots auto is like a painter who sketches something and has someone else paint it for him.

 

[Ecas32]

You may get a good shot out of auto mode, but calling an auto shooter a "photographer" is a stretch. A guy that shoots auto is like a painter who sketches something and has someone else paint it for him.

.....or a country singer who gets other people to write their songs, and they sing it.

you stole the words right out of my mouth

 

[mosu84]

You may get a good shot out of auto mode, but calling an auto shooter a "photographer" is a stretch. A guy that shoots auto is like a painter who sketches something and has someone else paint it for him.

Scott Kelby says he regularly shoots on Auto when he's in cities so that he can quickly capture a scene. Not a photographer?