Manual exposure mode is about having control over
your camera, instead of it controlling you. You use manual exposure mode to
exercise full creative control over your images. When you want to stop
action, capture motion, produce fine bokeh, or have great depth of field, you
need to use manual exposure mode.
1. Manual exposure mode has no “right” settings for
ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. You choose these settings for what best
achieves your goals with a given scene or subject.
2. Different types of lights have different colors. Fluorescent
lights make whites and skin tones appear green, tungsten lights (plain old
light bulbs) make things appear yellow or orange. White Balance (WB) adjusts
for this and gets the colors right in whites and skin tones in your images.
3. The higher your ISO, the more your photos will be “noisy”
or grainy. There is nothing wrong with this; it is a style choice. If you must
push your ISO higher, you are not doing anything wrong. It is better to have a
noisy image than no image at all.
4. Shutter speed controls the time you expose the image
sensor to light. Higher shutter speeds (1/250 second or faster) prevent motion
blur and freeze action, but let in less light. Lower shutter speeds (1/60
second or slower) let in more light, but may blur moving subjects.
5. Aperture, or f-stop, controls how much light passes
through your lens by controlling the size of the opening inside your lens. A
lower f-stop, such as f/1.4, lets in more light and a higher f-stop,
like f/16, lets in less light. Aperture also affects depth of field. You
get less depth of field with lower f/stops, blurring the background (bokeh).
6. First, set white balance; second, set ISO. Set shutter
speed third to control motion; set aperture third to control depth of field.
Then balance your exposure with the remaining setting.
7. You do not need to use manual focus to photograph in
manual exposure mode. Many photographers use autofocus to capture moments quickly
and ensure that they are sharp.
8. You will not get things right with every shot.
Overexposed and underexposed shots are part of the learning process when
photographing in manual mode.
9. When photographing in manual mode and you have
centered the light meter in the viewfinder, your image may still be too bright
or too dark. Expose very bright scenes (snow or a beach) to the positive side
of the light meter and very dark scenes to the negative side of the light
meter. Take test shots and check the histogram.
10. Practice! Practice! Practice! Photographing in
manual is not hard and it will force you to learn your camera inside and out.
You will be a better photographer for it. It takes practice so do not expect
everything to come naturally the first time.
These
tips are a guide to follow. There is no right way or wrong way to learn to
photograph in manual exposure mode. Everyone has their own style that works
best for them. Experiment, take lots of photographs, but most of all, have fun.
