Am I using the Manual function correctly?

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Mattrop

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Matt
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Hi

I would just like to know whether I am using the manual mode on my canon 20D correctly..eg

I'm outside and I want to take a picture of my daughter. Her hair is blond and the first picture is showing that her hair is over exposed. I know that I want a shallow DOF and therefore select an aperture of f2.8. Am I correct at then using the spot meter on her hair and adjusting the shutter speed until the bar meter moves to 0 in the view finder, recomposing and then taking the shot?

Am I missing something vital here? Apologies as I can see there are many metering queries posted here.

Matt:thinking:
 
Mattrop said:
Hi

I would just like to know whether I am using the manual mode on my canon 20D correctly..eg

I'm outside and I want to take a picture of my daughter. Her hair is blond and the first picture is showing that her hair is over exposed. I know that I want a shallow DOF and therefore select an aperture of f2.8. Am I correct at then using the spot meter on her hair and adjusting the shutter speed until the bar meter moves to 0 in the view finder, recomposing and then taking the shot?

Am I missing something vital here? Apologies as I can see there are many metering queries posted here.

Matt:thinking:
Click to expand...

you have it virtually correct yes. except... you need to have the meter needle on about +1

reason being.. camera will try to make white into 18% grey.. so to prevent that you put her blonde hair at perhaps +2/3 or +1 and try from there.

If her hair was black.. then the camera would try to make it 18% gray by pulling the exposure up which you dont want cos your black woldnt be black then. So you would put the meter at about -1.

And then when you move the camera to recompose, and you see the meter changing.. take no notice!!

This is general stuff.. not exact by me. but its a starting point for you.
 
Why miss out on 20 years of technology? Why use manual - why not let the camera do the work - they do get it right most of the time! Use a manual tweak if the camera really is getting it wrong.
 
I prefer using manual, it really helped me learn the relationships between the iso, A and S.

I find using the other settings now rather irritating, not sure why.
 
I had to use manual for years - when there was no choice - and wait hours to see the results come out of the fix too! Now - I'd miss too many shots faffing around when the camera can do the work - and let me concentrate on getting the right shots. :)
 
Aperture Priority for this situation sounds a better bet.
 
Spot metering is used to read a tone of a known value that you are familiar with, and you then adjust the exposure against that accordingly. Since you don't know the tone of your daughter's hair, it's not really appropriate.

If you read off something white, you would adjust the exposure down by about three stops. From the palm of your hand, usually 1.3 stops. From grass or tarmac, maybe no adjustment at all. That kind of thing.

IMHO it's really a bit of a hang over from film days, when you needed all the help you could get with exposure calculation, and spot metering was just part of the armoury. Like incident light reading, using an 18% grey card, etc etc.

I never use it with digital, given that evaluative metering is remarkably accurate most of the time, and when it's not, you have the LCD image to check, plus blinkies (over-exposure warning) and the histogram.

Unless you really know what you are doing, using spot metering and manual is almost guaranteed to get you into trouble. My general preference is to use evaluative on Av (I think most others too) then adjust with the +/- compensation as necessary. I only use manual when the settings need to be locked, such as when the subject or background is changing but the light isn't - not that often with general stuff TBH.

And welcome to TP :)
 
It really is horses for courses. Janice has given you good basics in her reply. FWIW, I use manual and spot metering about 98% of the time. The other 2% I use Av and spot metering.

Using anything else just gets me into trouble, as I don't like trying to work out what the camera is doing whilst I'm shooting, rather just tell it what I want, and then get on with it. :)
 
Making life difficult for yourself is what learning is all about.
If you always let the camera do all the work, you're a button-pusher, not a photographer...
Learn to do it properly first then use the auto funcctions later on if the shooting situation dictates by all means, but if you have the time to do so, use manual and set the shot up properly.

Also, there's no real need to use spot-metering on a portrait unless the background is so dark or bright that the camera's meter would be fooled into making a bad exposure because of it's influence.
Try matrix or evaluative (I think that's what Canon's system is called) and just leave it there.
If you're shooting manual then take the meter reading and underexpose by 2/3 stop to begin with and look at the result...adjust from there.
 
By setting the aperture, and then adjusting the shutter so that the meter reads 0 is only doing what the camera would do in Aperture mode anyway. If that is how you are shooting manually you are gaining no advantage.
 
Scarecrow said:
By setting the aperture, and then adjusting the shutter so that the meter reads 0 is only doing what the camera would do in Aperture mode anyway. If that is how you are shooting manually you are gaining no advantage.
Click to expand...

Quite right, although I still find it more intuitive to manually set both shutter speed and aperture and then decide which of those I adjust to dial-in any compensation required...
That decision will be based on what the subject is doing and where - whether I require emphasis placed on subject sharpness (or lack thereof)or the amount of depth-of-field or a combination of both...
If I use either Shutter-Priority or Aperture-Priority, then the camera is taking those decisions away from me when I use the +-EV button...
 
Interesting replies above :) But I would say to newcomers, don't use manual or spot. Just shows how different we are!

It takes a bit of knowledge to use both/either properly and I would say stick to auto at first - it will always get you a result. But make sure you check the camera settings and Exif data and understand what is happening and why, and how that affects the final image.

When you've got a handle on that, by all means use whichever method you prefer - they all end up with the same result (or should do!).
 
HoppyUK said:
Interesting replies above :) But I would say to newcomers, don't use manual or spot. Just shows how different we are!

It takes a bit of knowledge to use both/either properly and I would say stick to auto at first - it will always get you a result. But make sure you check the camera settings and Exif data and understand what is happening and why, and how that affects the final image.

When you've got a handle on that, by all means use whichever method you prefer - they all end up with the same result (or should do!).
Click to expand...

I'd say the opposite - otherwise how do you learn...?
:lol:
 
Hi,

I have recently started using a method I read somewhere that seems to work. Set your histogram to be RGB rather than average levels.

Set you hightlight alerts on - aka blinkies

Take a test shot based on you best guess depending on where you are metering - eg if metering of the blonde hair over expose by 1 stop.

Then check the image and ensure that no blinkies are flashing and that the histogram is as far to the right without touching the end of the chart.

If necessary adjust the exposure using aperture or shutter speed until the histogram is as described and shoot again. With practice, this should take only a few seconds. Once you have a setting, this should be resonably constant unless the light changes (eg sun goes behind or comes out from cloud).

This will ensure that any highlights are not over exposed and that there is detail in the shadows. Everything else can be compensated for during post-processing.
 
I agree with Arkady. best thing I ever did was to buy an old 50mm 1.8 for my D60. It doesn't autofocus and the camera can't even read the exposure from it, I have to set everything up manually myself.

I've learnt so much that I can just look at a scene now and get a very close guesstimate of what settings to use.

I would really recommend it to new people :)
 
I think it's good to use manual mode. I like to use Av, and in this situation it would be fine, but if you do it in Manual and get the exposure right, you can shoot away to your hearts content knowing that unless the light changes your shots are going to be exposed nicely. I find if I use Av, it can be a little unpredictable, and tend to check each shot.
 
Arkady said:
I'd say the opposite - otherwise how do you learn...?
:lol:
Click to expand...

Haha! Of course you do Rob ;) :D

There are generally two ways of learning:

a) By your mistakes, basically hit and miss, and banging your head against a brick wall. Which can be lengthy and painful.

b) By embracing the technology (which you've paid for), getting a decent result and encouragement, then understanding what the camera did, why it did it, and modifying it once you are in control.

The two approaches appeal to different mindsets. The first appeals to pig-headed types, like those people who never read instruction books. The second approach is the preferred method for enlightened, intelligent folks :thumbs:

(In jest, I might add :) )
 
lol...
The problem with that as I see it is that unless you're learning in a structured environment, you may find that by using auto settings you never get to discover what the camera did and why.
By making mistakes and banging your head against a wall, you do discover what happened and can adjust your technique accordingly.
 
Well I guess I'll have to join the pig-headed club :D

This came up in another thread last night and I argued for manual then -- as Hoppy says, there are two ways of going about learning.

But method A (learning by your mistakes) means you learn the basics.

Method B (embracing the technology) means you learn how to get the result you want but may have possibly incorrect assumptions about the basics.

I often come across people creating models for how things work when they don't understand something and all is well until they come up against something that shows (or worse, should show) that model to be broken -- accepting that and fixing it can be difficult.
 
I get a bit freaked out by the number of people I meet who never use manual mode. I know a pro wedding photographer who shoots 'P' all the time because she says she trusts the camera totally to get it right 'most times'. Most of the time?

When I'm trackside I shoot shutter priority because controlling the speed is (IMO) vital for good motor sport images, when I'm in the paddock area I opt for aperture priority or manual and if I'm out shooting landscapes or portraits I always choose manual.

If I wanted to be a button pusher, I'd have bought a point & shoot.
 
I'm trying to gain a better understanding and have opted for the brick wall route!:bang: I absolutely love taking pictures, but am still finding that when I review at the end of the day, more often than not, I'm disappointed with the results. I fear the road is long to achieving similar quality photos that I have witnessed these forums!

Thanks all for your comments:thumbs:
 
Personally I use Tv or Av most of the time. Used to use manual, but don't bother anymore as I get the results I'm after with less effort by using the other modes and exposure comp.

All I used to do with manual was select the correct shutter/aperture for the look I was after, then adjust the other(although with ISO) until the exposure metre read where I wanted it to. It's something that can be done more quickly using Tv and Av modes.
 
I have read all these posts with interest. - As a relative beginner with the dslr I try and take the first photo using auto and then the same scene with either manual/A/S settings, the auto gives me some idea of what I should be doing in the other settings. Then back home I decide which ones I like best. At the moment most of the keepers are the autos, but I must be improving as I'm keeping more and more manual/A/S shots. Who knows one day I might even take one good enough to post on these forums!:)
 
manual, spot meter on face, take a test exposure

sometimes I use Av on spot with meter lock and compensation but manual is actually easier once you've learnt it if you ask me
 
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