Auto or manual

[nogboy]

Recently bought a canon eos 450d but all the photos taken have been on auto or scene exposure mode, should i be trying out on manual or is that only used in special circumstances ie low light etc...

 

[Gr8Shot]

definately get onto Aperture Priority & shutter priority before progressing onto manual, make note of the effects of aperture and shutter speeds and start to learn.
If you're not going to do that all you need is a point n shoot camera

 

[Ivan S]

definately get onto Aperture Priority & shutter priority before progressing onto manual, make note of the effects of aperture and shutter speeds and start to learn.
If you're not going to do that all you need is a point n shoot camera

There's absolutely nothing wrong with using a DSLR as a point and shoot

Saying that, the other options will open up new avenue's of photography

 

[drexyl]

Doesn't matter which mode you use.

They all do the same thing & all rely on the cameras inbuilt meter.
Try to learn & understand what the cameras meter does then learn to work around it to get the results you want.

 

[Nod]

I'm a huge believer in P mode personally. No different to using any of the other auto modes (A & S [Av & Tv]) or even M and the in camera meter. It's knowing when to change the shutter speed/aperture and distrust the meter and add/subtract exposure.

These days, AF is better than my eyes for 99% of things than MF, especially with none of the focus aids of yore.

Want to do everything the hard way? Get a film system with a separate meter! Enjoy! Been there, done that and now I have the option, I'll have the auto option thank you (although I can still do it the old way too if I want to!)

 

[Gr8Shot]

i was referring to manual mode not manual focus, save that for macro work only..

 

[ernesto]

I'm a huge believer in P mode personally. No different to using any of the other auto modes (A & S [Av & Tv]) or even M and the in camera meter. It's knowing when to change the shutter speed/aperture and distrust the meter and add/subtract exposure.

Agree, P mode is a good option. Leave it to it's own devices and it is pretty much like auto (from metering point of view anyway) but easy to change aperture or shutter by turning the wheel either way.

It prevents leaving the camera on 1.8 in A mode by mistake and taking 20 overexposed shots. (not that I have ever done that )

 

[Chris O]

Stick with P & scene modes for the "snapshots" of family, holidays etc till your get more confident.
When you have some free time be creative & use Tv & Av. A bridge over a busy road can be great to learn about Tv, still life for Av. Just have fun, the shots are free!
If you only have the "kit" lens then getting a cheap 50 1.8 from eBay is great to help you learn as it is a "fast" lens at a great price.
Keep playing about & take time to learn, you will soon realise how useful the modes are.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking P mode, it can still be the best mode to just grab spur of the moment shots.

 

[kestral]

Recently bought a canon eos 450d but all the photos taken have been on auto or scene exposure mode, should i be trying out on manual or is that only used in special circumstances ie low light etc...

You should learn MANUAL before anything else.Everything came after manual not before.You will be able to take photos under any conditions that way.There are many instances where the auto modes will let you down badly.If you understand manual you will know what is happening in the auto/program modes and will know when it is correct to use them.All DSLR have in camera TTL light meters now so it's not difficult to learn manual.

 

[ernesto]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking P mode, it can still be the best mode to just grab spur of the moment shots.

P mode does exactly the same as Aperture or Priority. If you program shift you choose your aperture or shutter speed just the same as in Aperture or Shutter priority so not sure how it limits the user to snapshots?

 

[ernesto]

You should learn MANUAL before anything else.Everything came after manual not before.You will be able to take photos under any conditions that way.There are many instances where the auto modes will let you down badly.If you understand manual you will know what is happening in the auto/program modes and will know when it is correct to use them.All DSLR have in camera TTL light meters now so it's not difficult to learn manual.

If you are suggesting using the in camera meter which instances will let you down badly and why not use an auto mode with exp comp?

If you need to under expose then use any mode you want but the key knowledge required is knowing that underexposing is required not how to manually select a shutter speed and aperture.

 

[Phil V]

You should learn MANUAL before anything else.Everything came after manual not before.You will be able to take photos under any conditions that way.There are many instances where the auto modes will let you down badly.If you understand manual you will know what is happening in the auto/program modes and will know when it is correct to use them.All DSLR have in camera TTL light meters now so it's not difficult to learn manual.

Nope.
Learn how your meter works. Understand how it measures a scene compared to what you see and what you want to portray.

Then you'll be able to use any mode and you'll realise that they're largely unimportant, that sometimes choosing a suitable aperture and having the camera look after the SS can be fine, that sometimes M is quicker than messing with a semi auto mode.

If anyone thinks that using M and just chasing the centre meter reading is in any way being in control, they've spent too much time learning the wrong stuff.

 

[kestral]

Nope.
Learn how your meter works. Understand how it measures a scene compared to what you see and what you want to portray.

Then you'll be able to use any mode and you'll realise that they're largely unimportant, that sometimes choosing a suitable aperture and having the camera look after the SS can be fine, that sometimes M is quicker than messing with a semi auto mode.

If anyone thinks that using M and just chasing the centre meter reading is in any way being in control, they've spent too much time learning the wrong stuff.

Read my post Phil FFS::shake:

 

[Major Eazy]

Recently bought a canon eos 450d but all the photos taken have been on auto or scene exposure mode, should i be trying out on manual or is that only used in special circumstances ie low light etc...

Forget the suggestions from everyone else.

Go and play with the manual settings, have fun trying them out, what better way to learn how it works by trying them out. It is called 'experience'! Go into your garden and just try different settings on manual, take some pics of your garden. Try manual settings, pick a shtter speed and pick an aperture setting, take a photo of a flower in your garden, or whatever, and see what happens to the photo.

Feel free to look up how-to photography books to learn about the relationship between shtter speed and aperture settings to help you get used to manual, feel free to use a light meter or the camera's built-in meter to get the settings right, but for years, photographers have been using manual controls to be creative.

The beauty of digital cameras is that you can just shoot frames after frames of overexposured and underexpsured photos and say:"Oh! So that's what happens if I set this and that." then you can detele the photos to free up space. It's not like film where you can't afford to just waste a roll with too many bad photos.

If you do really need to take proper photos (photos of your family and friends, weddings, outings, events, parties, etc.,), then use Auto or scene modes, but otherwise when you got nothing better to do, have fun trying out manual.

After all, you just bought a new camera yourself, so it's yours to do what you can with it, like having a go with manual setting. Canon don't have rules for you saying: "You must use Auto or Scene Modes only!"

 

[Phil V]

Read my post Phil FFS::shake:

Nope - I still don't get it - you appear (to me) to be saying that learning to use Manual is the best way to be able to cope in any situation, and that the TTL light meter is to be relied upon.

My point - is that you should learn what the meter is telling you and how to interpret it (it's not to be relied upon) - and that Manual or any semi auto or auto mode is an irrelevance - because trusting the meter will get you the same shot no matter what exposure mode you choose.

 

[ernesto]

Forget the suggestions from everyone else.

we bow to you, great master.

 

[Marc]

Forget the suggestions from everyone else.

Some very good ideas here but we do feel that everybody here is entitled to make a contribution.

 

[drexyl]

Nope.
Learn how your meter works. Understand how it measures a scene compared to what you see and what you want to portray.

Then you'll be able to use any mode and you'll realise that they're largely unimportant, that sometimes choosing a suitable aperture and having the camera look after the SS can be fine, that sometimes M is quicker than messing with a semi auto mode.

If anyone thinks that using M and just chasing the centre meter reading is in any way being in control, they've spent too much time learning the wrong stuff.

I agree 100%
Think I tried to say pretty much the same thing earlier in the thread but you word it so much better.

 

[Chris O]

P mode does exactly the same as Aperture or Priority. If you program shift you choose your aperture or shutter speed just the same as in Aperture or Shutter priority so not sure how it limits the user to snapshots?

I know & was not implying that it limits to snapshots, I was simply trying to point the OP to a practical, non threatening, self paced learning curve whilst still having the safety net of P mode for "snapshots" of the family etc without having to worry about exposure until more confident to move away from it.

I would say that most people (certainly the regular posters) have more knowledge & experience than me & its great to learn from them, however a lot of the suggestions assume a certain amount of "base" knowledge that a novice probably won't have.
If you were given the keys to a car, a new piano or whatever analogy you care to use & someone said "just go and learn about this & this" or "just try messing about with it & see what results you get, then learn from them" how far would you get? That's why people have lessons.
Maybe we should have a "beginners, start here" thread with some basic tutorials or book / course recommendations to give people a frame of reference when they first pick up a camera & want to learn.
Once people grasp the basics of the exposure triangle then it would be a hell of a lot easier to learn about metering, points etc then I think that some of the suggestions that people make would make much more sense to newbies like me:bonk:

 

[Major Eazy]

Some very good ideas here but we do feel that everybody here is entitled to make a contribution.

Yes you are right but only if it was a film camera since it would cost money to pay for rolls of film in addition to developing and printing, all of you are right with your suggestions, that the OP should familiar himself with Auto Priority and Shutter Priority settings first, spend more time learning how Manual controls works first, and so on, all before trying manual settings, otherwise pointless wasting money on rolls after rolls of badly overexposure and underexposure photos. I would even support all of your suggestions.

But with digital cameras, as long as we warn him to always stick with P/A/S or Scene modes for proper photos, of family and friends, of weddings and celebrations, of events and sport, or any serious photos, so he don't risk missing those moments with wrong manual settings until he master them, we should encourage him to have some fun doing test shots of anything, and play around with manual settings, so he can see the different between overexposure and underexposure photos.

 

[Major Eazy]

Recently bought a canon eos 450d but all the photos taken have been on auto or scene exposure mode, should i be trying out on manual or is that only used in special circumstances ie low light etc...

Try this:

Find a subject that will be still there, say a flower in your garden, a brick, a rock, anything that is still there and stays the same.

Pick one end of the aperture setting (say as example pick f11), then start with one end of the range of shutter speed, say start with 1/1000, take the same photo but change your shtter speed to the next lower one for each photo, go from 1/1000 for 1st photo, then 1/500 for second photo, then 1/250 and so on, all as long as you still use the same aperture setting.

(Well shutter speed would depends on your camera's set up.)

After you reached such a low shutter speed, say 1/8 or something, then you can...

Change the aperture one or two settings, say try f5.6, and start from shutter speed of 1/1000 and do it again, change shutter speed one stop down for every photos.

Then do it again with something like f2 (depending on what your lens got), do the shutter thing again.

Upload your phots to comptuer, use Windows's Thumbnail or Filmstrip view, have a look at your experience. You'll notice your photos will start from being too light and work their way to being right exposure to too dark (or the other way round)

Good thing with digital cameras is that you can keep doing that, and say: "Oh wow, so that's what happens if I do this and that." where with film cameras I wouldn't suggest you try this due to wasting money on rolls after rolls of film.

 

[new2me]

An interesting thread for me.

Back in December I gave a good friend my old D200 and Sigma 70-300 lens as he said several times he wished he had a good camera for the kids growing up. A few weeks ago I asked how he was getting on and it was obvious he was still shooting fully auto, although because he's a very busy fella, he's not really used it much.

I then loaned him my 35mm lens (which I will be selling) for a family occasion in a restaurant and suggested he try shooting with a wider aperture and in RAW, thinking I'd be able to rescue any darker/noisier shots in lightroom. Turns out he went back to jpeg and probably fully auto again with the inbuilt flash.
I think he wants to buy the 35mm off me and insists on paying for the rest of the gear, but I wonder if I should suggest he buy a compact/bridge as I really doubt he'll get time to learn the exposure modes.

Like someone says, there is no shame in just using auto, but it seems like a waste of the D200's potential to me :shrug:

 

[Major Eazy]

If you were given the keys to a car, a new piano or whatever analogy you care to use & someone said "just go and learn about this & this" or "just try messing about with it & see what results you get, then learn from them" how far would you get? That's why people have lessons.

Interesting.

But consider this...

Get in a real car, you really need proper lessons, you need someone with driving experience to tell you step-by-step how do move the car. That is because you got to get everything right the first time, you can't risk getting it wrong.

Get a film camera, you really need lessons to get your manual settings right, you just can't afford to waste money on rolls after rolls of film getting wrong exposure settings. (Or in case of one off events like weddings, you can't risk ruining someone's day with wrong settings as wedding only happens once.)

But...

Given a F1 game for XBox or PlayStation, you can just have fun learning from your mistakes, you can do a 'pedal to metal' on a bend, find your car spining off track, and say: "Ah! So that's what would happen if I try this.". You only need lessons if you don't have time for learning from experience.

With a digital camera, you can just play around with manual setting, and have fun learning from your mistakes, and say: "Ah! So that's what I get if I used this and that setting.". You need lessons if you really want to use manual settins at a wedding to make sure you get it all right (otherwise if you're worried about getting it wrong, then let the camera do the settings for you.)

Sometimes you do need lessons but sometimes you do want to try learing from doing.

 

[joker2006]

I personally started in auto. Read a few different posts and had a play in manual to try and understand it all as best I could. I no have a rough idea on my meter what settings I may need in manual. But to be honest most of the time I leave in aperture mode on my d90 as for what I shoot suits me and my needs.
But most of all enjoy it and don't beat yourself up too much.

 

[weybourne]

Nope.
Learn how your meter works. Understand how it measures a scene compared to what you see and what you want to portray.

Then you'll be able to use any mode and you'll realise that they're largely unimportant, that sometimes choosing a suitable aperture and having the camera look after the SS can be fine, that sometimes M is quicker than messing with a semi auto mode.

If anyone thinks that using M and just chasing the centre meter reading is in any way being in control, they've spent too much time learning the wrong stuff.

^^^
This.

Cameras are, in essence, simple things with a lot of embellishments - and the meter is probably the embellishment that is most used and least understood. All the scene and auto/semi-auto modes rely on it but the principles of exposure balancing shutter-speed, aperture and sensitivity remain the same. Three interactive things to adjust and one thing to measure. Learn how to interpret the measuring device first and the rest will follow, irrespective of the mode you use. It's all about gauging (and even changing) the light and deciding how you're going to utilise it. If you know what components(s) of the exposure equation that you want to control, let the camera work out the remaining component(s).

Insisting on using manual only is like refusing to use a calculator for algebraic equations. You need to understand the algebra - refusing to use the calculator won't help you to understand the algebra.

 

[markmullen]

It doesn't matter how you achieve the exposure you're looking for, whether it be manual, A, TV, P, or scene modes, they are just different ways of selecting a combination of aperture and shutter speeds which give you enough depth of field, let enough light in and give you the right shutter speed for your subject.

I shoot in manual mode for my landscapes, because I know that the meter will likely be fooled by the changing light, if I'm shooting people I'll sometimes use aperture priority with or without exposure compensation, if I'm shooting motorsport I'll often use shutter priority. It is knowing how your camera will react to the changing light which is the important bit, how the meter gets fooled by situations, not how you input the required aperture and shutter speed.

 

[Mp4]

Here are some videos via Adorama:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlSuInza16E || Shooting in Manual Mode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axt9zLxdE8s || Metering Modes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQw28-3LEU4 || Exposure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv0vXD16_lA || Understanding Stops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrsF0Xba2KY || Metering and Exposure Compensation

 

[Kenny Girvan]

Hi,

I've been taking photos since film days and still change modes depending on the situation.

I leave my camera in P incase I need to grab a quick photo and IMHO this gives me the best chance of getting a decent pic. Frequently use this for straightforward shots, sometimes with some exposure compensation or a tweak with the control wheel.

If I've loads of time and its a tricky situation, I'll use manual. If I'm doing sports for example I usually go for S priority or landscapes where dof is the biggy then A priority.

All of the above used with checks of histogram and sharpness.

Cheers,

Kenny

 

[Surrey Weddings]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with using a DSLR as a point and shoot

Saying that, the other options will open up new avenue's of photography

no point having an slr if you are going to let the camera take the photo. unless u want to get into light meters then using the camera meter is fine

 

[ernesto]

no point having an slr if you are going to let the camera take the photo.

well, unless you want the best IQ you can get of course and are willing to pay the price in size for carrying a DSLR around.

 

[jon ryan]

You have to start somewhere, and I reckon the meter is a good place. With my classes, getting them on manual and seeing how pointing the camera in different directions changes the exposure requirements gives (I find) a good start on the shutter/aperture/ISO relationship. It's actually quite startling how many of them are amazed to discover that their dSLR actually has a meter. By getting the needle in the centre, they are likely to get something resembling a decent exposure, and this leads to the point that there is a minimum speed at which they can hand-hold, which speed means they must select a relevant aperture, which may mean the ISO need adjustment...and so forth.

No, the meter isn't to be utterly relied upon, but it's a damned good staring point.

(Other opinions are available).